ULV Haswell not coming until Late 2013/2014...so why is everyone saying June?

[danistyping]

The desktop variants of Haswell are coming around June, sure. But the mobile chips aren't coming until late 2013/early 2014. Unless Apple gets the chips super early...why is everyone saying the MBA will adopt Haswell around June? It's all over these forums for some reason. I get that the MBA upgrade cycle hits around then...

 

[KPOM]

Has the timing been confirmed? I thought I had heard "fall 2013" for the ULV chips. Also, there are lower power versions of Ivy Bridge chips coming soon, so it is possible that Apple could do a mid-cycle spec update, or if they were planning to do something more dramatic (such as offer a Retina Display option, or increase the resolution to 1080p) they could do that without changing the processor).

 

[gnasher729]

The desktop variants of Haswell are coming around June, sure. But the mobile chips aren't coming until late 2013/early 2014. Unless Apple gets the chips super early...why is everyone saying the MBA will adopt Haswell around June? It's all over these forums for some reason. I get that the MBA upgrade cycle hits around then...

I don't think that Apple would use the ULV chips. In my opinion, they are just a marketing gimmick.

All the Intel processors use different amounts of power depending on the speed they are running, and depending on how many cores are operating. The "TLD" number that some people think shows how power efficient a chip is just says what the maximum possible power consumption of the chip is, with all cores at the maximum possible speed.

You can reduce the TLD (maximum power use) by just limiting the clock speed of the chip. If a chip could run at 3 GHz, but you don't allow it to ever go beyond 1.5 GHz, then the maximum power usage will be dramatically lower. However, the chip is not one bit more power efficient: Running at 1.5 GHz it uses just as much power as the 3 GHz chip when it runs at 1.5 GHz.

I think that is what Intel is doing with the ULV chips. If you run a normal laptop chip at the same low speed as a ULV, I wouldn't expect it to use much more power. On the other hand, the ULV chip will be limited in how fast it can do tasks. If I have a very CPU intensive job, I'd rather have the battery empty after four hours with the job done, than a battery that still has some charge left after six hours, but the job isn't finished.

Summary: Apple has never used ULV chips, and I can't see a reason why they would start doing so with Haswell.

 

[leman]

Summary: Apple has never used ULV chips, and I can't see a reason why they would start doing so with Haswell.

Actually, one of the first Intel ULV chip was created specifically for the MacBook Air The MBA has been using ULV chips ever since.

 

[Michael Goff]

I don't think that Apple would use the ULV chips. In my opinion, they are just a marketing gimmick.

All the Intel processors use different amounts of power depending on the speed they are running, and depending on how many cores are operating. The "TLD" number that some people think shows how power efficient a chip is just says what the maximum possible power consumption of the chip is, with all cores at the maximum possible speed.

You can reduce the TLD (maximum power use) by just limiting the clock speed of the chip. If a chip could run at 3 GHz, but you don't allow it to ever go beyond 1.5 GHz, then the maximum power usage will be dramatically lower. However, the chip is not one bit more power efficient: Running at 1.5 GHz it uses just as much power as the 3 GHz chip when it runs at 1.5 GHz.

I think that is what Intel is doing with the ULV chips. If you run a normal laptop chip at the same low speed as a ULV, I wouldn't expect it to use much more power. On the other hand, the ULV chip will be limited in how fast it can do tasks. If I have a very CPU intensive job, I'd rather have the battery empty after four hours with the job done, than a battery that still has some charge left after six hours, but the job isn't finished.

Summary: Apple has never used ULV chips, and I can't see a reason why they would start doing so with Haswell.

i7-3667u.

That's the high-end MBA for 2012.

Apple uses ULV in their Macbook Air line