'Arrandale' chip will be an Intel laptop first

From CNET News.com: Intel's upcoming "Arrandale" will be the first highly integrated chip of its kind from Intel and is expected to run the gamut of laptop designs, from ultrathin to mainstream.

Due by the fourth quarter, it will be the first Intel product to put two processor cores and a graphics function together in the same chip package. Intel covered the underlying architecture in a presentation at the Hot Chips conference in Palo Alto, Calif., this week and in a recent blog, described the design, saying it "will be the basis of all upcoming new Core chips (Core i3, i5, and 7) over the next few months."

Arrandale will come initially under the Core i7 and Core i5 brands, using the chipmaker's most advanced 32-nanometer technology (Intel chips are currently built on a 45-nanometer process) and will populate consumer and business laptops.

The compact chip, however, is not without its challenges. "A high level of integration is always a compromise. There's never a free lunch," said Ashok Kumar, an analyst at investment bank Collins Stewart. "It's a question of how much performance you have to compromise to get that level of integration and low power consumption."

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