Digitimes is reporting that Intel has begun manufacturing prototypes (engineering samples) for the Penryn core cpu.
http://www.digitimes.com/mobos/a20061129PD206.html
The Penryn is the sucessor to the Conroe cpu, its an evolution rather than revolution design. It's intels first 45nM process based chip and sports 6megs of unified l2 cache compared to the 4megs found in conroe. It's also expected to clock well in excess of 3GHz (3.46-3.73GHz have been suggested for its Quad core derivative)
Other features are the true SSE4 feature set.
If prototyping has begun it would suggest intel has completed development work for the 45nM process and is starting to test real chips.
It will take 3 months for the chips to mature, they will then be tested and will take a further 3 months before we see retail chips.
This would take around 7-10 months I think which puts intel right on schedule for a Q3'07 Launch.
If by some miracle amd finds an answer to the 'core' based chips before then expect the intel time table to be dragged kicking and screaming months ahead, they have the money, resources and expertiese to have the chips out in 4 months if they wanted to.