Intel Outlines 'Ivy Bridge' Roadmap as 1st Half 2012, and Previews 'Ultrabook' Laptop Designs

[MacRumors]

At Computex, Intel updated the press about its roadmap for power efficient processors in the coming years. Engadget reprints the press release in which Intel predicts that a new class of laptops called "Ultrabooks" could make up 40% of the consumer latop market by the end of 2012.

These computers will marry the performance and capabilities of today's laptops with tablet-like features and deliver a highly responsive and secure experience, in a thin, light and elegant design.

Intel describes this family of notebooks as "thin, light and beautiful designs that are less than 20mm (0.8 inch) thick, and mainstream price points under US $1,000. These "ultrabooks" already sound very similar to Apple's MacBook Air which we've already heard is evolving into a mainstream product.

MacBook Air​

Intel describes the ultimate evolution to these ultra-thin laptops in a 3 step process. The first systems based on their current designs should be available this winter. Meanwhile, they plan on continuing to push processor power designs in the coming years to enable even more efficient designs.

The second step will be based on Intel's Ivy Bridge processor designs which were announced in May:

Laptops based on "Ivy Bridge" will bring improved power efficiency, smart visual performance, increased responsiveness and enhanced security. "Ivy Bridge" is the first high-volume chip based on Intel's 22 nanometer (nm) manufacturing technology that uses a revolutionary 3-D transistor design called Tri-Gate announced in May.

Finally, for the 3rd step, in 2013 processors codenamed "Haswell" will reduce the microprocessor power to half of today's chips. Intel has been previously reported to be working aggressively on reducing power consumption on their processors.

Apple has a good relationship with Intel and will certainly benefit from these new processor designs. So, we should also see the first Macs based on the Ivy Bridge processors in the first half of 2012. The most recently leaked slides suggest a March-April timeframe for the chip release.


Article Link: Intel Outlines 'Ivy Bridge' Roadmap as 1st Half 2012, and Previews 'Ultrabook' Laptop Designs

 

[42streetsdown]

Ivy Bridge macs sound awesome!
more power efficient = more battery and i like me some long battery life.

 

[viperGTS]

Intel just keeps making chips.....
When will there be a sweet spot to buy a MB air?
honestly i would now wait until 2013 to buy one....

 

[kjjnk]

Well, no new MacBook Pro's until March-April 2012 at the very earliest. Guess Sandy Bridge buyers feel great.

 

[LarryC]

What Intel has coming does sound exciting. I just wish that Apple would quit dragging their feet and update their old products to the processors that Intel is currently offering! It shouldn't take so long. I suppose that Apple is only focusing on things like phones these days.

 

[Shanpdx]

are they (Intel) making these LV/ULV cheaper to under $1000?

13" MBA is starting at $1299 ...

 

[Shanpdx]

What Intel has coming does sound exciting. I just wish that Apple would quit dragging their feet and update their old products to the processors that Intel is currently offering! It shouldn't take so long. I suppose that Apple is only focusing on things like phones these days.

next tuesday ...

 

[LarryC]

next tuesday ...

shanmugam, I really do hope that you are right. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[beebler]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8J2)

Next redesigned MacBook Pros are out by Feb 2012 with really good screens, thinner and all SSD. Take it to the bank.

 

[Shanpdx]

shanmugam, I really do hope that you are right. Thanks for the feedback.

LarryC, MBA became a hot selling product since the update oct 2010, it will get updated to newest I5/i7s soon...

it might happen tomorrow if WWDC becomes more software oriented OS X and iOS 5.0 and and and iPhone 5

 

[kjjnk]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8J2)

Next redesigned MacBook Pros are out by Feb 2012 with really good screens, thinner and all SSD. Take it to the bank.

http://www.9to5mac.com/69736/ivy-bridge-chips-pushed-to-2012-macs-will-have-to-wait/

March or April at the earliest.

 

[Hastings101]

What Intel has coming does sound exciting. I just wish that Apple would quit dragging their feet and update their old products to the processors that Intel is currently offering! It shouldn't take so long. I suppose that Apple is only focusing on things like phones these days.

I thought they've always been pretty slow with hardware updates.

 

[MCIowaRulz]

I just want an SB MacMini already
that way, My oldest computer will be from "06 (see sig) from which I plan to soon throw in a 512Mb 8400 Nvidia low profile card and eventually 3GB of RAM so I can use it for the next 3 years.

 

[munkees]

very nice looking PC laptop. I like it. I am glad it coming to market, love having competition.

 

[ten-oak-druid]

In the mean time I expect Apple's personal computer sales will increase again in the third and fourth quarters of 2011. Given the overall personal computer market isn't doing well, Apple's market share will continue to grow.

I imagine a healthy 15-17% market share is in Apple's future sometime in the next few years.

 

[Scarrus]

That's a 1 on 1 copy of the MBA. Let's see if Apple are going to sue Asus over it...

 

[Dreamer2go]

it seems the Ivy Bridge MBP is the ultimate upgrade from Santa Rosa MBP!!! great!
I have my iPad 2 to play with until next year hehe

 

[Macmoney]

Tapered design,glass trackpad....complete rip-off

 

[spillproof]

Cool Asus, but ugly color IMO. The keyboard color would drive me insane with all the shininess.

I'm really excited about the future of notebooks. Thin, light, and powerful.

 

[Eidorian]

The $200 ASUS has my interest but not much else. Being enticed into new hardware is becoming much more difficult.

 

[Yamcha]

Looking forward to the Ivy Bridge, although also looking forward to the new AMD processors, It's about time AMD beat Intel , it was great in the Athlon XP days, when they easily outperformed Intel P4's in price and performance..

 

[Lone Deranger]

When the new MacBook Air models surfaced last year I knew the design was going to be ripped off by other companies because it was so good. Now that I see this Asus I am nonetheless shocked at the audacity some companies have. It's tragic to see companies feel they need to resort to blatant plagiarism in order to compete with Apple's designs.

 

[maclaptop]

What Intel has coming does sound exciting. I just wish that Apple would quit dragging their feet and update their old products to the processors that Intel is currently offering! It shouldn't take so long. I suppose that Apple is only focusing on things like phones these days.

iToys are ALL that Apple truly cares about. They make more profit for Apple than any other product.

Computers are on the back burner.

 

[Yamcha]

I agree, a lot of laptops today look very much like Macbook's, an example apart from this is the Chromebook, the chicklet keys and giant trackpad..

 

[Reach9]

You shouldn't have done that Asus, now Apple will sue you for copying the MacBook Air!

Looks like future MacBook Pros will look similar to that as well, and the MacBook Air line will become the new MacBook, i'm guessing.
Here's to Ultrabooks, sounds ultra expensive.