If the rumors raised by the DigiTimes are correct, Intel will be able to start migrating its 32 nanometer processor line in 2009. The company's new manufacturing process was demonstrated a few months ago and its possibilities are so exciting that it is accelerating delivery times with manufacturers of motherboards, previously stipulated for the beginning of 2010.
Production, in principle, would be limited to balance the volume output of current chips from the market to the introduction of new ones. About 10% of Intel's world production in the fourth quarter will correspond to new CPUs, whose initial code name for this line will be Clarkdale. Heir to the techniques of Hyperthreading presented on the Nehalem line (which had the Mac Pro as its first desktop), the Clarkdale able to simulate a processor quad-core, taking control of two instructions in one of its two cores.
With a 32nm manufacturing process, it is estimated that it is possible to increase the speeds of clock of the new processors without damaging the thermal envelope to cool them, which means that they also have greater energy efficiency. While this is important for their good performance, this is no longer a key factor in their popularity in the industry, as smaller chips can facilitate the delivery of higher performance on more limited machines, such as mini Macs.
There is still no clear prediction of when we will have 32nm chips on the market, but, judging by the deadlines stipulated earlier, there is no chance that the computer industry (in the middle of which we can play Apple) will launch something like this on a date prior to the second quarter of 2010.
(Via: Electronista.)
