Intel’s Extreme Processors Coming to Notebooks

by Anton Shilov
01/30/2007 | 11:57 PM

There is no news that some companies and individuals install mobile processors into desktops to make them quieter and keep power consumption low, while other are installing high-performance desktop chips into mobile computers in order to run demanding applications faster. Apparently, Intel wants to appeal both types of users with “Extreme” editions of its Core 2 chips for notebooks.

Along with the new mobile platform code-named Santa Rosa, Intel is projected to introduce Core 2 Extreme processors for notebooks (code-named Merom XE), which will deliver higher clock-speeds compared to their brethren among Core 2 Duo lineup. In the second or the third quarter of 2007 Intel will unveil the Core 2 Extreme X7800 chip with 2.60GHz clock-speed, 4MB cache and 800MHz processor system bus (PSB), while in the fourth quarter the chipmaker will release Core 2 Extreme X7900, a 2.80GHz version of the Merom XE processor, a news-story at HKEPC web-site claims.

The new microprocessors will deliver enhanced performance to notebooks or desktop-class performance to small form-factor personal computers (PCs) with power envelope inline with mobile microprocessors. However, users seeking for premium-speed mobile chip will have to pay the price: the Core 2 Extreme X7800 is projected to cost $795 in 1000-unit quantities.

In fact, the world’s largest producer of x86 central processing units (CPUs) is already shipping special Intel Core 2 Duo T7600G processors with unlocked multiplier and processor system bus speeds to personal computer makers planning who want to offer their customers some additional performance by pre-overclocking the microprocessors in their notebooks. One of machines – Area-51 m5790 Special Edition – is available from Alienware right now. Moreover, in the past computer makers, such as Dell, even installed Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition processors into their laptops.

Intel Corp.’s officials did not comment on the news-story.