Intel looks set to release a quad-core microprocessor for notebooks at long last, but you're not likely to get your hands on a laptop containing the chip for the best part of a year.

Unsurprisingly, the mobile quad-core is based on Intel's 45nm chip design, 'Penryn'. Intel has admitted as much in the past, and said that four-core laptop CPUs won't be among the first batch of 45nm Core 2 processors.

Now a leaked Intel presentation slide, published by Chinese-language site HKEPC, reveals the date: sometime in H2 2008. By that time, Intel will have released the next generation of its Centrino platform, codenamed 'Montevina', and the quad-cores will work to that specification.

Well, broadly, at any rate. The CPUs will contain 12MB of L2 cache - 6MB shared between core pairs - and run on a 1066MHz frontside bus. The slide indicates a maximum power draw of 45W and a transistor junction temperature of 100°C. Idling, the CPU will consume just 3-4W.

However, Intel has the part's interconnect down as Socket P' - no, that apostrophe isn't a typo, it indicates the interconnect is not the plain old Socket P found in today's Intel-based laptops.

The first Penryn chips - server processors, initially - are expected to launch on 11 November. The first mobile Penryns, all dual-core parts, are expected in Q1 2008, with more following in Q2 alongside the launch of Montevina.

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