14 DAY TRIAL // Intel has just confirmed that the company will start shipping its mobile quad-core processors later this year, as previously reported here at Softpedia. According to company officials, the upcoming quad-core powerhorses will be based on the Intel Core 2 Duo micro-architecture and will hit the market during the third quarter in small amounts.
The first chip to be introduced is the Core 2 Extreme QX9300 model, that will be built on the 45-nanometer process. Intel refused to detail any further but rumor has it that the quad-core processor will be released into the wild after the second quarter Montevina launch.
The platform is an upgrade to the already released Centrino technology for mobile computers, and will come with Wi-Fi, WiMax networking included into the same silicon. It is for sure that the Montevina platform will include Core 2-based processors, and it is likely that quad-core mobile chips will also join it.
According to Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst with Insight 64, the first mobile quad-core offerings will be desktop replacement chips, that will be included into large gaming mobile systems, such as HP's "transportable" Pavilion HDX 20-incher.
Brookwood also claims that the quad-core mobile chips are highly unlikely to "reach smaller notebooks like the MacBook Air anytime soon." Quad-core laptops would rather be used in conjunction with a separate graphics card in order to achieve a powerful desktop alternative, but will be less portable than an average notebook system.
The quad-core powerhorses will be able to deliver pure performance, but at the moment, the high-performance mobile computing market is limited to extremely few applications. More than that, the quad-core CPUs will place additional load on the battery, even when not running at full capacity, which should reflect in substantially less autonomy.
Intel spokespersons also claimed some time ago that they might delay the introduction of quad-core processors until the batteries are ready to support additional workload.