Noctua today announced that owners of older Noctua CPU coolers who wish to upgrade to the upcoming LGA1155 socket will be able to obtain the appropriate NM-I3 SecuFirm2 mounting kit free of charge. Recent models such as the NH-C14, NH-D14 or NH-U12P SE2 already include the NM-I3 mounting kit and are fully compatible with LGA1155 out of the box.

"We're determined to provide the best possible support to our customers and we've sent many thousands of NM-I3 mounting kits free of charge to users who wanted to upgrade to LGA1156", says Mag. Roland Mossig, Noctua CEO. "With Sandy Bridge just around the corner, we're pleased to announce that we'll extend this offer for LGA1155 users. Everyone owning an older Noctua heatsink that doesn't support LGA 115x out of the box will be able to upgrade to the new socket free of charge!"

Back in August, a report with details sourced from ComputerBase.de was bang-on in tabling what the 2011 Intel Core processor lineup is going to look like. With a little over a month to go for the market release of these processors, fresh details emerged that reveal pricing and precise availability dates of each model. To begin with, 9th January is D-day for the socket LGA1155 platform, when one can expect a large wave of motherboards to reach stores, along with 10 new Core i5, Core i7 "Sandy Bridge" quad-core processors.

The quad-core lineup consists of 7 Core i5 models. Based on a Sandy Bridge derivative silicon, these processors differ from the Core i7 models in having no HyperThreading (4 cores/4 threads), and 25% of the L3 cache being disabled (set at 6 MB). The lineup overall is seeing a clock speed increase compared to current-generation "Lynnfield" processors. The Core i5 lineup also includes an overclocker-friendly "K" model, which features an unlocked BClk multipler. The fastest in the lineup is the Core i7 2600/2600K, which is clocked at 3.40 GHz. With the default BClk (base clock) of Sandy Bridge running at 100 MHz (compared to 133 MHz on Nehalem/Westmere), one can expect very high multiplier values. It should also be easier to calculate speeds and keep track of, for overclockers.

MSI seems to be ready with its first wave of motherboards for socket LGA1155 processors, based on the Sandy Bridge architecture. At this point the lineup is quite simply three models - P67A-GD65, the performance segment offering, the P67A-GD55, upper mid-range, and H67MA-ED55, a micro-ATX board ready for integrated graphics. All three motherboards seem to carry high-grade components such as solid chokes (that don't whine), high-C capacitors, and offer a level of overclocking headroom enhanced by OC Genie II.

The P67A-GD65 features two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical x8/x8 when both are populated), three PCI-E x1, and two PCI slots. Connectivity includes six SATA 3 Gb/s ports from the P67 PCH (of which four are internal, two eSATA), two SATA 6 Gb/s ports provided by a Marvell-made controller, and two additional SATA 3 Gb/s ports by a third-party controller; two USB 3.0 ports, 8-channel HD audio, FireWire, and gigabit Ethernet. There are several overclocker-friendly features such as consolidated voltage measure points with proper sockets to hold multimeter leads, OC Genie controls, and a heat pipe distributing heat evenly between the VRM heatsinks.

ASUS showed off its high-end socket LGA1155 motherboard lineup in London, including from its two top brands, ROG and Sabertooth TUF. The ROG Maximus IV Extreme, TUF Sabertooth P67, P8P67 Deluxe and P8P67 were on display. All four models are based on the Intel P67 Express chipset, designed to support upcoming Sandy Bridge architecture derived LGA1155 processors, or the 2011 Core processor family. Leading the pack is the Maximum IV Extreme. This board is literally bursting with features and is geared for extreme overclocking. There are no less than four PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots, possibly driven by a PCI-E bridge chip, which allows 3-way and 4-way SLI/CrossFireX; four each of USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s ports, and ROG-exclusive features such as ROG Connect, and redundant BIOS.

Next in line is the TUF Sabertooth P67. Keeping in tune with the TUF series' main feature of providing very high durability, the Sabertooth P67 uses ceramic heatsinks and high-grade components. For the first time, we're getting to see a protective scaffolding covering most of the board's area on its obverse side (we've seen it on the reverse side on older models). ASUS is calling it "tactical vest". This board only supports two PCI-E x16 devices, 2-way SLI/CrossFireX.

Intel Corporation today reported that third-quarter revenue exceeded $11 billion for the first time, up 18 percent year-over-year to $11.1 billion. The company reported operating income of $4.1 billion, net income of $3.0 billion and EPS of 52 cents.

"Intel's third-quarter results set all-time records for revenue and operating income," said Paul Otellini, Intel president and CEO. "These results were driven by solid demand from corporate customers, sales of our leadership products and continued growth in emerging markets. Looking forward, we continue to see healthy worldwide demand for computing products of all types and are particularly excited about our next-generation processor, codenamed Sandy Bridge, and the many new designs around our Intel Atom processors in everything from the new Google TV products to a wide array of tablets based on Windows, Android and MeeGo operating systems."

Biostar is ready with its pair of mid-range motherboards for the upcoming LGA1155 Sandy Bridge processor platform, based on the Intel P67/H67 Express chipsets. The two were earlier pictured in their pre-release forms at this year's Computex event. Both models fall into the company's mid-range TSeries family. The TSeries TP67XE is the larger (ATX) model that builds slightly over the chipset's feature set, it is outfitted with USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s (2 ports each). The rather high-end looking CPU VRM uses a total of 9 phases, power is drawn from two 8-pin ATX EPS connectors (probably connecting both connectors is optional, and only to enhance overclocking). Expansion slots include two each of PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical x8/x8, when both are populated), PCI-Express x1, and PCI. Connectivity includes 8-channel HD audio, gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0, FireWire, eSATA 3 Gb/s, and a number of USB 2.0 ports.

The second smaller (micro-ATX) board, the TSeries TH67XE, is based on the H67 chipset, and supports FDI that lets you use the integrated graphics processor on some processors. It uses a simpler 6+1 phase VRM, and goes slightly easy on the overclocking-capability department, but does retain USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s. Expansion slots include one PCI-Express 2.0 x16, one PCI-Express x16 (electrical x4), a PCI-Express x1, and a PCI. One out of six of the SATA 3 Gb/s channels from the PCH are assigned as an eSATA port. Other connectivity features include 8-channel HD audio, FireWire, gigabit Ethernet. Display connectivity includes DVI and D-Sub. Both boards will be out by the year's end, when Intel releases its new processor platform.

ECS is designing an upper-mid range socket LGA1155 motherboard based on the Intel P67 Express chipset, ready with upcoming Sandy Bridge processors, called the P67H2-A. A pre-release version was shown to the press. The highlight here is ECS' use of the LucidLogix Hydra Engine chip that lets the motherboard mix and match graphics cards of different makes and types. The CPU is powered by a 14-phase VRM, it is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots for dual-channel memory, speeds of up to 2600 MHz are supported by overclocking. Expansion slots include three PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (likely x16, x16, NC / x16, x8, x8, thanks to the Hydra chip), and two each of PCI-E x1 and PCI. Four out of six of the SATA 3 Gb/s ports from the P67 PCH are assigned as internal ports (color-coded orange), two SATA 6 Gb/s controllers give out two ports internal (color-coded red). Connectivity includes 8-channel HD audio, dual gigabit Ethernet, two NEC USB 3.0 controllers that give out two ports on the rear panel and two for the front-panel via header, eSATA 6 Gb/s, and a number of USB 2.0 ports. The final version may look slightly different, of course those jumper wires won't be there.

As with every IDF event, AMD camped nearby at hotel suites, showing off its latest. Even as Intel is busy selling Sandy Bridge to the press, AMD has some goods of its own. The green team displayed a notebook development platform built around the Fusion "Zacate" APU, which a dual-core APU based on the Bobcat architecture, with a DirectX 11 compliant GPU embedded into it. A more interesting specification is its TDP, just at 18W, with a more energy-efficient die suited for netbooks, at just 9W (codenamed "Ontario". The test platform was pitted against an Intel Core i5 processor-driven notebook, and the two were tested on casual gaming a run of City of Heroes, and HTML5 web-rendering performance using Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 test suite.

The Intel HD graphics embedded intro the Intel Core i5 managed just 6~7 fps @ 1024 x 768, while the Fusion "Zacate" managed close to 5 times that, around 30 fps, which made the game playable. Next up, the two setups were compared with MSIE9 HTML5 demos. In one such graphics-intensive demo that shows a virtual bookshelf from which you can pick up books, read a teaser, and then buy it off Amazon.com, the Fusion "Zacate" was able to deliver smooth animations, while that from the Core i5 looked choppy. Lastly, a close look at the demo board reveals that Fusion is indeed a 2-chip solution (APU + chipset). Compared to current AMD mobile platforms, it will significantly cut down board area, letting manufacturers build faster, and smaller ultraportables and netbooks. A video of the demo can be watched here.

At the keynote of Intel Developer Forum 2010, the silicon giant gave a sneak-peak into its upcoming processor brand, revealing new product logos (case badges), and a die-shot of the Sandy Bridge quad-core silicon. Intel retains the Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7 brand identifiers, but refers to the family of processors based on the Sandy Bridge architecture as second-generation Core processors or the 2011 Intel Core processors. For the same reason, processor model numbers start with the 2000 series as detailed in this article.

The die shot reveals integration of the IGP-embedded northbridge component completely into the processor die. In "Clarkdale" Core i3 and Core i5 processors, the northbridge component was present on a separate die from the CPU die, with a QPI link connecting the two dies on the same package. The Sandy Bridge quad-core die is known to feature 6 MB of L3 cache, a dual-channel DDR3 IMC, and a DirectX 10.1 compliant graphics processor. Apart from merely driving graphics, the IGP also feature several media-acceleration features that speed up video encoding. Sandy Bridge is fabricated on the 32 nanometer HKMG process. The evolution of Intel's architectures is shown on the last picture. The "Nehalem" chip there is the Lynnfield quad-core processor that completely lacks an IGP, "Westmere" is the Clarkdale dual-core processor that has an IGP and memory controller on a second (larger) 45 nm die. The chip to the right is a 32 nm Sandy Bridge that integrates a quad-core chip with an IGP-embedded northbridge.

If you recall, at this year's Computex event held in Taipei, almost every motherboard vendor scuffled to show of their first motherboards based on the Intel P67 and H67 chipsets, that support new socket LGA1155 socket processors based on the next-generation Sandy Bridge architecture. The Intel Developer Forum (IDF) 2010 event is presenting many of them a second chance, and we're beginning to see some new designs that didn't make it to Computex. Intel's own Desktop Board division came up with a new Extreme Series motherboard, the DP67BG "Burrage". As with every other Intel Desktop Board, this one looks clean, and well spaced-out. While there's nothing fancy about the heatsinks, the glowing skull is there, and this time it's positioned properly.

The processor is powered by a 4+2 phase PWM circuit, it's wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots for dual-channel memory support. Among few of its kind, the Burrage makes room of all seven expansion slots in the ATX specification. There are two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (x8, x8 when both are populated), three PCI-E x1, and two PCI. Apart from six SATA 3 Gb/s ports from the P67 PCH, there's an additional Marvell-made SATA controller that drives an eSATA port. Connectivity includes 8-channel HD audio, gigabit Ethernet, a number of USB 2.0 ports, FireWire, and eSATA. After being neophobic toward USB 3.0, Intel has finally embraced it on its Desktop Board brand, an NEC/Renesas controller gives out two ports on the rear-panel. This feature-set should put rest to rumors of Intel embedding USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s into its chipset. The DP67BG from Intel should be out when the first-wave of LGA1155 processors make it to the market.

The first official die-shots of the first Bulldozer architecture derivative, the eight-core "Orochi" Opteron die was displayed at Global Technology Conference, by GlobalFoundries, AMD's principal foundry-partner. While AMD did not give out a die-map to go with it, the structures we can make out are four Bulldozer modules holding two cores and a shared L2 cache each, a L3 cache spread across four blocks that's shared between all cores, the northbridge-portion cutting across the die at the center, and the integrated memory controller along its far-right side. Various I/O portions are located along the other three sides.

Next up is the Llano die. This is AMD's very first Fusion APU (accelerated processing unit) die. It is based on the K10 architecture and integrates a graphics processor and northbridge completely into one die. It precedes APUs based on the Bobcat architecture. Fortunately, there is a die-map at hand, which shows four K10 cores with dedicated 1 MB L2 caches per core, no L3 cache, an integrated SIMD array that holds 480 stream processors. The GPU component is DirectX 11 compliant. Other components include an integrated northbridge, integrated memory controller, integrated PCI-Express root complex, and HyperTransport interface to the chipset.

Worldwide PC microprocessor unit shipments and revenues in the second calendar quarter of 2010 (2Q10) increased 3.6% and 6.2%, respectively, compared to the first quarter of 2010, according to the latest PC processor study from International Data Corporation (IDC).

The average sequential change in unit shipments between a calendar year's first quarter and its second quarter is an increase of 1.6%. For revenues, the average sequential change is a decrease of -2.8%. So, these increases represent better performance than usual for a second calendar quarter.

"Such a sequential increase in PC processor shipments alone would have been enough to conclude that the first half was strong for the market," said Shane Rau director of Semiconductors: Personal Computing research at IDC. "However, a modest rise in revenues, too, points directly to a rise in average selling prices. System makers bought more and higher-priced PC processors in 2Q10 than in 1Q10. Digging a little deeper into the numbers shows that they bought more mobile processors and more server processors, while desktop processors remained flat."

Having turned its most profitable quarter, Intel is banking on its vast lineup of the 2010 Core processors, which will be updated towards the end of the year. By 2011, Intel will have a new series of second generation Core i7, Core i5, and Core i3 processors, based on a brand new architecture, and built for new sockets and chipsets. A roadmap of the same reached sections of the European media, which shows the company to be almost ready with a full-fledged lineup of desktop processors covering most price-points, by 2011.

The new architecture on which these processors are based is referred to by Intel as "Sandy Bridge", key features of which include the inclusion of the new Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX), a more advanced instruction set than SSE, to accelerate complex applications. AVX aside, there's Turbo Boost technology 2.0 that comes with even smarter algorithms to automatically manage clock speeds of individual processor cores to maximize performance within the processor's TDP envelope, AES-NI, which is a more manageable hardware data encryption instruction set, and processors with integrated graphics (IGP) controllers will have even faster ones, because Intel will be relocating the IGP and memory controller to the same die as the processor cores, this IGP is referred to as Intel "GT2" graphics.

At this year's Computex expo held in Taiwan, some of the most unexpected exhibits were socket LGA1155 motherboards from almost every motherboard vendor, including from lesser known brands, among market-heavyweights such as ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI. Socket LGA1155 is expected to be the platform on which value-thru-performance processors from Intel, based on its next-generation Sandy Bridge architecture will run. The fact that motherboard vendors managed to show almost market-ready products as early as May, shows that these products could in fact reach market before next year's CES event, which is typically held in January.

That seems to be the case, according to a recent report by PC World. In the company's Q2 conference call, Intel CEO Paul Otellini said that due to rave reviews by industry customers (which likely include OEMs, hardware vendors, and other partners), Intel is speeding up launch of new processors. "I am more excited by Sandy Bridge than I have been in any product that the company has launched in a number of years," he said, adding "Due to the very strong reception of Sandy Bridge, we have accelerated our 32-nanometer factory ramp and have raised our capex guidance to enable us to meet the anticipated demand."

At this year's Computex event, some of the most unexpected exhibits were socket LGA1155 motherboards based on Intel 6-series chipsets, across the board, from virtually every major motherboard vendor. Unexpected, because it's been less than an year since released mainstream derivatives of the Nehalem/Westmere architectures that use the LGA1156 socket. LGA1155 will form the base for performance, mainstream, and value segments of processors based on the upcoming Sandy Bridge architecture, which is a generation successor of Nehalem. With so many motherboard vendors showing off their creations in release-grade conditions, it is obvious that engineering samples of processors to go with them are already on the loose and will land in some enthusiast's hands. It did, in the skillful hands of Coolaler, who wasted no time in putting it through a quick run through popular benchmarks.

Coolaler tested an LGA1155 quad-core processor operating at 2.5 GHz, which CPU-Z can't name but marks it as a Sandy Bridge engineering sample. Among the little that's known about this processor, is that it has a base clock speed of 100 MHz (Nehalem/Westmere processors use BClk of 133 MHz), which means that to achieve 2.5 GHz, it uses a multiplier value of 25. It has all the instruction sets of Westmere including SSE 4.2 and AES acceleration, but also features AVX (Advanced Vector Extensions), a successor to SSE 4.2 which expands the processor's number crunching abilities, and increases performance per MHz. The cache structure up to the second level is the same (32 KB L1I, 32 KB L1D, 256 KB /core L2), but uses a smaller L3 cache at 6 MB (compared to 8 MB on Lynnfield). HyperThreading technology provides the OS with 8 logical CPUs to deal with.

ECS showed off a trio of socket LGA-1155 Black Series motherboards based on the Intel P67 chipset, designed for next-generation Sandy Bridge processors. It consisted of the high-end P67H2-A, upper-mid range P67H2-A2, and mid-range micro-ATX P67H2-M. The P67H2-A packs most high-end features, making use of an nForce 200 bridge chip, to give out three PCI-Express x16 slots (x16, x16, NC or x16, x8, x8), supporting 3-way SLI and CrossFireX, USB 3.0, SATA 6 Gb/s, and certain overclocker-friendly features. Expansion slots include 3x PCI-E x16, 2x PCI-E x1, and 2x PCI. Connectivity includes dual Gigabit Ethernet.

The P67H2-A2, while lighter on features, is equally overclocker-friendly, in fact more. A rotary-knob on the board has 9 digits, each digit stepping the BClk by 5%, giving the knob the ability to overclock the processor by 45% on the fly. Expansion slots include 2x PCI-E x16 (x16, NC or x8, x8), PCI-E x1, and 2x PCI. There are two SATA 6 Gb/s controllers for 4 internal ports, 4 SATA 3 Gb/s, dual gigabit Ethernet, 8-channel audio, and USB 3.0. The P67H2-M is the simplest of them all. The micro-ATX motherboard features PCI-E x16, 2x PCI-E x1, and PCI; 2x SATA 6 Gb/s, 3x SATA 3 Gb/s, 2x eSATA 3 Gb/s; 8-channel audio, dual Gigabit Ethernet, and USB 3.0. As with every other LGA-1155 motherboard, these can be expected only in 2011.

Following Biostar's display of its socket LGA-1155 motherboard, market-heavyweights ASUS and MSI were also seen exhibiting their LGA-1156 motherboards based on the Intel P67 chipset. The ASUS P8P67D EVO uses 12+2 phase CPU VRM, has four DIMM slots for dual-channel DDR3 memory, and expansion slots which include two PCI-Express x16 (electrical x8 when both are populated), two PCI, and three PCI-E x1. MSI's P67A-GD65 uses an 8+1 phase VRM with High-C capacitors. Both models feature SATA 6 Gb/s, USB 3.0, and other features commonly found in today's P55-based motherboards, with the difference of the LGA-1155 socket that will fit next-generation Sandy Bridge processors. LGA-1155 is not compatible with LGA-1156, probably except for the cooler mount hole spacing. LGA-1155 platform will likely be introduced in early 2011, looking at how major motherboard vendors are ready with their products in time for this year's Computex event, which is the large major IT exposium before next year's CES.

At Computex today, Intel Corporation unveiled new products and features based on its low-power Intel Atom processor family, including plans to further differentiate the popular netbook category and expand into several new market segments beyond its growing PC, laptop and server businesses.

In the past 45 days, Intel and its Atom processor has entered a variety of markets beyond the more than 50 million Intel-based netbooks sold in the past 2 years. Intel announced a processor and MeeGo* software win with Chinese carmaker HawTai Automobile for a future in-vehicle-infotainment platform; a greater than 50-times lower platform idle power reduction with Intel's next generation Atom processor platform for handheld devices including smartphones; and a collaboration with Google*, Sony* and Logitech* to deliver a new Smart TVs experience powered by Intel Atom CE products and running Android*-based Google TV*.

Intel's upcoming Sandy Bridge processor architecture which uses the new LGA-1155 socket seems to be closer than one would think, with motherboard vendors such as Biostar being ready with motherboards that run those processors. The motherboard vendor showed off two socket LGA-1155 motherboards that are based on the Intel P67 and H67 chipsets. The P67 is engineered to be the chipset for processors that need discrete graphics, the chipset lacks the Intel FDI technology needed to connect the processors' embedded graphics controller to display outputs on the motherboard, whereas the H67 does, and is designed for processors with embedded graphics.

The first spot is the TP67XE, based on the P67. This ATX motherboard has all the features of a mid-range performance board. The processor is powered by a 4+2 phase VRM, it is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots for dual-channel memory. It is said that the Sandy Bridge processors will have higher reference DRAM speeds than present Nehalem/Westmere chips (which have DDR3-1066 and DDR3-1333 depending on the model), expansion slots include one PCI-Express x16, one PCI-E x16 (electrical x4), two PCI-E x1, and two PCI. While the board has padding for a 2-port 3rd party USB 3.0 controller, it is indicated that Intel 6-series chipsets will finally introduce native SATA 6 Gb/s.

Intel has once again shelved plans to come back to the discrete graphics market, with the much talked about GPU codenamed Larrabee. In a recent post by Director, Product and Technology Media Relations Bill Kircos on the company blog, it was detailed that the company's priorities at the moment lie with releasing industry-leading processors that have the graphics-processing horsepower for everyday computing. The Intel HD graphics will only get better with the 2011 series of Core processors based on the Sandy Bridge architecture, where the iGPU core will be completely integrated with the processing complex.

An unexpected yield of the Larrabee program seems to be that Intel has now perfected many-core processors. Since Larrabee essentially is a multi-core processor with over 32 IA x86 cores that handle graphics workload, it could as well give Intel a CPU that is Godsent for heavy-duty HPC applications. Intel has already demonstrated a derivative of this architecture, and is looking to induct it into its Xeon series of enterprise processors.

Intel plans a pair of new sockets for launch with its new processor architecture that succeeds Westmere, codenamed "Sandy Bridge", which are due for 2011. As part of its "tick-tock" product launch strategy, the company is currently transitioning between the 45 nm "tock" (Nehalem architecture), and 32 nm "tick" (Westmere architecture). In 2011, it will transition from the 32 nm "tick" (Westmere architecture), to the 32 nm "tock" (Sandy Bridge architecture). The company uses a "tick-tock" model of process development, where each processor architecture gets to be made in two successive manufacturing processes, while each process gets to build two succeeding architectures. It seems to have become clear that with Sandy Bridge, Intel will also switch to new socket designs, making existing motherboards obsolete then. Architecturally, Sandy Bridge will introduce new feature-sets that make the CPU more powerful, clock-to-clock, such as AVX - Advanced Vector Extensions, an evolution of the SSE instruction set, native AES engine which has been introduced with Westmere, and so on.

The present LGA-1156 package on which Intel builds value-through-performance processors including a bulk of mainstream processors, will be succeeded with the LGA-1155 package. Though similar, LGA-1155 and LGA-1156 are not inter-compatible, meaning that LGA-1155 processors will not work on existing LGA-1156 motherboards, and LGA-1156 processors will not work on LGA-1155 motherboards, either. For these processors, the arrangement of vital components is similar to the LGA-1156 package, except that every LGA-1155 processor - dual-core or quad-core - will feature an on-die display controller.

Intel has already set foot on the 32 nm lithography, with first 32 nm based prcoessors expected to arrive in Q1 2010. These processors have already been extensively sampled, and tested by sections of the media. More importantly, 32 nm marks Intel's introduction of the Westmere architecture, which is a 32 nm optical shrink of Nehalem, with a slightly expanded feature-set making use of the possibly higher transistor loads. Starting with dual-core "Clarkale" processor, Intel plans to work out high-end six-core processors codenamed "Gulftown" within the first half of 2010. In addition to this, Intel is readying Westmere's successor, codenamed "Sandy Bridge".

While a vague die-shot of a supposedly mainstream quad-core processor based on Sandy Bridge surfaced last month, more information about it is coming to light from industry sources, according to DigiTimes. Intel will introduce the Sandy Bridge architecture in the fourth quarter of 2010. Considering the first Westmere CPUs are commercially launched ten months after its formal introduction (Westmere was unveiled in February,) the commercial launch of the first Sandy Bridge processors can't be too far away from Q4 2010. This in essence shows that Intel can afford to come up with a new flavour of CPUs every year. Nehalem will have served as a 1.25 year "tock" for the 45 nm process, while Westmere may serve as a "tick" of nearly the same length. For those of you unfamiliar with Intel's "tick-tock" model of product development cycle, The company uses a "tick-tock" model of process development, where each processor architecture gets to be made in two manufacturing processes, while each process gets to build two succeeding architectures.