Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Notebooks > MacBook Pros 3 years from now?

MacBook Pros 3 years from now?
Thread Tools
tmelcher
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Atlanta, GA
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Sep 19, 2007, 08:40 PM
 
A rather bizarre topic, I know, but when I heard about the unveiling of USB 3.0, which won't make it's way into consumer products until 2009 or 2010, I was thinking how far we would've come on other fronts by then? What sort of specs do you think we'll be seeing in MacBook Pros by then?

Core 4 Octos clocked at 4 GHz? 16 GB of DDR3 RAM? 1 GB vRAM on a GPU? OS X 10.6... ummm... Lion?

It's just interesting to speculate.
Mac Pro, 2x 2.66 GHz Dual-Core Xeon
MacBook Pro, 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo
16GB iPhone 3G
Airport Extreme + Airport Express dual access point setup
     
mduell
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Houston, TX
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Sep 19, 2007, 09:23 PM
 
2007 Tick: 45nm Penryn
Details now available all over, possible mobile quad in 2008.

2008 Tock: 45nm Nehalem (specifically Gilo)
New microarchitecture, up to 8 cores, up to 4 integrated DDR3 controllers, a few new SSE instructions, optional integrated graphics off die but on package, and the QuickPath interconnect replacing the front side bus.

2009 Tick: 32nm Westmere
Straight shrink of Nehalem, formerly known as Nehalem-C.

2010 Tock: 32nm Sandy Bridge
Sandy Bridge is planned to run at 4 GHz and feature up to 8 cores. Sandy Bridge will also feature 32KB L1 cache/core, 512KB L2 cache/core, and 2-3MB L3 cache (most likely shared, but it may be per core). Sandy Bridge will have 64GB/s memory bandwidth and a 17GB/s QuickPath link.

(See the Wikipedia for more info on any of these.)

I think it's safe to assume solid state hard drives (1TB in 2010?), 8GB RAM in 2009/maybe 16GB in 2010, 1-1.5GB VRAM, 6Gb/s eSATA, yada yada.

Oh, and maybe a 15" HD screen; you know, the ones Dell and Sony have had since 2003.
( Last edited by mduell; Sep 19, 2007 at 09:37 PM. )
     
JoshuaZ
Professional Poster
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Yamanashi, Japan
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Sep 20, 2007, 03:04 AM
 
Wow mduell, looks like you answered all of that!

I would hope Apple would have USB 3 on its Macs as soon as it comes out this next year. Probably will kill off Firewire.

One would hope for a new enclosure. One would hope.
     
Simon
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: in front of my Mac
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Sep 20, 2007, 03:11 AM
 
Intel has already laid it out.

     
Lancer409
Professional Poster
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Semi Posting Retirement *ReJoice!*
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Sep 24, 2007, 04:40 AM
 
[QUOTE=mduell;3487720]

2008 Tock: 45nm Nehalem (specifically Gilo)
New microarchitecture, up to 8 cores, up to 4 integrated DDR3 controllers, a few new SSE instructions, optional integrated graphics off die but on package, and the QuickPath interconnect replacing the front side bus.

2010 Tock: 32nm Sandy Bridge
Sandy Bridge is planned to run at 4 GHz and feature up to 8 cores. Sandy Bridge will also feature 32KB L1 cache/core, 512KB L2 cache/core, and 2-3MB L3 cache (most likely shared, but it may be per core). Sandy Bridge will have 64GB/s memory bandwidth and a 17GB/s QuickPath link.


How does the quickpath link work? how do you compare mhz (800MHz front side bus) to gb/s? (17GB/s QuickPath link)

It sounds like an insane jump, but they're different units...

No trees were killed in the sending of this message. However, a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.
     
Simon
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: in front of my Mac
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Sep 24, 2007, 05:48 AM
 
Originally Posted by Lancer409 View Post
How does the quickpath link work? how do you compare mhz (800MHz front side bus) to gb/s? (17GB/s QuickPath link)
It sounds like an insane jump, but they're different units...
The current Crestline FSB (or more accurately: Crestline's Processor Interface Bus) actually does 800 MT/s (that's mega-transfers per second).

QuickPath is getting 4.8-6.4 GT/s per direction. The targeted total bandwidth is 24-32 GB/s per link. So it is indeed quite a jump.
     
SEkker
Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: May 2003
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Sep 24, 2007, 02:21 PM
 
The 32nm fab process is still young. If Intel runs into a problem like the entire industry did a few years ago, we could be in a holding pattern with only incremental updates.

Intel currently has a technical advantage over AMD and IBM in chip fabrication. They are doing their best to reclaim some of the market they lost when they voted to go down the MHz path.

Simon - just noticed your path of macs. Do you actually spend time with your MBPs before you order the next?
     
Simon
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: in front of my Mac
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Sep 24, 2007, 03:27 PM
 
Originally Posted by SEkker View Post
Simon - just noticed your path of macs. Do you actually spend time with your MBPs before you order the next?
Hehe.

I spend 16h a day in front of computers, so my Macs get plenty of attention.
     
tiger
Forum Regular
Join Date: Jun 2007
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Sep 25, 2007, 01:29 AM
 
Originally Posted by Simon View Post
Hehe.

I spend 16h a day in front of computers, so my Macs get plenty of attention.
Wow, I would love your Job.
     
   
Thread Tools
 
Forum Links
Forum Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Top
Privacy Policy
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 12:54 PM.
All contents of these forums © 1995-2017 MacNN. All rights reserved.
Branding + Design: www.gesamtbild.com
vBulletin v.3.8.8 © 2000-2017, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.,