any word on SU models of i3?

[taltamir]

Intel used SU#### to denote their lowest power processors; they are clocked lower then usual, binned for low power consumption, and sold for laptops.

The lightest and thinnest laptops all use core2 solo and duo chips which are of the SU variety.
Taking as low as 13watt. Compared to 35 watts for a regular model (T#### models).

As of right now, the i3 and i5 models are all 35watts. Any idea when lower wattage models would be out?

 

[stipalgl]

Good news taltamir,

There are indeed low voltage models of the i7 variant, labeled the 620UM and 640 UM, running at 1.067 GHz and 1.2 GHz respectively. They will have turbo that will send the 620 to 2.13 GHz, while the 640 will achieve a maximum of 2.26 GHz.

Both have a TDP of 18W, and keep in mind that this includes the on-die graphics, so overall, they'll look to consume roughly less than the SU model Core 2's with the integrated graphics on top.

I made a thread a while back discussing one of the more interesting laptops coming out soon to feature the 620UM and 640UM: the ASUS UL30JT, which will effectively be an i7 refresh of the popular UL30VT model. As far as the release date goes, there have been rumors that it may perhaps appear in March, but again, it's simply speculation on other forums.

Cheers.

 

[stipalgl]

Double post.

 

[jaydee]

According to Intel, there is an i5 CULV planned, named i5-520UM running at 1.06Ghz w/turbo up to 1.86Ghz, 2 cores/4 threads, 3MB L2 with a TDP of 18W.

See the front page of this article: http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=3705

That being said I haven't seem or heard anything about this chip other showing up on this sort of Intel table. Haven't even seen a rumor of a release date. According to Anand from the above article:

Intel confirmed that there is a lot of optimization that has to happen with Arrandale. It looks like there are some silicon level tweaks that are on the roadmap to be implemented but we won't see them until the middle of 2010. That means while the first Arrandale notebooks won't offer any more battery life than their predecessors, the second wave of Arrandale should fix that.

So it seems to me that Intel needs to fix the bugs of 35W TDP chips to improve the efficiency there before they can hope to release the 18W CULV versions.

I haven't heard of an i3 CULV option yet.

 

[taltamir]

thank you stipalgl, jaydee. This is exactly what I was looking for. i5 and i7 models are good too, it doesn't have to be i3.
So we can expect the i7s around march and the i5s at around Q3 then? not as soon as I'd hoped, but it lets me know what to expect.

EDIT: this is odd, when googling it, I found this page:
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=47554

which lists the i5-520UM as "Status: Launched"