MBP 2011 Quad-Core?

[MBX]

Yes? Bring it on please!

We're about to have dual-core iPhones soon, why can't a MBP have quad core?

 

[darknite38]

We are?

Why not?

 

[skiltrip]

Omg.

 

[yearofthe]

Screw that! I want a 13" 12-core with 32GB of RAM, 5TB of storage +512GB SSD!!!

 

[seek3r]

We are?

Probably more likely than the next gen MBP having quads actually, the next Apple ARM chip will almost certainly be based around a dual core Cortex A9, there's not much else in the road map for Apple to go to.

Why not?

Agreed here, as much as it pains me to say it I'm betting we have to wait for Ivy Bridge late this year for 35watt quads to get a quad MBP. If we get a quad earlier that'd be nice (and I'd buy!), but I doubt it.

 

[mrfoof82]

If anything higher-end MBP SKUs - possibly only i7s - will be quad core. Don't expect blazing clock speeds though to be able to fit in the thermal budget. If they ditched the optical drives they could also be more aggressive and creative with thermal solutions, while still using some of that space for a larger battery. It's unlikely, but possible, as Sandy Bridge has much improved thermal control logic.

As for quad-core being more normal for mobiles, that won't happen until at least Ivy Bridge, which is about a year away at this point. For Ivy Bridge, quad-core is the likely baseline with hexa-core and octo-core being the higher-end products, at least for desktops.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Bridge_(microarchitecture)#Ivy_Bridge

Just like later this year we may see a 6 or 8 core top-tier iMac that's still Sandy Bridge. Ivy Bridge is more likely since the power consumption will be improved with the move to 22nm fabrication, so it'd work within the thermal budget more easily.

 

[altecXP]

Er, the current generation MBPs already offer quad-cores. The top-tier 15-inch and 17-inch SKUs are quad core i7s with a double-channel memory setup (instead of triple, which would require three DIMMs).

The i7 Apple uses in the MacBooks is only dual core.

 

[joelobrien]

I don't think it is too unreasonable to expect a quad in the new MBP line, at least for the higher end products. The sandy bridge line is revolutionary in the power savings department and that is, in my opinion, the reason that apple sticks to dual. I don't think they will be worried about costs because they can always have the quads as a customizable option instead of being standard.