Over the last two weeks, Intel started distributing samples of tis future 32-nm engraved CPUs to its main customers and OEM.
Those CPUs will be available in 2 different series. Havendale for notebooks and Clarkdale for entry-level desktop. First test have already been performed with Clarkdale. When using SuperPI as a performance scale, it is 10% faster than the current fastest Core 2 Duo clocked at the same frequency.
This test provides information about the advantages provided by the Nehalem architecture. Indeed, such test is mostly based on CPU and associated cache, and does not rely so much on memory access whereas this is the point which will mostly benefit from the CPU integrated memory controller. So, one can expect much more than 10% faster CPU in final performance test.
One can expect similar gain between Core 2 Duo Mobile and Havendale, however, despite the improvement of performance, the new generation of mobile CPU will also feature an enhanced power management technology which should further extend battery lifetime.
