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Adokimus

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 2, 2007
842
3
Boston, MA
Why I think we will see a new MBA sooner than expected:


According to the recent page 1 article,

Apple insiders confirmed the company will refresh its notebook lineups in June, which comes as no surprise since all Centrino partners indicated they will announce notebooks based on the new Montevina Centrino 2.
Meanwhile, Digitimes details Intel's aggressive timetable with plans for Santa Rosa (Merom) to drop from 60% of shipments in the 1st quarter to 35% of shipments in 2nd quarter. Even the just released Santa Rosa (Penryn) is expected to be phased out by year's end to make room for Montevina.

This is not the only place I have read that Intel is pushing its newest processors out for a big Montevina move in. And if you look at the MR Buyer's Guide for the Macbook, there is a clear break in a steady pattern of release dates, and my guess is that it has to do with Intel lighting a fire under Apple's bum,

View attachment mb update.bmp

Next, there's the processor in the current Air. As said at http://blogs.computerworld.com/macbook_air_reccomendation_wait ,

Intel is late on their delivery of their ultra-low power 45nm laptop chips. Clearly, the MacBook Air is the exact computer that these types of chips belong in. So Apple and Intel spun it as going out of their way to do something special. That something special was jimmy-ing a 65nm chip onto a board that was made for a 45nm one. The 45 nm chips will be arriving by mid-year and will likely be put in rev 2 of the MacBook Air. They will use less power per CPU cycle and that five hour battery life could easily turn into six - and with the reduced power consumption, they might be able to crank the processor speed up to and beyond 2 Ghz or maybe even fit in some more wireless options..

Now, when looking to the Intel product roadmap, there are two Penryn chips to be released in May that stick out for obvious reasons,

View attachment penryn air.bmp

These are low-voltage chips, coming in at 1.6 and 1.8 GHz, and with Penryn's already lowered battery consumption, they could have a much greater impact on the Air's battery life than say the 2.1 GHz Penryn processor that is already released. Also, these two processors have 6 mb of cache as opposed to the 3 mb cache some are complaining about with the new macbooks. These two chips STICK OUT. It's almost like they were made with the Air specifically in mind. Now, I'm not sure how things are on the iPod HDD and SDD front, but those fields are always rapidly increasing in regard to capacity and performance. Just like the iPod touch and iPhone received randomly scheduled updates, I think the Air will be refreshed sooner than you expect.

And that's all I have to say about that.

-Ado
 

mashinhead

macrumors 68030
Oct 7, 2003
2,999
976
yea i read about this a couple weeks ago. they will probably drop them in but it isn't really an upgrade, nothing will change except power consumption.
 

Adokimus

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 2, 2007
842
3
Boston, MA
yea i read about this a couple weeks ago. they will probably drop them in but it isn't really an upgrade, nothing will change except power consumption.

Hey, if it means I get a *real* 5 hours of productivity out of the Air, it would be one heck of an upgrade.
 

shoulin333

macrumors 6502a
Jun 26, 2007
700
21
California
Maybe not.

The thing is the 45nm chips are no smaller than the 65nm chips.. only the Die's are smaller.

This means intel will have to again create a custom package to house the new 45nm chip in the size that is in the MBA now..

also the chips that are in the MBA are not ultra low voltage processors, i dont see them going to those 2 processors you listed anytime soon as 1.6 / 1.8 penryn's with ULV would probably be slower, only benefit being SSE4.


seeing how intel had to customize this package so greatly for the 65nm dies, it would not be logical for them to phase them out so quickly, they wouldn't do it before intel / apple had time to recoup their costs of engineering.


This all being said, i bet we might see small MBA updates like larger HDD / SSD... but as far as processor we will probably have to wait until the end of the year (nov?)
 

ntrigue

macrumors 68040
Jul 30, 2007
3,805
4
Well-spoken. I am in the corner that expects an aggressive Intel/Apple upgrade pathway over the next year. Then we will see Nehalem and not need anymore power.
 

spaceballl

macrumors 68030
Nov 2, 2003
2,909
304
San Francisco, CA
this stuff is pretty obvious. Ever since the switch to Intel, Apple goes on Intel's clock. So when Intel releases 45nm CPUs and phases out the 65nm CPUs, it's pretty obvious that Apple will get those CPUs - MBA, MB, and MBP...

People keep posting slides and screenshots and this and that saying that it's "evidence" that something new is coming. No, really. Of course something new is coming...
 

Adokimus

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 2, 2007
842
3
Boston, MA
One quick comment for shoulin333, the two chips I highlighted are low-voltage, not Ultra-low voltage (there is a difference, I didn't just make that up).

I'm not sure what would be involved with bringing Montevina to the MBA, but if that process is *relatively* simple (in that the current internals can easily be upgraded and still fit) then the new processors will also bring 6 mb cache vs. the current 4 mb cache, and they will have a faster bus speed 1066 MHz vs. 800 MHz currently. Then there's the improvement in battery-life and the improved graphics. Maybe then Apple will also offer a 4GB RAM option. I'm just letting people know that the tech is almost ready and I think Apple will update the Air faster than other products like the MB or MBP.
 

Adokimus

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 2, 2007
842
3
Boston, MA
this stuff is pretty obvious. Ever since the switch to Intel, Apple goes on Intel's clock. So when Intel releases 45nm CPUs and phases out the 65nm CPUs, it's pretty obvious that Apple will get those CPUs - MBA, MB, and MBP...

People keep posting slides and screenshots and this and that saying that it's "evidence" that something new is coming. No, really. Of course something new is coming...

Something new is ALWAYS coming, obviously. We can all be content with that knowledge. But, this is a rumor site. I was just putting together my thoughts on "what" I think is coming and a guess on "when" it is coming. I'm sorry you were unimpressed by my screenshots. :rolleyes:
 

shoulin333

macrumors 6502a
Jun 26, 2007
700
21
California
One quick comment for shoulin333, the two chips I highlighted are low-voltage, not Ultra-low voltage (there is a difference, I didn't just make that up).

I'm not sure what would be involved with bringing Montevina to the MBA, but if that process is *relatively* simple (in that the current internals can easily be upgraded and still fit) then the new processors will also bring 6 mb cache vs. the current 4 mb cache, and they will have a faster bus speed 1066 MHz vs. 800 MHz currently. Then there's the improvement in battery-life and the improved graphics. Maybe then Apple will also offer a 4GB RAM option. I'm just letting people know that the tech is almost ready and I think Apple will update the Air faster than other products like the MB or MBP.

That i agree with once they get Montevina and have the higher FSB it will deff be worth it.

I'm not saying your wrong, just saying that even though the 45nm will obviously fit in the package, they still have to engineer how the traces will connect.. not a quick job.
 

harmonica01

macrumors 6502
Jul 30, 2007
253
0
Hey, if it means I get a *real* 5 hours of productivity out of the Air, it would be one heck of an upgrade.

Well, the battery time keeps changing on mine, but i just bought it yesterday. However using iTunes, Safari and Pages and Adium battery lasted from 8:30am-2:10ish-pm today giving me 20 min to walk to class for an exam, fluctuated brightness from 3rd from lowest to middle but never put screen nor comp to sleep cuse was constantly typing or listening to lectures in iTunes

A+ to this Macbook air i get a whole extra hour than I did from my MBP
 

netdog

macrumors 603
Feb 6, 2006
5,760
38
London
By June, I will have been getting a great deal of use out of my Air. Will be a nice upgrade for others and it is a very nice machine right now.
 

Adokimus

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 2, 2007
842
3
Boston, MA
By June, I will have been getting a great deal of use out of my Air. Will be a nice upgrade for others and it is a very nice machine right now.

Hey, I hear you. I'm still loving my 16 GB 1st Gen iPod touch, even though it would be great to have the 32 GB that came out less than 6 months later. For me, it's a matter of economics, in that it will take me at least two more months to save up for the high-end (1.8/64) Air, and by that point I'm just trying to reason if I should wait for the next model or not...
 

mogzieee

macrumors 6502a
Feb 8, 2008
668
1
London, UK
All of this does make a lot of sense it has to be said, but Apple Inc is surely a larger company than Intel, surely it's Apple's job to be pushing Intel around... not the other way round...
 

saltyzoo

macrumors 65816
Oct 4, 2007
1,065
0
All of this does make a lot of sense it has to be said, but Apple Inc is surely a larger company than Intel, surely it's Apple's job to be pushing Intel around... not the other way round...

Intel customers by revenue:

Dell ================
HP =============
Gateway =======
Apple ==

Hey boss, Apple is demanding x. Apple who?
 

saltyzoo

macrumors 65816
Oct 4, 2007
1,065
0
All of this does make a lot of sense it has to be said, but Apple Inc is surely a larger company than Intel, surely it's Apple's job to be pushing Intel around... not the other way round...

Intel customers by revenue:

Dell ================
HP =============
Gateway =======
Apple ==

Hey boss, Apple is demanding x. Apple who?
 

saltyzoo

macrumors 65816
Oct 4, 2007
1,065
0
Intel customers by revenue:

Dell ================
HP =============
Gateway =======
Apple ==

Intel employee: Hey boss, Apple is demanding x.
Intel exec: Apple who?



Even more importantly:

Intel employee: Hey boss, Apple is demanding x.
Intex exec: Yeah, so? What are they gonna do if we don't? Switch back to PPC? ha ha ha
 

em500

macrumors regular
Apr 29, 2005
152
5
All of this does make a lot of sense it has to be said, but Apple Inc is surely a larger company than Intel, surely it's Apple's job to be pushing Intel around... not the other way round...

Huh? Intel is larger than Apple by almost all measures (revenue, profit, balance sheet assets, employees, market value). There were a few months last year that the market value of AAPL surpassed INTC, but that bubble has burst since January.

Not only that, Intel has almost no competition in the market for high performance desktop and laptop CPUs, as AMD has fallen far behind, and other CPU manufacturers are mostly interested in server and embedded processors. Apple needs Intel more than the other way around.
 

emotion

macrumors 68040
Mar 29, 2004
3,186
3
Manchester, UK
Intel employee: Hey boss, Apple is demanding x.
Intex exec: Yeah, so? What are they gonna do if we don't? Switch back to PPC? ha ha ha

...switch to AMD. Not so bad an option. However, Intel have the edge for laptops at the moment.

And as for the size of Apple and Intel. Intel are a huge concern, I don't have relative figures but don't underestimate their power.
 

Arthur Young

macrumors newbie
Feb 29, 2008
24
0
Canada
I wonder just how profound are the energy saving effects of montevina and penryn...

I would love to see more battery life, i care not for speed. I just hope apple will wow me with montevina and penryn, on their rev.2 macbook air. Only problem is, i doubt that will happen because thats like changing the entire logic board (cpu,chipets etc... ) since everything is soldered on.

I think most people are waiting for the second revision, just incase there is any bugs or flaws that need be changed. Apple can make a lot of profit with a soft second revision, then make a significant 3rd revision so that people will already want to trade up.

i don't know tho, except that i'm waiting for the next revision of the air, and i hope to see that soon.
 
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