Intel pushing into 32nm microchips in earnest

Warning: Heavy nerd language lies ahead!

Today Intel announced a huge investment -- $7 billion to be spent in 2009 alone -- to push its CPU production process into the 32nm arena. For those of you who don't understand what that means, "nm" or "nanometer" refers to the size of certain microchip components, and every couple of years the microchip community shrink those down. This is essential for a number of reasons: Smaller chip components means you can fit more of them on a single CPU (or die), and since the components can be put closer together, a CPU using the smaller technology will use less power and generate less heat than one that uses larger components. The upshot: Faster, cooler, more efficient CPUs.

Intel's current top-of-the-line chips -- including the Core line -- use a 45nm process. Code-named Westmere, the new 32nm chips will essentially use the same chip design as the Core i7 (part of the Nahelem architecture), just shrunken down. An upcoming chip, code-named Sandy Bridge, will take the 32nm process and apply it to a new design. (As a side effect of the 32nm investment, some of the 45nm chips on Intel's current roadmap will instead be "de-prioritized," or essentially canceled.)

Westmere-class chips will go into production, for both desktops and mobile computers, in the fourth quarter of this year (and hopefully arrive in actual computers at retail soon after). This is especially good news for laptop users, since Core i7 has not been adapted for mobiles.

Also of note, at least one of the Westmere-class processors (code-named Gulftown... yes, another code name) will support up to six cores per chip by 2010. And two of the 32nm chips will also support a separate graphics processor directly within the chip package itself, which means theoretically much better graphics performance from any computer that's not using a standalone graphics card. (The two chips with graphics processing inside the CPU package have their own code names, too: Clarkdale on desktops and Arrandale on laptops.)

Meanwhile, Intel says the production roadmap is on schedule for the foreseeable future: 22nm chips should be on tap for late 2011.