Intel internally calls Haswell its “fourth generation” Core processor micro architecture, and we believe that Intel counts only major steps in its development.

Its first Core architecture was called Conroe /Merom in 65nm, followed by Nehalem in 45nm, Sandy Bridge in 32nm and Haswell will be the second 22nm core with a new architecture.

Intel still plays its old tick-tock game and Haswell is a major step, or a tock, while Broadwell is 14nm shrunk version of the Haswell architecture. A more obvious example is Sandy Bridge in 32nm, a tock in Intel’s development cycle, while the most recent Core processor is a tick, and it is based on 22nm Ivy Bridge core.

Now Intel tells its partners to expect that Haswell should end up at least 10 percent faster than Ivy Bridge based cores at the same clock.  These numbers are based on pre-silicon projections that Intel always does before it gets the working prototype back, but since we are some month away from the IDF 2012 in San Francisco, we are quite sure that we will see Haswell again, much closer to its final design, and we even expect to see Broadwell prototypes to hit at least one of the keynotes.

Intel also hints at enhanced based overclocking and end user tunability, which sounds promising to many enthusiasts. If all goes well for Intel, Haswell should be quite a nice piece of hardware once it ships in Q2 2013.