Intel shares MacBook Air love with new small-footprint CPUs

[Apple Ink]

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In the blizzard of paper coming out of the Intel Developer Forum (IDF), there was one announcement yesterday that has been virtually overlooked. Even Intel gave it only a cursory mention, stating [Dadi] "Perlmutter also introduced the company's second-generation dual-core mobile processors for increasingly popular ultra thin and light notebook PCs." That's not what anyone would call a high-profile introduction, but the processors themselves could be used by any company keen to compete with the MacBook Air.

The new Centrino processors will be used in both Lenovo's X301 and HP's 2530p, and have a TDP of just 17W. Both the SL9400 (1.8GHz) and the SL9300 (1.6GHz) use a 1066MHz FSB and carry 6MB of L2 cache. Intel is also introducing a pair of 10W processors: the SU9400 (1.4GHz) and SU9300 (1.2GHz). Both of these chips run on an 800MHz FSB and carry 3MB of L2 cache.

 

[Darwin]

It's good to see that Apple is providing challenges to Intel which can benefit both sides. I heard awhile back that Intel was interested in producing a small footprint CPU before but it was never completed until Apple requested a use for it.

And as for competition, it takes more than having the same specced machines to compete on the playing field, IMO anyways.