An edition of the Sandy Bridge processor line aimed at ultralight notebooks is expected to be launched by Intel soon, according to sources linked to the company's plans. It is preparing chips in the Core i5 and i7 categories capable of operating at just 17W of power, which is perfect for machines with limited thermal envelope.
Among these machines is the MacBook Air, which should be the main beneficiary of the novelty. Apple was forced to keep the Core 2 Duo chip in the product until its last major overhaul, held in October last year. However, with the presence of very powerful graphics hardware in the new Intel processors, it will be able to embrace higher performance CPUs to give your ultralight notebook a processing power compatible with your other portable computers.
The Core i7's ultralight option should run at 1.6GHz with up to four processing cores, reaching 2.7GHz in mode turbo boost. Although it consumes more power than the current Core 2 Duo used in the MacBook Air, Apple will not have to share that consumption with an additional graphics unit, so upgrading is possible.
(via Electronist)