Apple will use Intel’s Sandy Bridge processors in its new MacBooks, replacing the current models’ Nvidia GPUs, according to one online report.
“MacBook models with screen sizes of 13 inches and below are expected to switch to Sandy Bridge-only graphics,” reads the Dec. 9 posting on CNET, which cites unnamed industry sources apparently familiar with Apple’s roadmap, “while higher-end MacBook Pros are expected to use graphics from Advanced Micro Devices.” The presence of Nvidia in those higher-end MacBooks is “unclear.”
Sandy Bridge is Intel’s attempt to integrate a number of nominally separate processor features, including graphics and management, onto a 32-nanometer chip. “Basically, we are very much putting together all that is required on a single piece of silicon,” David Perlmutter, executive vice president and general manager of the Intel Architecture Group, explained in September.
Intel’s Turbo Boost technology, which increases power in individual cores based on workload demand, will allow Sandy Bridge to increase core power beyond thermal limits. And with its $7.68 billion acquisition of security IT provider McAfee earlier this year, Intel will almost certainly integrate increased security features into its upcoming offerings.
Intel CEO Paul Otellini has spent the past several months trumpeting Sandy Bridge’s performance, even suggesting during an October earnings call that the processor represents “the largest increase in computing performance in our history.”
For more, read the eWeek article: Apple MacBooks Will Use Intel ‘Sandy Bridge’ Processors: Report.