Cupertino, California-based Apple will be hosting a big event tomorrow, where it is expected to launch a new lineup of MacBook and MacBook Pro portable systems. As we reported here on Sofpedia, the event should center on a new ultraportatble MacBook that could be priced well within the $800 range and that, according to recent information, could be based on an NVIDIA mobile platform, thus bringing a wind of change to Apple's portable computer systems by having them no longer featuring Intel's chipsets.

 

The latest report comes from a recent post on AppleInsider, which indicates that the Cupertino, California-based company will release a new 13-inch portable system that will adopt NVIDIA's MCP79 platform, instead of Intel's stock designs. We are talking about the same chipset that the Santa Clara, California-based NVIDIA has kept under wraps for most of the year and that is said to be a competitor to Intel's recently released Centrino 2 platform, codenamed “Montevina.”

 

The NVIDIA chipset will provide Apple's MacBook with support for the same 1066MHz FSB, optional DDR3 memory and PCI Express 2.0 interfaces, as with Intel's next-generation mobile platform. In addition, the new NVIDIA chipset will come with a new set of GeForce 9300 and 9400 series integrated graphics, which should be a much more powerful solution not only than Intel's X3100 graphics, currently supported on Apple's MacBooks, but also than the GMA 4500MHD found on the new Centrino 2-enabled notebooks.

 

Moreover, the new MCP79 chipset should also deliver support for NVIDIA's proprietary features, including DriveCache and Hybrid SLI. While DriveCache is meant to speed up loading times by using flash storage, the latter feature will basically provide MacBook users with a way to improve graphics by switching to a discrete graphics solution, while the on-board solution will help them save battery life.

 

One of the other significant features that will become available with the new NVIDIA-enabled MacBooks is support for Blu-ray.