David Flynn05 January 2010, 5:06 AM
From the muscle-bound Mac Pro to the seductively slim MacBook Air, here’s how Intel’s new 2010 processors line up against Apple’s likely next-gen releases.
Page 1 - Intro
This week’s debut of a staggering seventeen 32nm Westmere-class processors is not only Intel’s biggest ever launch, but it also has an obvious impact on Apple’s plans for the 2010 Mac line-up.
However, Intel and Apple aren’t quite in step. While some Mac products are likely to be easily refreshed to sport one of the new Core i3, Core i5 or Core i7 powerplants, here are still a few crucial gaps in the roadmap.
For example, the only low-voltage (25 watt) ‘Arrandale’ mobile processors listed on Intel’s 32nm launch team are from the high-end Core i7 family. These which would likely be too expensive for the MacBook and Mac Mini, both of which are designed for 25 watt Core 2 Duo processors and may thus need to wait for the equivalent 25 watt products from the Core i5 or Core i3 series to match.
Here’s our rundown of Apple’s entire desktop and notebook and which of the new Intel chips they’re likely to adopt.
MacBook
Now: The current polycarbonate unibody MacBook runs Intel’s lower-rung 2.26 GHz Core 2 Duo P7550, with 3MB of cache.
Next: Apple’s entry-level MacBook sounds like a perfect match for Intel’s entry-level Core i3 mobile processors, except that the only two Core i3 chips offered at launch – the 2.16GHz i3-330M and the 2.26GHz i3-350M – both have a thermal ceiling of 35 watts, compared to the 25 watts of the P7550.
Unless Apple can find a way to live with that substantially higher headroom, it will have to wait for Intel to release a 25 watt ‘LM’ (Low-voltage Mobile) version of the Core i3 – although you can bet that if Steve Jobs has asked for such a chip, it’s already on the way.
Intel’s 2010 launch lineup lists only two processors with a 25W cap, and both are in the premium Core i7 series and cost over US$100 more than the P7550.
The only alternative is the 18 watt ‘UM’ ultra-low voltage processors designed for exceptionally ‘thin and light’ notebooks, but the fastest of these clocks at only 1.2GHz.