Intel's Silverthorne (Ultra-Mobile Processor) Previewed

At this year's International Solid State Circuits Conference, Intel is giving additional details regarding its upcoming Silverthorne ultra-mobile processor (via News.com and AppleInsider).

According to the reports, Silverthorne will include dual in-order pipelines in order to keep power consumption at a minimal .5-2 Watts. Most modern chips use out of order pipelines for performance benefits, but at the cost of power. Nevertheless, AppleInsider says that the chip is expected to be as powerful as early Pentium M processors. Additionally, the processor will support hyperthreading and be fully compatible with the Core 2 Duo which powers current Macs.

Apple has been rumored to be adopting Silverthorne for their next generation iPhone or PDA platforms. Silverthorne is expected to ship in the first half of 2008.

Related Forum: iPhone