MacBook Pro Adds Intel Arrandale Processor January 3rd?
Posted 12/01/2009 at 2:43pm
| by J.R. Bookwalter
With more and more Mac buyers going for MacBook portability over old-school Mac Pro desktops, the pressure is on Apple to keep their diminutive laptops up to par with their desk-chained brothers.
On the heels of recent reports of substantial speed boosts with the new iMac refresh comes
a report from Fudzilla claiming that Intel is planning on launching three Arrandale-based processors on January 3rd, 2010. Based on the advanced Nehalem architecture introduced into desktop Macs this year, the Arrandale processors mark a significant performance improvement over the current Core 2 Duo processors used in the MacBook Pro models.
Branded under the “Core i5” and “Core i7” names with processor speeds ranging from 2.4 GHz to 2.66 GHz, the processors will have a cost ranging from $225 to $332 in quantities of 1,000. While not available at launch, low-voltage variants are expected to come eventually, suitable for ultra-thin notebooks such as the MacBook Air.
Fudzilla describes the Arrandale’s TDP (thermal design power) of 35W as “not so attractive,” but
MacRumors notes that they match up with the current high-end processors used in the MacBook Pro, making them an ideal candidate for a forthcoming update.
