Apple did n’t walk into its dedication to Intel processors with eyes widely shut . Whatever the reason for the switch — whether it ’s because of Intel ’s better carrying into action per watt as Steve Jobs say or some of the more complexexplanationsmaking their rounds on the Internet — Apple would not have made the move unless it was win over by Intel that the Santa Clara , Calif. , giant ’s CPUs were the way of the future .

No one alfresco of Apple and Intel was secluded to the unopen doorway meeting , but the plans for descendants that Intel display at its late developer forum must have gone a foresightful mode toward cementing a MacTel reality .

In the macro sense , Intel ’s processor roadmap can be pretty much summed up as “ More and little . ” If you ’ll excuse the rhyme , “ more ” means multi - core — as in , something much like both PowerPCs of a dual - processor G5 on a individual bit of silicon . Intel forecast that 70 percent of both its screen background and nomadic Pentium - syndicate CPUs will be embark as multi - core products by next year .

“ small ” means that the company is move to french-fried potatoes with hint that will be 65 micromillimetre apart rather than 90 millimicron as they are now . Less space between tracing mean more chips per Accho of silicon — potentially lead to miserable chip Price in a competitive surround — as well as fast speeds .

The Road Ahead

On the micro grade , the roadmap gets complicated in a haste . Intel has more simulation of C.P.U. than Congress has pork - barrel spending projects . Even Intel employee must be confused by the in - household habit of naming core revisal after cities and towns and then commercialize them with model numbers that indicate everything from computer architecture , fastness , and stash size to the type of motherboard socket they fit in — not to mention whether the CPU is dual - center , supports the EM-64 T 64 - bit instruction extensions , or features Hyper - Threading .

Though Intel offers a huge variety of processors , the current state of the art 64 - bit Intel desktop products are the double - heart Pentium Processor Extreme Edition 840 ; the treble - gist Pentium D 840 , 830 , and 820 ; the single - core Pentium 4 in too many 2 MB cache , 6xx and 1 MB hoard 5xx fashion model to list ; and the Celeron D in too many 3xx models to list . All operate somewhere in between 2.5GHz and 3.8GHz and are 90 nanometers . However , the dual - core Pentiums and one P4 - found single - core processor codification - cite Cedar Mill should be 65 - nanometers sometime ahead of time in 2006 .

The Pentium M , Intel ’s flagship Mobile River ware , will be supervene upon on the mellow - end sometime in 2006 with a 65 - nanometre , dual - core part code - name Yonah . Since both the Pentium M and Yonah are 32 - number chips , it will probably be at least another loop before you ’ll see a 64 - spot MacTel notebook computer .

Intel is the principal fashion designer and supplier of its own chipsets , the adjunct chips that manage CPU communication theory , retention , and peripheral machine . The most recent Pentium chipsets let in the 915 , 925 , 945 , and 955 which support PCI Express , DDR2 , and main computer storage up to 4 GB with front - side motorcoach running between 500MHz and 1,066MHz . Several of the numerous incarnations also support older DDR but Intel has made the switch far in the first place than the eternal sleep of the manufacture — some say too early — and wo n’t be looking back . The 9xx series seems to be Intel ’s chipset choice for the foreseeable time to come ; however , a raw mobile chipset code - named Calistoga is being readied to company the new Yonah processor to market .

prognosis : Legal Rain

The information Intel has parceled out about its CPUs and chipsets intelligibly does n’t extend beyond 2006 . However , the introduction of EM-64 T , multi - core , PCI Express , and DDR2 are very late and you should n’t any startling annunciation for at least a year or two — unless of course it involves Intel rival AMD .

AMD has file suit against Intel , alleging that Intel indulges in illegal monopolistic practices that have prevented AMD from growing its food market share appreciably or selling anything at all to magnanimous vendors such as Dell . Which company is in the right or who advance the judicial proceeding is for the most part irrelevant to Apple ’s future from a technical standpoint — AMD processor are completely x86 / Intel compatible . However , a second militant supplier might conduct to cheaper Mactels down the route .