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CNET reports that Intel is hard at work on reducing the power consumption of its Ivy Bridge chips, opening the door to use of the chips in mainstream tablets and reducing battery needs on small notebooks such as the MacBook Air.
Intel will cut power consumption "significantly" for future versions of the chip, an industry source familiar with the chipmaker's plans told CNET.
Intel's most power efficient Ivy Bridge chips today -- used widely in Windows ultrabooks and Apple's MacBook Air -- are rated at 17 watts.
A future version of Ivy Bridge would be rated well below this, the source said.
Intel has already previewed its next-generation Haswell chips that will push power consumption to as low as 10 watts initially, but it seems that Intel is moving to reduce power needs for its chips even before Haswell hits the market.
With future Ivy Bridge and Haswell chips becoming feasible for tablets with their reduced power consumption, there have been rumors that Apple could consider Intel chips for at least the iPad, although Apple seems dedicated to its own ARM-based chip designs for its mobile devices. But with Apple said to be looking to shift away from Samsung for production of its A-series chips, the company is said to be looking at TSMC and Intel as future chip foundry options.
In a research note issued last week, RBC analyst Doug Freedman claimed that Apple is already in talks with Intel on a deal that could see Intel producing A-series chips for the iPhone while Apple shifts to Intel's x86 platform for the iPad.
Top Rated Comments
(View all)First we see rumors of ARM on Mac. Now we're seeing rumors of x86 on iPad?
People are getting a little bit too crazy with their imaginations IMO. Without hard proof that Apple is working on this, I'd say its much more realistic that Apple is targeting these lower power chips for the MacBook Air line, which only further diminishes the chance that ARM has in competing in the Mac lineup.
Do you honestly think Intel couldn't whip up a processor as low powered and cool as an ARM processor? It's like saying Bugatti couldn't build a scooter, because they're only good at making big engines for cars.
The only reason they've never done it before is because they've never had to. ARM is a decent processor, great for what they're used for, and I applaud the fact they're finally kicking Intel around enough in the mobile sector that they've finally decided to start focusing on efficiency rather than yet more speed enhancements.
...but ARM chips aren't that much better. As has been pointed out here by people who know even more than me, an ARM chip running as quick as an Intel chip would consume just as much power. There's no real advantage between the two. Once ARM finds a way to eek as much power out of their chips with as low a power usage and heat dissipation as possible, and Intel works in reverse, finding ways to make their fast chips more energy efficient, there will be no real reason to prefer one over the other on a pure spec basis.
It's around that's when things will start getting really interesting.
An ipad5 with an IB CPU? Sounds good on paper, but do we really need that much power in an iPad? The 4 has proved to be just about the perfect balance of battery life and performance. Be interesting to see if Apple do produce an iPad with the new lower wattage IB on board though.
No, the only thing we need is 640 kb of ram ;)
I grew up on Stat Trek and assorted scifi, it's all unfolding right in front of me and I think thats simply wonderful!