Intel's ultra low voltage Sandy Bridge CPUs bound for MacBook Air?
The MacBook Air, while extremely popular, is one of the last lines of Apple computers not yet sporting a low power consumption Sandy Bridge processor by Intel -- the line is still running on the Core 2 Duo CPU, and while that's certainly a fast model, it's not quite the latest and greatest out there. But don't worry -- Intel has announced that it will be bringing out a new Sandy Bridge processor sometime very soon, and that's the same one expected to go into the new MacBook Air models by the end of the summer.
The best of these models, says Hardmac, is the Core i7 2657M, sporting dual cores running at 1.6 GHz and a turbo mode up to 2.7 GHz, lining up the MacBook Air with the low-end MacBook Pro. That's one spicy meatball! Of course, none of this is confirmed until we actually see the hardware in action, but if you want a faster MBA and can wait until June, you might want to see what Apple and Intel have in store for the next generation of the extremely thin little powerhouse computer.
[via MacRumors]
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The MacBook Air, while extremely popular, is one of the last lines of Apple computers not yet sporting a low power consumption Sandy...
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If this new Sandy Bridge is as low power usage as my i7-2600k, Apple won't have to worry about refreshing the Air line as the Airs will melt long before Apple decides to issue an update, unless Apple figures out how to fit a Noctua NH-D14 inside the Air (or how to fit the Air inside the D14).
April 06 2011 at 9:47 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyPlease Steve, this CPU, built in 3G modem and if possible even higher res screens.
April 06 2011 at 9:28 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply"is one of the last lines of Apple computers not yet sporting a low power consumption Sandy Bridge processor by Intel"
Huh? The ONLY line of Apple computers that has the Sandy Bridge is the MBPs. Air, Mini, Pro, iMac and the regular MacBook are still shipping with C2D.
Unfortunately this news makes me a tiny bit sad as I just ordered a MBA. It should arrive tomorrow in fact. It's cool though, I will just hold on to it. Sandy Bridge will be cool, but I will wait until there is a MBA redesign before upgrading. Either that or next year when they possibly phase out MBPs for MBAs.
A guy can dream.
The UL processors have underclocked graphic options complared to their non-ULV counterparts in macbook pros. Therefore expect the intel HD3000 graphics to be slower.The nvidia 320 m card in your present macbook air will probably thrash it. GPU's are far more important than CPU's in modern day systems. A new laptop will more likely hiccup playing a youtube video/Editing photos on aperture(GPU related) than editing a word document(CPU intensive)
April 06 2011 at 11:54 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyFair comment about "Sandy Bridge", but it is equally not right to say that all of the others are using C2D? The iMacs have i3, i5 and i7 options and the Mac Pro range uses Xeons (Nehalem quad-core and Westmere six-core options).
April 07 2011 at 3:16 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI can't seriously see Apple refreshing the MacBook Air line so quickly. No doubt they'll want to add Thunderbolt to the refreshed models, which is going to require a redesign of the motherboard to replace the onboard chipset with Thunderbolt (since the Intel chip has graphics done on the same dye).
We'll definitely start to see new ULVCs with this chip later this year, but I seriously doubt a new Air will be one of them. Early next year, maybe, but not this year.
June would put it at 9 months, which is a pretty normal interval for Mac updates.
I'd like to know what "end of summer... if you can wait until June" means.
I don't see why they couldn't, previous MBA revisions have been in less than one year which means the end of summer could be possible. Only the latest revision took over a year, but it was a complete redesign in both casing and internal components.
On the MBP the switch to Arrandale from Penryn (C2D) was around 10 months, and from Arrandale to Sandy Bridge just another 10 months.
Based on that I don't see why they would wait over 14 months to push it into 2012.
And besides that it doesn't seem like Intel is putting out any new ULV C2D processors so I don't see them just adding a thunderbolt controller and calling it quits.
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