I’ve been wondering when the next Macbook would ship. The days of Intel jamming new processors out every month seems to be over. The net is that we won’t see a new Macbook until this coming May, so if you need to buy one youare reasonably safe. The improvements are from Intel and will mainly be incremental. The bus speed will stay at about 2.4GHz as this is a new chipset not processor release. Graphics will get a boost for the low-end MacBook and the front side bus will double.
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TG Daily reports that Intel’s next generation mobile platform, code-named Santa Rosa, is currently tracking for a May release.
The platform will feature many improvements over today’s incarnation found in the iMac, MacBook, and MacBook Pro. While the processor will remain of the Core 2 Duo “Merom” variety and will top out at 2.4 GHz, the front side bus speed will be increased to 800 MHz.
Also, systems that use integrated graphics (MacBook, Mac Mini) will stand to see a big boost from Intel’s latest graphics technology. The GMA X3000 will implement several important graphics features in hardware and support pixel and vertex shader models 3.0, whereas GMA 950 only supports pixel shader model 2.0. This improvement will no doubt be a boost for casual gamers and for Apple’s desire to include even more impressive visual effects in their systems.
Lastly, Santa Rosa will feature Intel’s flash caching technology, code-named Robson. The technology should bring better system performance, especially in the areas of battery life, system startup, and access of frequently used applications.
