Intel's three Clarksfield CPUs -- the Core 2 Extreme XE 2GHz, Core 2 Quad P2 1.73GHz and Core 2 Quad P1 1.6GHz -- will purportedly be ready to debut sometime around the end of September and October. The scuttlebutt is that quad-core desktop chips code-named Lynnfield will arrive in early September, followed by quad-core laptop chips code-named Clarksfield later in the month.

I'd love to see one of those chips in a high-end iMac. And reports say the Nehalem chips will be targeted to higher-end desktops and laptops. The lower-priced iMacs could continue to sports dual-core chips.

According to Intel, the Nehalem microarchitecture, first exemplified as the Intel Core i7 processor, is designed from the ground up to take advantage of 45nm Hi-k next generation Intel Core microarchitecture. Nehalem, "unleashes parallel processing performance enabled by an integrated memory controller and Intel QuickPath Technology providing high-speed interconnects per independent processing core," the company says.

Initial Nehalem processors use the same 45 nm manufacturing methods as Penryn processors. Nehalem will focus on performance, which accounts for the increased core size.

Quad-core iMacs have been predicted for some time. Perhaps we'll finally see them in the October-September time frame, just in time for Snow Leopard's arrival.

If you like what you see at Macsimum News, if you read Macsimum regularly, if we cover your products/services, feel free to leave us a tip at the MACSIMUM TIP JAR.