Apple adopting Merom (Core 2 Duo) Processors?

Appleinsider reports that according to their sources, Apple is expected to quickly adopt Intel's newest line of processors - the mobile Core 2 Duo - which was announced last week.

According to a source familiar with the Mac maker's plans, the company is slated to receive mass shipments of the new Merom Core 2 Duo processors by the first week of September and plans to be amongst the first PC manufacturers to introduce systems based on the new chips.

Apple's current iMac, MacBook, MacBook Pro and Mac mini use the original Core Duo/Solo chips which were introduced earlier this year. Early unconfirmed rumors hinted that Apple was very interested in getting the Merom chips as early as possible. This rumor indicates that Apple will remain aggressive with their product line upgrades.

The first Core 2 Duo (Merom) benchmarks have already been making the rounds:

The chip has completed a first test run in our labs and was not only more responsive and faster than the fastest Core Duo ("Yonah") processor, but consumed less power as well.

Some unconfirmed rumors as well as analyst speculation has hinted at Apple providing a Core 2 Duo processor upgrade to at least one of the existing Intel Macs.