January 2008 MacBook Pros with Penryn Processors?

[Welly]

i hate that i just got my macbookpro a month ago
WHY APPLE WHY!

It's called progress. If you want to invest in a computer company that doesn't innovate/progress and build newer, faster computers, you should probably get yourself a Sinclair.

What's wrong with your 2.4 MBP that wasn't before this rumour came about? I'm not planning on upgrading my MBP (a 2.4 model) for at least another three years.

 

[al3000]

I was thinking of replacing my Powerbook G4 (final rev.) around now, but now I am going to wait until January. When I got my PB, apple released the MBPs just a few months after so I am hoping not to get caught out again!

 

[Dreamer2go]

It's called progress. If you want to invest in a computer company that doesn't innovate/progress and build newer, faster computers, you should probably get yourself a Sinclair.

What's wrong with your 2.4 MBP that wasn't before this rumour came about? I'm not planning on upgrading my MBP (a 2.4 model) for at least another three years.

Agreed to that.

you can never wait on technology.
When Santa Rosa MBP came about, I was like "that's it, I'm getting this one"
And I jumped to the boat.

Remember, when a new release comes out, the predecessor before that new release will NOT become "obsolete" immediately.

Next June, there's going to probably be ANOTHER update...whatcha going to do then? throw away your Jan refresh MBP? lol
unwise.

 

[aswitcher]

I would kill for a 14'' MB Pro with 1440x900 resolution....

Yeah, that would be mighty nice. Even a 12-13" screen would work well for me.

 

[BWhaler]

at this point, the only thing I care about for the short to mid term is high quality displays.

I don't need a faster Mac. I need a high quality display--not these cost cutting, uneven backlit pieces of sh-- Apple puts in their portable pro line nowadays.

 

[reflex]

I would kill for a 14'' MB Pro with 1440x900 resolution....

Why 14" when it's so close in size to a 15"?

 

[rtjstevens]

Macbooks -update?

What effect, if any, will this announcement have on MacBook updates (i.e. not the Pro version)?

BW RTJ

 

[cervaro]

Makes we want to hang on beyond October now as I did before buying my iMac 24" that came out a couple months after I'd originally decided to buy. For the sake of another 4 months, I'm prepared to wait. Probably kick myself if nothing comes of the rumours, and I'll have to slum it with a C2D media PC in the meantime, but just as the iMac was worth waiting for, I'm sure any new MacBook Pro's will be too. Give Apple more time to 'field test' Leopard for bugs too!

Hoping they stick in a mobile version of the Radeon 2600 for the UVC hardware, and maybe give the option of Bluray/HD-DVD by then too.

 

[dronkert]

i hate that i just got my macbookpro a month ago
WHY APPLE WHY!

So you get 5 months use out of it before the new ones hit the market. Would you have survived 5 months without a laptop?!

 

[aswitcher]

What effect, if any, will this announcement have on MacBook updates (i.e. not the Pro version)?

BW RTJ

I really hope they finally put a graphics card in the MB next rev.

And I wonder with the iPods moving away from black and white, and go iPod like colours.

 

[MattyCurry]

All I want is a 11 or 12inch Macbook, something weighing a kilo and a bit. I can stick it in my bag and carry it around all day. I've waited so long...endless anouncements about bleedin phones and set top boxes and endless nonsense when the one product I actually want to buy is left to be rumours. Argh.

do you remember this?
http://www.switched.com/2007/05/25/intel-s-razr-thin-concept-laptop/

at the moment, unless this rumour comes to fruition, I'l lbe forced to buy this:
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF25a/321957-321957-64295-321838-306995-3355644.html

as it does most of what I want, plus it'll run OneNote - otherwise known as the best application in the world, which I hope like mad is part of MacOffice 2008

Shame it's so ugly, really.

 

[matthemercyless]

RAM Speeds?

Does anyone know if an updated MBP would include updated RAM? The current model runs an 800Mhz bus, but only 667Mhz RAM. Would a new model include support for faster RAM?

 

[gnasher729]

Is there some curse on 3Ghz or something? Wasn't the P4 at 4Ghz 4 years ago. CPUs seem to have smaller and smaller adavances. Take away tacking on more cores, and they have only gained about 20% a year the past few years. Sounds like this will be maybe 50% faster than the first MacBook Pro 2 years ago at best.

I completely disagree.

The Pentium 4 was designed to run at the highest possible clockspeed. It wasn't actually designed to run _fast_, the goal was clockspeed because that is what sold CPUs. This is like the revs of a car; you can have some little engine running at 6000 revs mostly producing noise; or you can have a diesel engine doing the same speed at 2500 revs. If you download the manuals from Intel, you will see ridiculous times like a simple shift instruction taking four cycles (PowerPC: One cycle), an integer multiplication taking 15 cycles (PowerPC: Four cycles). This has been fixed starting with Pentium M, and each generation after that (Core Duo, Core 2 Duo) has improved on that. A single core of a 2 GHz Core Duo chip (not Core 2 Duo) is equivalent to about 3.5 GHz on a Pentium 4.

And your argument "taking away the multiple cores, there is not much improvement" is just plain wrong. Intel wouldn't have any problem creating a single core CPU running at higher speed. What you are missing is that power consumption grows with the square of clock speed, and the limit for computers nowadays is power consumption. With twice the power, you can either have a single core running 41% faster (doing 141% of the work), or two cores running at original speed (doing 200% of the work), or even four cores running at 70% of original speed (doing 280% of the work). At the same power, a four core system is twice as fast as a single core system. So the relatively low speed of each core is deliberately; you get much more work done with the same power that way.

To help your imagination a little bit, a CPU using 100 Watt uses about the same power as a very strong light bulb, and it produces the same heat. You really don't want that in a computer, especially not in a laptop.

 

[twoodcc]

good news. Now maybe we'll see that 12" mbp

 

[offwidafairies]

gee i was hoping for an update to mbp much sooner than january'
does anyone expect a small update around leopard release?
i hope so
i just dropped my powerbook the other day and im in need of a replacement, sadly... but i dont want to buy now at mid-product cycle

 

[reflex]

i hate that i just got my macbookpro a month ago
WHY APPLE WHY!

You will have had that MBP for five months if an update is announced in January. Should be long enough not to worry about it, shouldn't it?

 

[lukechip]

Surely these will drop into the iMac too

I think it is likely that as soon as the mobile Penryns become available, Apple will begin shipping both MacBook Pros and iMacs with them.

The Penryn desktop CPUs are expected before the Penryn mobiles, and so Apple will be marketing Merom based iMacs against Dells etc which are will have desktop Penryns.

So if the mobile Penryns are really going to be shipping in Jan 08, then I think we can expect an iMac and MacBook Pro upgrade announced at MWSF 08.

However, I'm a little dubious about the January date for the mobiles. The Penryn Xeons don't ship until mid November 07, followed by the desktops and then the mobiles. It was only a week or two ago that the mobile Penryns were tipped to be released around April 08.

I've waited long enough. My C2E iMac will be ordered the day that Leopard is bundled with them. I'll then wait until either the MacBook or MacBook Pro are on Penryn and get a laptop.

 

[smukkebenne]

Why 14" when it's so close in size to a 15"?

Well the 15'' is really 15.4, so difference is 1.4'' on the diagonal size of the laptop which is a pretty big difference to me. I think that 1440x900 fits a 14'' very well. The 15.4'' could then be bumped to 1680x1050. Just my opinion

 

[dialooc]

What about the Macbooks? Is there any rumors about an update this january? when they updated them last may, it was only a speed update.

 

[WannaGoMac]

I love the design of Apple products...but lately I haven't liked the updates. I don't like the new iMacs, or the new iPod Nanos or Classics. I'm fully in love with the MBP design. If they drastically change it...I don't see me liking it too much. Besides, as far as the insides...its like any other computer now, it will be updated continuously.

So basically, you're saying you don't like change lol

 

[niclet]

800mhz bus.

I'll pass.

Unless they make a subnotebook which would be a nice compliment for my Mac Pro.

Once the Mac Book Pros get a 1200hmz bus then I'll consider them a desktop replacement for me personally.

I heard that there was hope with some fiber-optic system bus technology; high speed data transfer to all components connected to the system bus, done with light. Does someone know more about this?

 

[Moz4]

Ah bugger! I was about to order a MBP in October as soon as Leopard came out. Will it be worth waiting or shall I just go and get one in October? Decisions, decisions!

 

[viperguy]

It would be so nice to see price drops and brand new enclosures as well.

 

[sjo]

The thing that I don't get is why Intel releases the processors.... and then much later the new architecture. Or in other words, releases Penyrn and then releases Nehelam or whatever it was they are releasing early next year. I wish they'd just release both at the same time.

No you don't. Both are hugely complex undertakings and releasing them alteratively allows Intel to concentrate on getting much smaller subset of variables right before moving to next step. This in turn results in much less problems for the end users. But of course absence of problems is never news...

 

[ksz]

Is there some curse on 3Ghz or something? Wasn't the P4 at 4Ghz 4 years ago. CPUs seem to have smaller and smaller adavances. Take away tacking on more cores, and they have only gained about 20% a year the past few years. Sounds like this will be maybe 50% faster than the first MacBook Pro 2 years ago at best.

When IBM announced their 45nm development in May of 2005 (more than 2 years ago) we had the following discussion (start at post 32):

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/128849/

While the discussion is long and complicated, it's relevant to your observation about the lower rate at which clock speeds are rising today. From post 105 with emphasis added:

Because the CMOS power curve is peaking now at 13-14 W/cm2, power is the brick wall, but this brick wall can be torn down with more advanced materials and gate topologies. It does not mean that a wholescale paradigm shift is necessary. Some estimates I've seen suggest that *conventional* process technologies and trends can last for another 15-20 years before a real barrier is struck. I think we will see a gradual shift to whole new technologies much before 20 years expire.

Nevertheless, clock speeds are now rising at HALF the historical rate due to power issues and the relatively long time it takes to develop new materials and process technologies to deal with the sources of that heat.