Intel Shows Off 32-nm Westmere CPU Wafer

By Marcus Yam
published

See Intel's wafer of little chips.

While we're still somewhat caught up in the P55 and Core i7 and i5 Lynnfield newness, the real treat that Intel has around the corner is in its upcoming 32-nm Westmere chips along with Clarkdale and Arrandale.

32-nm is an exciting milestone for the processor industry, and Intel was proud to boast that it was first to produce a full processor using the manufacturing process. Check out the video below for the news chock full of technical details.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
39 Comments Comment from the forums
  • alikum
    To be honest, since the last time GMA failed on me, I have grown skeptical towards Intel's graphics solution. Let's wait and see what the chips are capable of before talking, Intel.
    Reply
  • Major7up
    It could be nice as a backup solution to have it integrated like that. Additionally you could have some damn small devices with the elimination of another graphics/video chip or card.
    Reply
  • So should I not even bother buying a new computer until these 32nm chips come out?
    Reply
  • zerapio
    I've used the GMA on the 965 on my work system and NEVER had a blue screen related to the gfx driver. That says a lot! Sure, I don't push it with 3D apps because that's not what it was meant for but I do throw a lot of videos at it.
    Reply
  • Rancifer7
    If they are the first 32nm producers, why does he mention they have better Gate pitch than their competitors that produce at 28nm?
    Reply
  • bk420
    That's awesome! I hope it lights a fire under AMD!!! I'm glad to see the technology is moving faster than anticipated. 28nm isn't that far down the road, SWEET!
    Reply
  • chaohsiangchen
    Rancifer7If they are the first 32nm producers, why does he mention they have better Gate pitch than their competitors that produce at 28nm?
    TSMC and IBM/Chartered/Motorola/... are gearing up to 28nm process, which will eventually produce chipsets with IGP for AMD, NVIDIA, VIA and other chipset makers.
    Reply
  • techguy911
    Could be good IF it has multigpu support on the motherboard use any video card but use on board gpu to offload games to on windows 7.
    Reply
  • techguy911
    Could be good IF it has multigpu support on the motherboard use any video card but use on board gpu to offload games to on windows 7.
    Reply
  • Stardude82
    Yeah... I'm waiting for the 32nm chips to come out, I almost bit on the i5 (somehow I thought it was 32nm). Nehalem is great and all.. but there aren't any killer apps right now. I'm not so hot about the current crop of games (mostly all ports) and Windows 7 should have lower system requirements than Vista.

    Right now, GPU's need to shrink. Most of them are way too hot for my liking.

    Where's the news about Clarksfield? Intel's mobile offerings are very stale and I need a new laptop soon.
    Reply