Arrandale is Intel’s code-name for the first mobile processors with an integrated graphics circuit. The family of processors is slated for next year and being a mobile chip power consumption is of utmost importance. The flagship of Intel’s ultra low voltage family is Core 2 SU9600 with 1.60GHz clock frequency and 10W TDP. Sources now state that Arrandale’s new performance king among ultra low voltage processors will consume nearly twice as much, 18W TDP.
Intel Core i7-640M, which is said to be the name of the CPU, has a reasonable explanation for this though. Intel will be holding back the frequencies of the CPU, 640M will be kept at 1.2GHz but according to Fudzilla the Turbo Boost technology can lift this to 2.26GHz. This sounds a bit over the top, especially since this is a dual-core processor. With the computer running on outlet power we can see how this would be possible, and a decent solution.
How the power consumption of Arrandale will measure up to Intel’s CPU + IGP chipsets is a bit vague from the report, and at the same time we’re awaiting details on the exact performance of the processor, even more so for the integrated graphics circuit.
