CF Apple Computer

And thus I find myself starting another Apple notebook review with a conversation about expectations. For the past couple of years Intel has been on this tick-tock model of CPU releases. Every tock , which happens once a year, Intel introduces a brand new CPU architecture, in this case that d be the 65nm Conroe/Merom based Core 2 Duo CPUs. The “ticks” happen the following year, where performance enhancements are minor but the transistor feature size goes down.

Penryn is a tick , it s a 45nm derivative of the Conroe/Merom architecture. The new MacBook and MacBook Pro can be looked at as tick notebooks, as they are both based on Intel s 45nm Penryn core. The CPU product name is still Core 2 Duo, but the core itself is smaller and runs cooler. Because Penryn is built on a smaller manufacturing process (45nm vs. 65nm), Intel can cram in more transistors into the same space.

Penryn is thus left with some architectural enhancements, although most of them fairly minor when it comes to real world performance (the full list can be found here ). Penryn does add support for SSE4 instructions, however as we ve seen on the PC side it s going to take a while for developers to start using the new instructions and thus it can t be counted as much of a performance-boosting feature today.

The two chips in the center are 65nm Merom (left) and 45nm Penryn (right) - note how much smaller the Penryn die is. Penryn power consumption does go down considerably compared to its 65nm predecessor thanks to the 45nm manufacturing process. However the CPU is only a percentage of a notebook s power budget, so it s tough to say what improvement this will have on battery life (although you can guarantee that it will be positive).