Intel is working hard to prepare for 32nm transition that starts with dual-core Clakdale CPU. After this one, they will follow with Gulftown and probably many other 32nm CPUs including some quad-cores, which have still to be announced.

Intel now tells its big partners that the plan is to replace the Core 2 E8000 series through 2010 with new Clarkdales.

Since Core 2 Duo E8400 starts at 3.0GHz and sells for $166, while the top one E8600 clocked at 3.33GHz is selling for $266. This can give you an idea about the potential clock speeds and especially the price. We would expect Clarkdale to end up faster than 3.33GHz but this is not something we can confirm at the press time.

This is guidance for OEMs, while the rest of the market there will see at least three more versions of Clarkdale, where the cheapest one should start selling for $84 and challenge the Pentium E6300 dual-core.