News 

Anandtech reports that although the chip is ostensibly a 65nm Core 2 Duo based on Intel's Merom technology - the same tech that Apple uses in its other MacBooks - it "comes in a package that was originally reserved for mobile Penryn due out in the second half of 2008 with the Montevina SFF Centrino platform."

Drawing on evidence from the Intel Developers' Forum (IDF), it notes that the Montevina's overall footprint reduction of 58% comes through reducing both CPU and

ADVERTISEMENT

chipset size. It makes sense, therefore, that the same approach was taken to reduce the Air's chip by 60% (pictured to the right of a standard Core 2 Duo).

Intel would say only that the chip uses a "new miniaturised package technology".

Anandtech suggests that in order to meet Apple's timescale, Intel had to make some concessions in the chip design, primarily supplying a voltage to the processor, one side effect of which may be that the Air will get very hot. It suggests that alone may be a selling point for the SSD (flash drive) version.

"We won't know for sure how hot the Air will get until it's in our hands but the SSD route seems like an even better bet now that we know a little more about what we're dealing with. Cutting down heat in that thin chassis will be very important, and moving to solid state storage is the only real option you have there," Anandtech concludes.