IBM: 32 nm Engraving Processing by Year End

IBM seems to have gained some time over competitors in the race towards thinner engraving process, and has decided to heavily communicate about it.
IBM expects to manufacture the first 32 nm engraving-based CPU samples by the end of the year. Thank to a new material, the high-k/metal gate (HKMG), the company expect to increase clock speed by up to 35% when compared to 45 nm engraving-based CPU. In addition, it should also help to save 30 to 50% power consumption
On its side, Intel is not communicating as much as IBM regarding the 32 nm engraving, and we only know that it should happen in 2009. One should also not forget that getting samples does not mean that scaling up to mass production.
Last but not least, it would be nice to get a better usage by OS and applications of the increasing number of cores in our CPUs, what the use of having 8 or 12 cores CPU, engraved at 32 nm, if the system or applications can only benefit from 4 cores...