Either they were on the money and got a lovely notice by Apple to remove it. Or they were lazy and assumed they had the latest processors...
I'm guessing the latter. From my understanding, the parts of Intel that deal directly with Apple are *VERY* separated from the rest (and just as secretive as Apple.) The CPU guys don't directly work with OEMs, they work with OEM engineers, a few of which would work with Apple. So even the CPU designers don't know if they're product is going to be in an Apple until Apple releases it. (Obviously, in cases like the MacBook Air, they probably did.) (Many years ago, I was such an "OEM middle man" in the server division. I talked to the OEMs, then I talked to the engineers. Although even then, the "engineers" I talked to weren't the low-level hardware designers, even the ones I talked to were 'filters' for the actual hardware designers. So from OEM to actual hardware designer was at least two layers removed. Only in
extremely rare circumstances was an OEM allowed to deal directly with the designer.)
If they use intel's Chips then they definitely have to use Intel's HD graphics.
As was mentioned, if they go with Arrandale, then they have to
include the HD graphics, because it's a fully integrated part of Arrandale. But that doesn't mean they have to
use it.
Arrandale's integrated graphics support GPU switching, just as the previous-generation GM45 did. (Which Apple did not use, favoring the nVidia 9400M.) On Windows, it all depends on the notebook OEM writing good drivers. Some can do it 'on the fly' (you do have to do a video mode change, but that happens automatically when you, say, launch a game,) others make you log out/in just like Apple, or even reboot. Hopefully Apple could get it down to being only a mode change.
Do you really need a southbridge?
I mean as a descrete chip that is?
Can the i5 be booted without an intel southbridge on the DMI bus?
Thinking build a two package system as (CPU+NorthBridge+IGP) + (Descrete GPU + Southbridge).
So the trick here is that Arrandale (which will be marketed as i7, i5, and i3, depending on the configuration,) has four 'external' connections. One is the 16 lanes of PCIe, one are the memory channels, one is the "FDI" (Flexible Display Interface, the video signal carrier,) the final is the "DMI" connection to the PCH (Platform Controller Hub, aka "Southbridge" in old-fashioned speak.) The DMI connection and FDI are not open standards. nVidia (nor AMD) can't create a chip that uses either one. Now, if you are going to go solely with external graphics, and not use the internal at all, it
may be possible to just stick essentially a memory-controller-less 9400M on the PCIe connection, and force that chip to act as "Southbridge" over the PCIe connection. But then you have to share the sixteen lanes of PCIe that were meant solely for graphics with all your other peripherals like USB, SATA, and network.
You could probably get away with splitting the x16 in half, with x8 to graphics (it's still the same speed as PCIe 1.0 x16,) and x8 to the 'normal Southbridge' functions. For comparison, the previous generation of DMI (I don't know if anything has changed for Arrandale,) was the same basic speed as PCIe 1.0 x4. So if nVidia got really creative, they could just strip x2 off the x16 for 'normal Southbridge' functions (PCIe 2.0 x2 is the same speed as PCIe 1.0 x4,) and keep x14 for graphics. That wouldn't be too bad a hit.
But, I have no idea how Intel has it all configured. It would take some serious engineering, because the BIOS (or EFI) normally hangs off the Southbridge on Intel chipsets, which means the DMI connection to the processor on Arrandale. The CPU might *ONLY* look at DMI for its BIOS.
Finally, if you want to use the integrated graphics at all, you have to use the FDI connection. The idea of FDI is that the PCH can swap the display to either the CPU's internal GPU, or (via the PCIe in the CPU,) the external GPU. (At least, that's my understanding of it.)
(Extra disclaimer: I have
zero inside knowledge about the inner workings of Arrandale, other than what I have read at sites like Anandtech; and I have no idea whatsoever about the 'allowed'ness of what I speak as it relates to Intel licensing. Intel legal might shoot down a DMI-less, PCIe-only 9400M just as quickly as they're trying to shoot down nVidia using DMI.)
