I went to intel developers conference, and somebody at Intel talked about their newer chipsets, features, and how certain vendors (Apple) is leveraging Intel's unique, world class, blah, blah blah technology ...
Bottom line, this is what we can expect, based on what I heard, consensus of some attendees, and putting 2+2 together. Some of this also came from speaking to some Intel R&D people, and asking where they spend their time.
I expect all will be available on the Macbook Pro, but no telling how they differentiate some of them between models. Anything inherent in the chipsets, you can expect to be in entire line. The rest is good old-fashioned marketing ..
Not every version of the new macbook pro may have all of these features, it is just that these were the talking points about what is coming soon from Apple. Suffice to say the highest-end MBP will have these features
* quad core
* No internal BluRay - all versions shipping now are too big, use too much power and are too slow, consensus is it will be external, a la macbook air. I have not seen a lot of people talking about no internal optical, so thought I would offer this as a real probability. None of the engineers I know are happy about the state of low-profile blu-ray and awful performance, so this makes sense to me and others.
* Glass trackpad, with iPhone-like API & features, but also with 2 & 3 button touch logic for better compatibility with other operating systems. I am big into virtual operating systems, and the intel chipsets and logic for protecting virtual resources really lend itself to this, so (IMHO) you can take this one to the bank.
* WiMax (no doubt it will be there .. it is part of Intel's chipset)
* Extensive improvements relating to power management, major work done here, from shutting down unused cores, graphics logic, use of SSD, slowing down CPU speed dynamically (Major theme is power saving, anything to be "green", so Intel has made major advancements here ... it is in core logic chipsets, so it will be used.)
* 64GB SSD for boot, micro HD for add-on data (SSD comes from the "green" initiative, but no telling how SSD vs HD will be combined for any particular model. A decently-performing 64GB SSD is available, so this makes sense)
* The memory bus uses 36 bits, which means 64GB of RAM is what we can expect. No idea what Apple will ship, but the hardware maxes out at 64GB (gut feeling 8 or 16GB will be available day 1). Everything else is fully 64-bit.
* RGB backlight display - very very cool. Low power, better looking, and more intelligent logic for mixing live video and frame overlays. I didn't get chance to hear that part as much but lots of oohs and ahhs.
* Some extra special things relating to graphics, part of this lower power deal. Consensus among some people is that Apple will have the lower-end Macbook/Macbook Pros with graphics on motherboard. Higher-end systems will allow user-upgradable daughter for memory. Reason is that graphics is CPU/heat pig, and as they go to higher density chipsets, performance and heat requirements improve dramatically. We've all seen orders of magnitude increases in graphics over last few years, and by allowing customers to upgrade graphics themselves, lifespan of the macbook will be extended .. and Apple can make money on graphics upgrades. This part is a little fuzzy as Apple could still decide to bolt-on graphics and not make it upgradable, but people I talked to say that it makes sense to offer graphics upgrade path in light of improvements in power requirements alone.
*
Bottom line, this is what we can expect, based on what I heard, consensus of some attendees, and putting 2+2 together. Some of this also came from speaking to some Intel R&D people, and asking where they spend their time.
I expect all will be available on the Macbook Pro, but no telling how they differentiate some of them between models. Anything inherent in the chipsets, you can expect to be in entire line. The rest is good old-fashioned marketing ..
Not every version of the new macbook pro may have all of these features, it is just that these were the talking points about what is coming soon from Apple. Suffice to say the highest-end MBP will have these features
* quad core
* No internal BluRay - all versions shipping now are too big, use too much power and are too slow, consensus is it will be external, a la macbook air. I have not seen a lot of people talking about no internal optical, so thought I would offer this as a real probability. None of the engineers I know are happy about the state of low-profile blu-ray and awful performance, so this makes sense to me and others.
* Glass trackpad, with iPhone-like API & features, but also with 2 & 3 button touch logic for better compatibility with other operating systems. I am big into virtual operating systems, and the intel chipsets and logic for protecting virtual resources really lend itself to this, so (IMHO) you can take this one to the bank.
* WiMax (no doubt it will be there .. it is part of Intel's chipset)
* Extensive improvements relating to power management, major work done here, from shutting down unused cores, graphics logic, use of SSD, slowing down CPU speed dynamically (Major theme is power saving, anything to be "green", so Intel has made major advancements here ... it is in core logic chipsets, so it will be used.)
* 64GB SSD for boot, micro HD for add-on data (SSD comes from the "green" initiative, but no telling how SSD vs HD will be combined for any particular model. A decently-performing 64GB SSD is available, so this makes sense)
* The memory bus uses 36 bits, which means 64GB of RAM is what we can expect. No idea what Apple will ship, but the hardware maxes out at 64GB (gut feeling 8 or 16GB will be available day 1). Everything else is fully 64-bit.
* RGB backlight display - very very cool. Low power, better looking, and more intelligent logic for mixing live video and frame overlays. I didn't get chance to hear that part as much but lots of oohs and ahhs.
* Some extra special things relating to graphics, part of this lower power deal. Consensus among some people is that Apple will have the lower-end Macbook/Macbook Pros with graphics on motherboard. Higher-end systems will allow user-upgradable daughter for memory. Reason is that graphics is CPU/heat pig, and as they go to higher density chipsets, performance and heat requirements improve dramatically. We've all seen orders of magnitude increases in graphics over last few years, and by allowing customers to upgrade graphics themselves, lifespan of the macbook will be extended .. and Apple can make money on graphics upgrades. This part is a little fuzzy as Apple could still decide to bolt-on graphics and not make it upgradable, but people I talked to say that it makes sense to offer graphics upgrade path in light of improvements in power requirements alone.
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