According to Intel CEO Paul Otellini, the first Westmere 32nm chips have already been sampled to around 30 manufacturers for testing.

Interestingly, Otellini stated that the samples were sent out to "laptop and desktop PC manufacturers", which implies Arrandale mobile CPUs could have also been already sampled.

Otellini expects Westmere volume shipments later this year, and that Intel is skipping some 45nm dual-core Nehalems as it is accelerating the process shrink.

The new 32nm CPUs are slightly improved die-shrink versions of the current 45nm Nehalem architecture. Westmere will be an MCP part, with a die containing the graphics in the same package with the CPU die.