Intel appears to be very confident about the success of its 32nm fabrication process. Why else would it be bringing forward the mass-production of its first 32nm CPU?

Not that the release of the desktop 'Clarkdale' processor will come that far ahead of expectations. While Intel isn't saying anything on the matter, Taiwanese motherboard-maker moles say Clarkdales will come rolling off the production lines in volume in Q4.

Clarkdale has been expected to debut in late Q4 since February this year, when Intel said it was accelerating its 32nm roll-out.

However, while that was to pave the way for a major release in Q1 2010, it would now seem said launch will take place in the previous quarter.

That could mean months or days ahead of schedule - either way, Intel will be able to highlight the as coming a full financial quarter early.

Clarkdale is essentially a dual-core die-shrink of Intel's desktop 'Nehalem' architecture. The presence of HyperThreading technology makes the chip appear to the operating system to be a four-core processor.

Dual-core 45nm Nehalems are expected to debut in the coming months as members of the Core i3 and i5 families. ®