Intel ultra-low voltage mobile microprocessors

Last week, on May 24, Intel announced 6 new ultra-low voltage (ULV) mobile CPUs based on 32nm Arrandale core. The new processors target budget, mid-class and high-performance segments of ultra-thin notebook market. All ULV processors have two cores, 128 KB L1 cache, 512 KB L2 cache, and differ from each other by operating frequency, size of L3 cache, and by support of certain CPU technologies.

The fastest announced model, Core i7-660UM, is clocked at 1.33 GHz and has 4 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU has full feature-set: HyperThreading technology, Turbo Boost with 2.4 GHz maximum frequency, Vpro features, and AES instructions. Priced at $305, the i7-660UM is the most expensive model from announced microprocessors.

Next four models, Core i5-540UM, i5-430UM, i3-330UM and Pentium Mobile U5400, run at 1.2 GHz, have 3 MB L3 cache, but have different features (see table below). Core i3 and Core i5 models support HyperThreading technology, and Turbo Boost is enabled only on Core i5 CPUs.

The last ULV processor, Mobile Celeron U3400, operates at 1.06 GHz, has 2 MB of L3 cache and doesn't support HyperThreading or Turbo Boost. The U3400 has the lowest price from the 6 CPUS - $134 in quantity of 1000.

All ULV processors are manufactured in BGA package and consume less than 18 Watt. Features of new microprocessors are listed in the table below.

Processor	CPU frequency	L3 cache	HyperThreading	Turbo Boost
Mobile Celeron U3400	1.06 GHz	2 MB	Not supported	Not supported
Pentium Mobile U5400	1.2 GHz	3 MB	Not supported	Not supported
Core i3-330UM	1.2 GHz	3 MB	Supported	Not supported
Core i5-430UM	1.2 GHz	3 MB	Supported	1.73 GHz
Core i5-540UM	1.2 GHz	3 MB	Supported	2 GHz
Core i7-660UM	1.33 GHz	4 MB	Supported	2.4 GHz