The key feature about Arrandale, versus current Core i5/i7 processors, is that it’s manufactured using a 32nm process, meaning it’ll be less power hungry. Remember the jump to the Penryn Core 2 chips a couple of years ago? Same speeds, better efficiency? Like that. The three coming out in the first half of 2010 are the Core i7-640UM (1.2GHz), Core i7-620UM (1.06GHz) and Core i5-520UM, all for “ultra thin” laptops.

We’ll also see some 32nm chips for the desktop, codenamed Clarksdale, announced in January. Mmm, chips. [Digitimes]

Bobcat’s a low power chip at Atom, like for netbooks, that can run using less than 1W of power. It’ll be manufactured using a 32nm process. It’s not hitting until 2011 though, and as Ars’ Jon Stokes points out, by then Intel will have been at 32nm with Atom for a while, and already close to going to 22nm.

Bulldozer is AMD’s new server architecture, also slated for 2011 which uses a new design with two “tightly linked cores” as the heart. You can read about it in way more detail over at Ars, though for now, Stokes says it’s still hard to tell how competitive they’re going to be with Intel’s 2011 lineup. Guess we’ll see. [Ars, Image via Michele Eve/Flickr]

According to Fudzilla, the 1.83GHz N470 processor will be the first to support more RAM, and will run between $US300-$US350. And if the rumour holds true, there will also be a 1.66GHz Atom processor that will cost as little as $US250. [Fudzilla via Electronista]

The 40-nanometre TILE-Gx will reportedly draw about 55 watts of power at full load, and though it’s expected to cost between $US400 and $US1000 (depending on volume), it’s more intended for use on Linux-based enterprise Web servers.

According to Wired, the chip isn’t really geared for regular operating systems such as Windows 7 — for that, you’ll have to wait for Intel’s 80-core processor which was demonstrated last year and is expected in about five years. [Tilera via Wired]

Chips, Chipsets and Damned Chipsets

OK, so the first thing to understand is that an Intel brand, like Core 2 or Core i7, actually refers to a whole bunch of different processors. Although they generally have the same basic microarchitecture (in other words, chip design), the brand envelopes both desktop and mobile chips, chips with radically different clock speeds, that use different motherboard sockets, etc.

Because of these differences, each particular chip is given a codename, chosen for obscure geographical locations (seriously, plug just about any codename into Google Maps). For instance, the original mobile Core 2 Duo processor was Merom, and it was replaced after about two years by Penryn, which was manufactured using a new 45-nanometre process to be more efficient. Quite different, these two, but Intel pimped both as Core 2 Duos nonetheless.

View Intel in a larger map

Although Intel doesn’t market chips according to their codenames, the individual chip gets a model number that gives you an idea of how it compares, spec-wise (clock speed, cache size, etc.), to other chips in the same group. So, a Core i7-950 is gonna be faster than a Core i7-920, and a Core 2 Duo P8600 isn’t going to quite stack up to a Core 2 Duo P9600. The difference between a P8400 and P8600 is obviously less than the difference between a P8600 and a P9600. To match a particular chip codename to a particular model number though, you probably have to do some Googlin’ (or Bingin’).

In some cases, Intel pushes chips with a ULV designator for “ultra-low voltage”, which doesn’t mean anything in particular in terms of chip design, since it includes several brands of chips, from Core 2 to Celeron. The point is that these chips power notebooks that are almost as portable at netbooks, but are more expensive, so computer makers (and Intel) make more money.

While we’re at it, I might as well explain what the hell Centrino is. It’s not a single chip, it’s a platform. That is, it’s a combo meal for notebooks with a mobile processor, a chipset (essentially the silicon that lets the processor talk to the rest of the computer) and a wireless networking adaptor. Typically, Intel releases a new combo meal every year, though they’ve all been called Centrino, with the most recent making the leap to being called Centrino 2.

The reason we decided to tell you all this stuff now is that Intel is gradually phasing out the Core 2 family, like Pentiums before that, and is moving Core i7, Core i5 and Core i3 up to take its place. This is how all the families relate to each other…

Nehalem Rising: Core i7, Core i5 and Core i3

Core i7 systems use a totally new microarchitecture called Nehalem, and it’s badass.

The first set of Core i7 chips, codenamed Bloomfield, launched in November 2008 for high-end desktops. They’re the most outrageously fast Core i7 chips, with triple-channel memory (meaning they’re able to use memory sticks in triplets rather than pairs) and other blazing accoutrements.

The new Core i7 chips, launched last month, are for desktop and mobile. The desktop variant is codenamed Lynnfield, and it more closely resembles its mobile equivalent, codenamed Clarksfield, than it does the Bloomfield monster — dual-channel memory, not triple, for instance.

You’ll be seeing a lot more Clarksfield in the next couple weeks, like in the HP Envy 15, since most computer makers were holding off for Windows 7 to drop their new laptops. All of the Core i7 processors are quad-core, even the mobile Clarksfield, so you’re not gonna see it in anything like Dell’s skinny Adamo.

Core i5 is going to be Intel’s more mainstream Nehalem-microarchitecture chip brand, and as a broader brand, the chip differentiation gets a little more confusing. Core i5 actually includes some (but not all) of the desktop Lynnfield processors. For now, the only Core i5 chip is quad-core, but you’re going to start seeing dual-core Core i5 chips, and soon enough they will make up the bulk of Intel’s mainstream processors. In English: Unless you’re looking for a crazyfast new computer, your next machine will probably run an Intel Core i5 CPU.

Eventually, dual-core Core i3 chips will come out, and as you can guess by the number, they won’t be quite as fast—or expensive—as the Core i5 or i7 chips.

Netbook’s Best Friend: Atom N and Z

Atom is probably the Intel chip you hear about second only to Core 2 Duo: It’s essentially the CPU that goes inside of netbooks. There are a couple of different variations out now, the N series (codename Diamondville) and the Z series (codename Silverthorne). The Diamondville chips are for nettops and netbooks, and can handle full versions of Windows Vista and 7. Silverthrone is used in netbooks but was designed for smaller connected devices like UMPCs and MIDs. (This is why Sony shoving an underpowered Atom Z in the Vaio P, and trying to run Windows Vista on top of it, was retarded.)

The next generation of Atom is more interesting, and more confusing, in a way. The CPU is codenamed Pineview, and it’s actually got the graphics processor integrated right onto the same chip, precluding the need for a separate GPU tucked into the netbook’s overall chipset. The benefit is longer battery life, since it’ll take less energy to crunch the same visuals. We’ll start seeing Pineview netbooks sometime early next year, most likely.

Oldies But Goodies: Core 2 Duo, Quad and Extreme

Intel’s Core 2 chips have been out three years now, an eternity in computer years. Because of this, and because they’re the main ones used in most personal desktop and laptop systems, there is a metric shitton of different Core 2 chips.

It’s also more confusing because there are way more codenames to wade through. Let’s start from the top: Core 2 Solo has one core, Core 2 Duo two, and Quad has four (as does Extreme). From there, you have two distinct generations of chips within the Core 2 family.

In the first generation of Core 2 Duos, the main desktop chip was Conroe (with a cheaper variant called Allendale), while the main mobile one was called Merom. There was also a branch of Core 2 Quads called Kentsfield.

The next generation (that is, the current generation, unless you’re already on the Core i7 bandwagon) arrived with a new process for making chips with even smaller transistors. Among other more technical differences, they were more energy efficient than their predecessors. With this generation of Core 2s, the mainstream desktop chips are Wolfdale, the desktop quad-cores are called Yorkfield, and the mobile chips are Penryn — if you’ve bought a decent notebook in the last two years, it’s probably got a Penryn Core 2 inside of it.

Ancient History: Pentium and Celeron Pentium is dead, except it’s not, living on as a zombie brand for chips that aren’t as good as Core chips, but aren’t as crappy as Intel’s low-end Celeron processors. If you see a machine with a sticker for Pentium or Celeron, run.

OK, I hope that helps, at least a little — you should probably thank me for staying away from clock speeds and other small variations, like individual permutations of Core i7 Bloomfield processors, to hopefully give you a broader overview of what all’s going on. Intel told me it’ll all make more sense once their entire road map for the year is out on the market, but I have a feeling it’s not gonna help my mum understand this crap one bit better.

Top image via soleiletoile/Flickr

Thanks to Intel for helping us sort all this out!

Over at Hot Hardware, the reviewers of this Alienware dream machine are pretty clear about it.

It’s easy to see from the graphs that the parts used in this system are high-performance in every way. If money is no object, you can’t buy a faster platform than the Intel Core i7 975 with an X58 chipset motherboard.

And here’s one of those graphs.

Basically, we’re talking about the meanest gaming rig on the market. Or at least, that’s how Hot Hardware sees it, and there’s not much room for debating their findings. But it’ll cost you plenty. $US4074.

[Hot Hardware] via [Egadget]

It’s hard to know how much different it’s gonna feel like in practice versus the Pre until we got our hands on a final unit—there’s plenty of time for optimisations and other plumbing work this far out. [Palm InfoCenter]