Intel announces quad-core Core-i7 'Clarksfield' chips for laptops

It’s the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco this week and a number of mobile announcements are expected over its course. The first has already been made — Intel will be bringing its ‘Nehalem’ Core i7 quad-core processors for desktop PCS to laptops.

There will be three processors under the ‘Clarksfield’ codename initially — the Core i7-920XM, Core i7-820QM and Core i7-720QM. The i7-920XM is Intel’s flagship ‘Extreme’ processor that runs at 2GHz and will cost laptop OEMs a heft $1,054. The 1.73GHz Core i7-820QM and 1.6GHz Core i7-720QM are more mainstream chips that will cost OEMs $546 and $364, respectively.

Those clock speeds may seem low compared to today’s Core 2 Duo processors, but i7 chips are designed to crank up their speeds when one or more of the four cores aren’t being used (and it will take a while for software to become quad-core aware). 

All three processors have Intel’s Turbo Boost technology that offers burst speeds of up to 3GHz (give or take, depending on the model) and cores can also be shut down to save power when a laptop is running on its battery.

Legit Reviews has a thorough analysis of the new Intel Clarksfield line-up if you need more technical details and since laptops with the new chips have already been demoed, we should be seeing models on sale over the next month or two.

[ Intel]