Expreview appears to have gotten their hands on a leaked Intel roadmap and it seem to confirm the rumored model names for the Core i7 series. However, with model numbers such as 920, 940 and 965, one has to wonder if Intel has really run out of ideas, as to us they sound like old chipset names.

The Core i7 965 is, of course, the Extreme Edition clocked at 3.2GHz, whereas the 940 is the 2.93GHz version and the 920 is the 2.66GHz. This gives Intel some room to squeeze in a 930, 950 and a 960 model would they wish to do so.

A few other interesting things we spotted on the roadmap were the introduction of a new Core 2 Quad Q8300 in Q1 '09 alongside a Core 2 Duo E7500, a Pentium Dual Core E5300 and a dual core Celeron E1500. The Q8300 appears to be the last Core 2-based quad-core processor from Intel, as later in 2009 the Nehalem-derived Lynnfield core is expected to take over the quad-core market space.

However, with the delay of Havendale to early 2010, we're now seeing changes to the lower end of the market, with possible additions to the Core 2 Duo series, although there are no specific details of any faster processors than the ones mentioned above. The Q8300 seems to be replacing the Q8200 in Q3 '09, and the dual-core Celeron E1200 seems to be discontinued as the E1500 is introduced and the E1400 is pushed down to take its place.

You can find the roadmap here.

One of our forum guys has confirmed the names even before this post and you can read it here.