Intel’s 

2010 processor line-up introduces the first mobile versions of the mid-range Core i5 and
the entry-level Core i3 alongside a half-dozen Core i7 chips. These all share a common blueprint
known as Westmere, which pairs a dual-core 32nm processor with a single-core 45nm graphics
engine baked on the same chip.

Here’s what this radical redesign means for your next notebook.

Runs faster, runs longer...

The mobile Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processors
(but not the budget-minded Core i3) include
Intel’s ‘Turbo Boost’ technology. This
temporarily raises the CPU’s clock frequency
from its nominal rating to several steps higher for
short but intensive bursts of work while keeping
safely within the overall thermal parameters of the
chip.

For example, the mid-range Intel Core i5-520M

has a base speed of 2.4GHz but can reach as high
as 2.93GHz by shutting down one of its two
engines and pushing the other core to the limit.

Turbo mode kicks into gear not only when you’re

rendering a video or doing complex Photoshop
work, but during common tasks such as launching
a PowerPoint presentation or even opening an
email with a large file attachment.

At first blush this seems quite insane. Why do we

need a 3GHz processor to read email? Indeed, isn’t such grunt out of step with the desire for
notebooks to draw less power and thus last longer between recharges?

The trick to turbo, however, is that it uses the chip’s extra muscle to plough through any given
workload – such as creating thumbnail previews of all the slides in a PowerPoint deck – and then
quickly return to a low-drain idle state. And it’s in this mode that the real power savings kick in.
The more time a notebook spends at rest, the longer the battery lasts for.
In Intel’s parlance this design goal is called “Hurry Up and Get Idle”, and it’s what makes turbo
mode so useful for a notebook. It’s like having the performance of a 3GHz processor but the
parsimonious battery appetite of a 1GHz chip.

Better graphics
The graphics engine of the new Core processors delivers a long-overdue boost to Intel’s
lacklustre integrated graphic.
Officially dubbed Intel HD Graphics, it makes clear gains in moving from the chipset onto the
same slab of silicon as the processor.

This speeds the data flow between the processing and graphics cores and also allows the graphics
to be turbo-boosted in the same manner as the processor. The clock frequency of the graphics
core scales up to 900MHz  by ‘borrowing’ excess thermal headroom from the processor core.

The graphics core can also draw on as much as 1.7GB of system memory, so if you want your
notebook to drive dual displays make sure it’s got up to 4GB of RAM on hand.

True to its name, the HD Graphics engine supports 1080p video and even has hardware
upscaling of DVDs through Windows Media Player.

It’s also more than capable of handling mainstream games such as World of Warcraft. Extreme
first-person shooters will still call for discrete graphics, but users will be able to hot-switch
between discrete and integrated graphics on the fly.

Thin is in
The Core 2010 series is also expected to spur the
growth of ‘thin and light’ consumer notebooks.
We saw the first Windows versions of these in
late 2009, built around an admittedly odd
assortment of processors spanning the Celeron M,
Pentium M and Core 2 chips.

Industry analyst firm IDC forecasts continued

demand for thin and light notebooks, and expects
that by 2012 they will overtake sales of the
traditional 15 inch notebook – a category which is
also being squeezed by the adoption of 16 inch
notebooks with up-sized HD screens.
Intel’s 2010 line includes chips for a new range of ‘performance ultrathin’ laptops. These are the
ultra-low voltage or ‘UM’ variants: the Core i5-520UM, the Core i7-620UM and the i7-640UM.
While starting at 1.06GHz they can almost double their clock speed in Turbo Boost mode.

The Core i3 will be geared towards the more affordable and more modest ‘everyday ultrathin’
segment once Intel releases a UM version of its entry-level processor, which is tipped to arrive
by April.

Next-gen wireless
The new Core processors also form the heart of the sixth-gen Centrino platform, previously
code-named Calpella, although Intel has dropped the Centrino brand from mainstream use.
Notebooks will be sold simply as being Core i3, Core i5 or Core i7 systems.

Core i3

The Core i3 was intended to be the new low end of the performance processor line from Intel,
following the retirement of the Core 2 brand.[17][18]
The first Core i3 processors were launched on January 7, 2010.[19]The first Nehalem based Core
i3 was Clarkdale-based, with an integrated GPU and two cores.[20] The same processor is also
available as Core i5 and Pentium, with slightly different configurations.

The Core i3-3xxM processors are based on Arrandale, the mobile version of the Clarkdale
desktop processor. They are similar to the Core i5-4xx series but running at lower clock speeds
and without Turbo Boost.[

Core i5

Core i5,[22] like Core i7, is based on the Nehalem microarchitecture. The first Core i5 was
introduced on September 8, 2009 and was a mainstream variant of the earlier Core i7. Initially
only quad-core desktop processors based on Lynnfield were released, with dual-core mobile
(Arrandale) and desktop processors (Clarkdale) following in 2010.

Core i7

As of 2010, Core i7 is the high end of the Core brand,[23] which was introduced with the
Bloomfield Quad-core processor in late 2008. In 2009 new Core i7 models based on the
Lynnfield desktop quad-core processor and the Clarksfield quad-core mobile were added, and
models based on the Arrandale dual-core mobile processor have been announced. The first six-
core processor in the Core lineup is the Gulftown, which was launched on March 16, 2010. Both
the regular Core i7 and the Extreme Edition are advertised as five stars in the Intel Processor
Rating. In January 2011, Intel released the second generation of core i7 processors. Both the first
and second generation of Intel core i7 processors are rated as 5 stars in the Intel processor rating.
The 2nd generation of Intel core processors are based on the 'Sandy Bridge' core and are set to be
updated in January 2012 with 'Ivy Bridge'