We managed to catch a glimpse of Intel's Arrandale parts in action at IDF back in September - but specific details regarding speeds, availability and pricing have thus far remained sketchy.
Fortunately for those eagerly anticipating Intel's mobile Westmere derivatives, a trio of Arrandale parts are said to be on schedule for the first half of 2010.
According to Chinese newspaper Digitimes, who cites "sources from notebook players", Intel's initial batch of Arrandale processors will consist of the 1.06GHz Intel Core i7 520UM, the 1.06GHz Intel Core i7 620UM and the 1.2GHz Intel Core i7 640UM. Going one further, the newspaper even lists pricing at $241, $278 and $305, respectively, in thousand-unit quantities.
Need a refresh on what Arrandale actually is? Based on the Westmere architecture - which itself is a 32nm shrink of Nehalem - Arrandale is a 32nm mobile part with the CPU and GPU integrated on the same package. With an improved GPU - as per Clarkdale on the desktop - Arrandale should, in theory, offer low-power Nehalem-based goodness coupled with decent on-board graphics.
It's a part we're looking forward to, but we're left scratching our heads over the rumoured product names - how will consumers differentiate between say the Core i7 640UM and the far more powerful Clarksfield-based Core i7 820QM? Your guess is as good as ours, we were hoping Arrandale would arrive with Core i3/Core i5 branding.
