In Q1 2010 Intel plans to launch its upgrade for ultra low voltage dual core platform. Current king of ultra low voltage, the ultra thin notebook SU9600 will get replaced by the dual core, Core i7 640UM.

Many will be confused by the fact that Core i7 640UM has 80 percent higher thermal design power, or 18W compared to 10W to SU9600, but you have to
remember that the Core i7 640UM, also known as Arrandale also has an IGP inside that is contained within this TDP.

The TDP  ore or less stays at a similar level but the frequency of Core i7 640M is at disappointing 1.2GHz, compared to the 1.6GHz with SU9600. Again there is catch as Core i7 with its turbo mode can overclock all the way to 2.26GHz with probably much higher TDP, but this mode probably won’t activate until you plug your notebook in, or set it to run at full performance.

The summary should mean that if you are after long battery platform with potentially lot of processing power, Core i7 640UM and the rest of Calpella platform might be well worth waiting.