Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Apple's MacBook Air adopts Intel i5 hyperdrive

Right into a .68-inch high enclosure, Apple has dropped a contemporary high-performance engine where a classic poky one was previously. That new powerplant could be Intel's latest energy-efficient Core i5 processors, obviously.

In which a Core 2 Duo--introduced way in 2006--was, the brand new MBAs house spanking new Sandy Bridge chips. Intel's latest design is two decades taken off the Core 2 Duo. Which means you receive nice design extra supplies like processors that overclock instantly when programs demand bursts of speed. Apple refers to this as turbo frequency.

So what's underneath the hood particularly? The i5-2467M (11.6-inch model) and i5-2557M (13.3-inch) processors, running at 1.6GHz (with turbo accelerates to two.3 GHz) and 1.7GHz (can turbo as much as 2.7 GHz) correspondingly.

There's also a choice to have an 1.8GHz Core i7 (add $100), which by all looks is definitely an i7-2677M that turbos to two.9GHz. The i7 includes a slightly bigger cache, 4MB versus 3MB for that i5s. A bigger cache typically means better performance.

Which processors deliver on performance--in tandem with fast solid-condition drives. CNET Reviews' Serta Ackerman has run some initial tests (below) which are indeed impressive. (Also see CNET Reviews' product pages here and here.) The Multimedia Multitasking and Adobe Illustrator CS3 show impressive gains for both 2011 Master of business administration models. And Apple iTunes encoding results reveal that we are speaking about greater than a small performance uptick.

The i5s and i7 utilized in the ultra-skinny Air aren't gas-guzzlers. They are Intel's most energy-efficient i series chips--what Apple used to consult as ULV or ultra-low-current. Each one is ranked in a awesome 17 w, rather the 25 or 35 w for mainstream Apple laptop processors.

Intel's HD Graphics 3000 can also be included in the nick. Nvidia's graphics chipset isn't any more. But there's no performance hit to talk of. And, besides, within the Master of business administration enclosure's cramped quarters, the Apple-only layout apparently makes room for Thunderbolt-related circuitry, based on iFixit's teardown.

As well as for individuals prepared to crack open an aura, the solid-condition drive (varying as much as 256GB) isn't soldered about the logic board, iFixit stated. Therefore it is user upgradable. Nevertheless, you are at a complete loss if you want extra RAM.

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