History of Apple computers and PDAs

This page was inspired by this Wikipedia page and still draws from it heavily. I have added some non-Macintosh computers, made many of the dates more accurate, added details for recent models and an extensive section at the end that attempts to predict future developments.

Year	Available	Model	Family	Announced2	Discontinued	Details
1976	Apr	Apple 1	Motherboard	1976 April	1977
1977	Jun 5	Apple ][	Desktop	1977 Apr 16	1980
1979		Apple ][+4	Desktop	1979	1983
1980	Jun	Apple ///	Desktop	1980 May	1985
1983	Jan	Lisa	All-In-One1	1983 Jan	1985 Jan 1
		Apple //e	Desktop	1983 Jan	1984 Jan
1984	Jan 24	Lisa 2	All-In-One1	1984 Jan 24	1985 Mar
	Apr?	Macintosh 128K4	Compact AiO1	1984 Jan 24	1985 Jan 10
	Apr	Apple //c	Portable	1984 Apr
	Sep?	Macintosh 512K	Compact AiO1	1984 Sep 10	1986 Apr 14
1985	Jan	Macintosh XL	Compact AiO1	1985 Jan 1	1986 Aug 1
	Mar	Apple //e enhanced	Desktop	1985 Mar	1993
1986	Jan	Macintosh Plus	Compact AiO1	1986 Jan 16	1990 Oct 15
	Apr	Macintosh 512Ke4	Compact AiO1	1986 Apr 14	1987 Oct 1
	Sep	Apple IIGS	Desktop	1986 Jan 16	1992 Dec
1987	Mar	Macintosh SE	Compact AiO1	1987 Feb 3	1989 Aug 1
	Mar	Macintosh II	Desktop	1987 Mar 2	1990 Jan 15
1988	Sep	Macintosh IIx	Desktop	1988 Sep 19	1990 Oct 15
	?	Apple //c plus	Portable	1988 Sep	1990 Nov
1989	Jan 19	Macintosh SE/30	Compact AiO1	1989 Jan 19	1991 Oct 21
	Mar 7	Macintosh IIcx	Desktop	1989 Mar 7	1991 Mar 11
	Aug 1	Macintosh SE FDHD	Compact AiO1	1989 Aug 1	1990 Oct 15
	Sep 20	Macintosh IIci	Desktop	1989 Sep 20	1993 Feb 20
		Macintosh Portable	Portable	1989 Sep 20	1991 Feb 11
1990	Mar 19	Macintosh IIfx	Desktop	1990 Mar 19	1992 Apr 15
	Oct 15	Macintosh LC	Desktop	1990 Oct 15	1992 Mar 23
		Macintosh Classic	Compact AiO1	1990 Oct 15	1992 Sep 14
		Macintosh IIsi4	Desktop	1990 Oct 15	1993 Mar 15
1991	Feb 11	Macintosh Portable (backlit screen)	Portable	1991 Feb 11	1991 Oct 21
	Oct 21	Macintosh Classic II	Compact AiO1	1991 Oct 21	1993 Sep 13
		Quadra 700	Desktop	1991 Oct 21	1993 Mar 15
		Quadra 900	Desktop	1991 Oct 21	1992 May 18
		PowerBook 100	Consumer Portable	1991 Oct 21	1992 Aug 3
		PowerBook 1404	Pro Portable	1991 Oct 21	1992 Aug 3
		PowerBook 170	Pro Portable	1991 Oct 21	1992 Oct 19
1992	Mar 23	Macintosh LC II	Desktop	1992 Mar 23	1993 Mar 15
	May 18	Quadra 950	Desktop	1992 May 18	1995 Oct 14
	Aug 3	PowerBook 145	Portable	1992 Aug 3	1993 Jul 7
	Oct 19	Macintosh IIvi	Desktop	1992 Oct 19	1993 Feb 10
		Macintosh IIvx	Desktop	1992 Oct 19	1993 Oct 10
		PowerBook 160	Portable	1992 Oct 19	1993 Aug 16
		PowerBook 180	Portable	1992 Oct 19	1994 May 16
		PowerBook Duo 210	Portable	1992 Oct 19	1993 Oct 21
		PowerBook Duo 230	Portable	1992 Oct 19	1994 Jul 27
1993	Feb 10	Macintosh LC III / III+	Desktop	1993 Feb 10	1994 Feb 14
		Macintosh Color Classic	Compact AiO1	1993 Feb 10	1994 May 16
		Centris 610	Desktop	1993 Feb 10	1993 Oct 21
		Centris 650	Desktop	1993 Feb 10	1993 Oct 21
		Quadra 800	Desktop	1993 Feb 10	1994 Mar 14
		PowerBook 165c	Portable	1993 Feb 10	1993 Dec 13
	Mar 22	Workgroup Server 80	Server	1993 Mar 22	1995 Oct 17
		Workgroup Server 95	Server	1993 Mar 22	1995 Apr 3
	Jun 7	PowerBook 145b	Portable	1993 Jun 7	1994 Jul 18
		PowerBook 180c	Portable	1993 Jun 7	1994 Mar 14
	Jun 28	Macintosh LC 520	Desktop	1993 Jun 28	1994 Feb 2
	Jul 26	Workgroup Server 60	Server	1993 Jul 26	1995 Oct 17
	Jul 29	Centris / Quadra 660AV4	Desktop	1993 Jul 29	1994 Sep 12
		Quadra 840AV	Desktop	1993 Jul 29	1994 Jul 18
	Aug 16	PowerBook 165	Portable	1993 Aug 16	1994 Jul 18
	Oct 10	Macintosh Color Classic II	Compact AiO1	1993 Oct 10	1995 Nov 1
	Oct 21	Macintosh TV	Desktop	1993 Oct 21	1995 Feb 1
		Quadra 605	Desktop	1993 Oct 21	1994 Oct 17
		Quadra 610	Desktop	1993 Oct 21	1994 Jul 18
		Quadra 650	Desktop	1993 Oct 21	1994 Sep 12
		PowerBook Duo 250	Portable	1993 Oct 21	1994 May 16
		PowerBook Duo 270c	Portable	1993 Oct 21	1994 May 16
1994	Feb 2	Macintosh LC 550	Desktop	1994 Feb 2	1995 Mar 23
		Macintosh LC 575	Desktop	1994 Feb 2	1995 Apr 3
	Mar 14	Power Macintosh 61004	Desktop	1994 Mar 14	1996 May 18
		Power Macintosh 7100	Desktop	1994 Mar 14	1996 Jan 6
		Power Macintosh 8100	Desktop	1994 Mar 14	1996 Aug 14
	Apr 26	Workgroup Server 6150	Server	1994 Apr 26	1995 Oct 1
		Workgroup Server 8150	Server	1994 Apr 26	1996 Feb 26
		Workgroup Server 9150	Server	1994 Apr 26	1996 Feb 26
	May 16	PowerBook 520/c	Portable	1994 May 16	1995 Sep 16
		PowerBook 540/c	Portable	1994 May 16	1995 Aug 16
		PowerBook 550	Portable	1994 May 16	1996 Apr 1
		PowerBook Duo 280/c	Portable	1994 May 16	1994 Nov 14
	Jul 18	Quadra 630	Desktop	1994 Jul 18	1995 Apr 17
		PowerBook 150	Portable	1994 Jul 18	1995 Oct 14
1995	Jan 28	Power Macintosh 6200 / 6300	Desktop	1995 Jan 28	1996 Oct 17
	Apr 3	Macintosh LC 580	Desktop	1995 Apr 3	1995 Oct 1
		Performa 5200	Desktop	1995 Apr 3	1996 Oct 1
	Jun 19	Power Macintosh 9500	Desktop	1995 Jun 19	1997 Feb 17
	Aug 7	Power Macintosh 7200	Desktop	1995 Aug 7	1996 Apr 1
		Power Macintosh 7500	Desktop	1995 Aug 7	1997 Feb 17
		Power Macintosh 8500	Desktop	1995 Aug 7	1997 Feb 17
	Aug 28	PowerBook 190	Pro Portable	1995 Aug 28	1996 Sep 1
		PowerBook 5300	Portable	1995 Aug 28	1996 Sep 1
		PowerBook Duo 2300c	Portable	1995 Aug 28	1997 Feb 1
1996	Feb 15	Apple Network Server 500	Server	1996 Feb 15	1997 Apr 1
		Apple Network Server 700/150	Server	1996 Feb 15	1997 Apr 1
	Feb 26	Workgroup Server 7250	Server	1996 Feb 26	1997 Apr 21
		Workgroup Server 8550	Server	1996 Feb 26	1997 Apr 21
	Mar 10	Performa 5260 / 5300	Desktop	1996 Mar 10	1997 Apr 1
	Apr 1	Performa 5400	Desktop	1996 Apr 1	1997 Feb 17
		Power Macintosh 7600	Desktop	1996 Apr 1	1997 Oct 1
	Oct 16	Apple Network Server 700/200	Network Server	1996 Oct 16	1997 Apr 1
	Oct 17	Performa 6360	Desktop	1996 Oct 17	1997 Oct 1
	Oct 23	Performa 6400	Desktop	1996 Oct 23	1997 May 1
	Nov 15	Power Macintosh 4400	Desktop	1996 Nov 15	1997 Oct 11
	Nov 20	PowerBook 1400	Portable	1996 Nov 20	1998 May 6
1997	Feb 17	Power Macintosh 5500	Desktop	1997 Feb 17	1998 Mar 31
		Power Macintosh 6500	Desktop	1997 Feb 17	1998 Mar 14
		Power Macintosh 7300	Desktop	1997 Feb 17	1997 Nov 10
		Power Macintosh 8600	Desktop	1997 Feb 17	1998 Feb 17
		Power Macintosh 9600	Desktop	1997 Feb 17	1998 Mar 17
		PowerBook 3400	Portable	1997 Feb 17	1998 Mar 14
	Mar 19	Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh	All-in-One1	1997 Mar 19	1998 Mar 14
	Mar 24	Newton Messagepad 2000	PDA3	1997 Mar 24	?
	Apr?	eMate 300	PDA3	1997 Jan 7
	Apr 21	Workgroup Server 7350	Server	1997 Apr 21	1998 Mar 2
		Workgroup Server 9650	Server	1997 Apr 21	1998 Mar 2
	May 8	PowerBook 2400c	Portable	1997 May 8	1998 Mar 14
	Nov 10	Power Macintosh G3 desktop	Pro Desktop	1997 Nov 10	1999 Jan 5
		Power Macintosh G3 minitower	Pro Desktop	1997 Nov 10	1999 Jan 5
		PowerBook G3	Pro Portable	1997 Nov 10	1998 Mar 14
1998	Jan 31	Power Macintosh G3 AIO	All-in-One1	1998 Jan 31	1998 Oct 17
	Mar 2	Macintosh Server G3	Server	1998 Mar 2	1999 Jan 1
	May 6	PowerBook G3 series	Pro Portable	1998 May 6	1999 May 10
	Aug 15	iMac	Consumer Desktop	1998 Aug 15	1999 May 10
1999	Jan 5	Power Mac G3 (Blue & White)4	Pro Desktop		1999 Oct 13	details
	May 10	PowerBook G3 ("Lombard")	Pro Portable		2000 Feb 16
	Aug 31	Power Mac G3 (450 MHz)	Pro Desktop		2000 Xxx xx	details
	Jul 21	iBook	Consumer Port.		2000 Sep 13
	Oct 5	iMac (slot loading)	Consumer Desktop		2002 Jan 7
	Oct 13	Power Mac G4 Graphite	Pro Desktop		2001 Jul 18
2000	Feb 16	PowerBook ("Pismo")	Pro Portable		2001 Jan 9
		Power Mac G4 500	Pro Desktop			details
	Jul 19	Power Macintosh G4 Cube	Compact Desktop		2001 Jul 3
	Sep 13	iBook (FireWire)	Consumer Port.		2001 May 1
2001	Jan 9	Power Mac G4 (Digital Audio)	Pro Desktop		2001 Jul 18	details
	Jan 31	PowerBook G4 Titanium	Pro Portable	2001 Jan 9	2003 Sep 16
	Feb 28	Power Mac G4 (667 and 733)	Pro Desktop	2001 Jan 9	2001 Jul 18	details
	May 1	iBook (white)	Consumer Port.		2003 Oct
	Jul 18	Power Mac G4 Quicksilver	Pro Desktop		2002 Jan 28	details
2002	Jan 7	iMac G4 15"4	Consumer Desktop		2004 Aug 31	details
	Jan 28	Power Mac G4 Quicksilver	Pro Desktop		2002 Aug 13	details
		iBook (14")	Consumer Port.		2003 Oct 22
	Apr 29	eMac	Consumer Desktop		sometime after 2006 Jul 3
	May 14	Xserve	Rackmount Server		2003 Feb 10
	Jul 17	iMac G4 17"	Consumer Desktop	2002 Jul 17	2004 Aug 31
	Aug 13	Power Macintosh G4 MDD	Pro Desktop		2003 Jan 28	details
2003	Jan 7	PowerBook G4 Aluminum (12")	Pro Portable		2006 May 16
		PowerBook G4 Aluminum (17")	Pro Portable		2006 Apr 24
	Jan 28	Power Macintosh G4 (FW 800)	Pro Desktop		2003 Jun 23	details
	Feb 10	Xserve slot loading	Rackmount Server		2004 Jan 6
		Xserve Cluster Node	Rackmount Server		2004 Jan 6
	Jun 23	Power Mac G5	Pro Desktop		2004 Jun 9	details
	Sep 16	PowerBook G4 Aluminum (15")	Pro Portable		2006 Feb 14
	Oct 22	iBook G4 (12"/14")4	Consumer Port.		2006 May 16	details
	Nov 18	iMac G4 20"	Consumer Desktop		2004 Aug 31
		Power Mac G5 Dual 1.8	Pro Desktop		2004 Jun 9
2004	Jan 6	Xserve G5	Rackmount Server		2006 Aug 7
		Xserve Cluster Node G5	Rackmount Server		2006 Aug 7
	Jun 9	Power Mac G5 (PCI-X 2)4	Pro Desktop		2005 Apr 27	details
	Aug 31	iMac G5 17"	Consumer Desktop		2006 Jan 10
		iMac G5 20"	Consumer Desktop		2006 Mar 20
	Oct 19	Power Mac G5 Single	Pro Desktop		2005 Apr 27	details
2005	Jan 11	Mac mini	Compact Desktop		2006 Feb 28
	Apr 27	Power Mac G5	Pro Desktop		2005 Oct 19	details
	Sep	Mac Mini (1.33/1.5)	Compact Desktop
	Oct 19	Power Mac G5 Quad	Pro Desktop		2006 Aug 7	details
2006	Jan 10	iMac Core Duo (17" / 20")	Consumer Desktop		2006 Sep 6	details
	never	MacBook Pro (15" 1.67 GHz)	Pro Portable	2006 Jan 10	2006 Feb 14	details
	Feb 14	MacBook Pro (15")	Pro Portable	2006 Jan 10	2008 Feb 26	details
	Feb 28	Mac mini (Intel Core Solo)	Compact Desktop		2006 Sep 6
	Feb 28	Mac mini (Intel Core Duo)	Compact Desktop		2007 Aug 7
	Apr 24	MacBook Pro (17")	Pro Portable		2006 Oct 2x	details
	May 16	MacBook	Consumer Port.		2006 Nov 0x
	Aug 7	Mac Pro (Woodcrest)	Pro Desktop		2008 Jan 8	details
	Aug 7	XServe (Intel)	Rackmount Server		2008 Jan 8
	Sep 6	iMac	Consumer Desktop		2007 Aug 7	details
	Oct 24	MacBook Pro (Core 2 Duo)4	Pro Portable		2007 Jun 5	details
	Nov 0x	MacBook (Core 2 Duo)	Consumer Port.		2008 Feb 26
2007	Apr 4	Mac Pro 8-core Clovertown	Pro Desktop		2008 Jan 8	details
	Jun 5	MacBook Pro Santa Rosa	Pro Portable		2008 Feb 26	details
	Jun 29	iPhone (original)	PDA3	2007 Jan 9
	Aug 7	iMac (aluminum enclosure)	Consumer Desktop			details
	Aug 7	Mac mini (Core 2 Duo)	Compact Desktop
	Nov 1	MacBook Pro 2.6 GHz	Pro Portable			details
2008	Jan 8	XServe Harpertown	Rackmount Server
	Jan 8	Mac Pro Harpertown	Pro Desktop			details
	Jan 15	MacBook Air	Consumer Port.
	Feb 26	MacBook Penryn	Consumer Port.
	Feb 26	MacBook Pro Penryn	Pro Portable			details
	Apr 28	iMac (Penryn)	Consumer Desktop			details
	Jul 28	iPhone 3G	PDA3	2008 Jun 9
	Oct 14	MacBook Pro 15 (unibody)				details
2009	Jan 6	MacBook Pro 17 (unibody)		2009 Jun 8		details
	Mar 3	MacBook Pro 15		2009 Jun 8		details
	Mar 3	iMac (early 2009)	Consumer Desktop			details
	Mar 3	Mac Pro Nehalem	Pro Desktop			details
	Jun 8	MacBook Pro (SD card slot)		2010 Apr 13		details
	Oct 20	iMac (21.5 / 27)	Consumer Desktop			details
	Oct 20	Mac mini (2009)	Compact Desktop
	Dec 4	Mac Pro (late 2009)	Pro Desktop			details
2010	Apr 13	MacBook Pro (mid 2010)				details
	Jul 27	iMac (ATI graphics)	Consumer Desktop			details
	Aug ??	Mac Pro Westmere	Pro Desktop			details
	Possible	Future Developments
2010	Fall?	Mac Pro (speculation)	Pro Desktop			speculation

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Details of Certain Specific Systems

These details are provided for the following purposes:

• To detail the specifications of the PCMS (processor, cache and memory system) which constitute most of the variation in system-level CPU benchmarks.

• Links to web pages for even more specs if you want it.

• Showing when the chip vendor (e.g. Intel) made the product available and their announced price. Future systems will probably be based on new CPUs with similar prices and with a similar delay after CPU release date. For portables and Mac Mini, wattage (TDP) is also a consderation. Using these criteria it is easy to predict that, for example, Apple will not use the first set of 6-core "Dunnington" processors because they cost too much (except possibly in XServe as a BTO for a new Cluster Node offering).

Details for iMac

iMac G4 (original with 15" screen), 2002 Jan 7

CPU: PowerPC "G4" 7441 at 700 MHz or 7445 at 800 MHz

L2-Cache: 256K

Bus: 100 MT/sec

Memory: PC133 SDRAM (133 MT/sec)

EveryMac profiles: 700 MHz, 800 MHz

Several iMac systems to be added here

iMac (17" and 20" core 2), 2006 Jan 10

CPU: Core Duo "Yonah" T2400 (1.83 GHz) or T2500 (2.0 GHz) (2006 Jan 5: $294 or $423)

L2-Cache: 2M (shared by both cores)

Bus: 667 MT/sec

Memory: PC2-5300 (667MHz) DDR2 SDRAM

EveryMac profiles: 17-inch, 20-inch

iMac (17", 20" and 24" core 2), 2006 Sep 6

CPU: Core 2 Duo "Merom" T7200 (2.0 GHz) or T7400 (2.16 GHz) (2006 Aug 28: $294 or $423)

L2-Cache: 4M (shared by both cores)

Bus: 667 MT/sec

Memory: PC2-5300 (667MHz) DDR2 SDRAM

EveryMac profiles: 17-inch, 20-inch, 24-inch

There was also a model for education customers only, with a 1.83-GHz processor. It was $899, but only for purchase by institutions (not even students or faculty). A profile is here.

iMac (aluminum), 2007 Aug 7

CPU: Core 2 Duo "Merom" T7300 (2.0 GHz), T7700 (2.4 GHz) (2007 May 9: $241 or $530) or "Merom XE" X7900 (2.8 GHz) (2007 Aug 22: $851)

L2-Cache: 4M (2.0 and 2.4 GHz models) or 6M (2.8 GHz model) (shared by both cores)

Bus: 800 MT/sec (2.0 and 2.4 GHz) or 1066 MT/sec (2.8 GHz model)

Memory: PC2-5300 (667MHz) DDR2 SDRAM

EveryMac profiles: 20-inch 2.0 GHz, 24-inch 2.8 GHz

iMac (aluminum), 2008 Apr 28

CPU: Core 2 Duo "Penryn" E8135 (2.4 GHz), E8335 (2.66 GHz), E8235 (2.8 GHz) or "Penryn XE" E8435 (3.06 GHz) (prices unknown)

L2-Cache: 6M (shared by both cores)

Bus: 1066 MT/sec (2.8 GHz model)

Memory: PC2-6400 (800MHz) DDR2 SDRAM

EveryMac profiles: 20-inch 2.4 GHz, 24-inch 3.06 GHz

iMac (aluminum), 2009 March 3

CPU: Core 2 Duo "Penryn" E8135 (2.66 GHz), E8335 (2.93 GHz) or "Penryn XE" E8435 (3.06 GHz) (E8435 released 2008 Aug 10 at $266)

Cores/Threads: All models have 2 cores and 2 threads.

L2-Cache: 6M (shared by both cores)

Bus: 1066 MT/sec

Memory: PC3-8500 (1066MHz) DDR3 SDRAM

EveryMac profiles: 20-inch 2.66 GHz, 24-inch 2.66 GHz, 24-inch 2.93 GHz, 24-inch 3.06 GHz

On April 7 Apple added a 20-inch, 2.0-GHz model for education customers only. A profile courtesy of EveryMac can be found here. Its price was $899, but individuals could not buy it, even if they were students or faculty — it could only be bought by institutions.

iMac (21.5 / 27), 2009 Oct 20

CPU: Core 2 Duo "Penryn XE" E8435 (3.06 GHz) or E8600 (3.33 GHz) or Core i5 750 (2.66 GHz) or Core i7 860 (2.8 GHz) (i5 and i7 both released 2009 Sep 8 at $196 and $284)

Cores/Threads: All models have 2 cores; "Core 2 Duo" models have 2 threads; "Core i5" and "Core i7" models have 4 threads.

L2-Cache: 3M (on E8435), 6M (on Exxxx) or 8M (on Core i5 and i7) (shared by all cores)

Bus: 1066 MT/sec (2.8 GHz model)

Memory: PC3-8500 (1066MHz) DDR3 SDRAM

lowendmac's profile

EveryMac profiles: 21.5-inch 3.06 GHz, 27-inch 3.06 GHz, 27-inch Core i5

iMac (ATI graphics), 2010 Jul 27

CPU: Core i3 "Clarkdale" 540 (3.06 GHz dual-core) or 550 (3.2 GHz dual-core) or Core i5 "Lynnfield" 760 (2.8 GHz quad-core) or 680 (3.6 GHz dual-core) or Core i7 875K (2.93 GHz quad-core)

Cores/Threads: all "dual-core" models have 2 cores and 4 threads; "Core i5 quad-core" model has 4 cores and 4 threads; "Core i7" model has 4 cores and 8 threads.

L2-Cache: 2M per core (i.e. 4M or 8M total)

Bus: 1333 MT/sec

Memory: PC3-10600 (1333MHz) DDR3 SDRAM

EveryMac profiles: 21.5-inch 3.06 GHz Core i3 21.5-inch 3.2 GHz Core i3 27-inch 3.2 GHz Core i3 27-inch 2.8 GHz Core i5

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Details for iBook and MacBook

This was a new line created in 1999 as a consumer-oriented portable. It initially had a substantially different look and feel from the PowerBooks, but has gradually converged over the following 10 years.

iBook G4 (12" and 14")

CPU: PowerPC "G4" 7457 at 800 MHz (12" model) or 933 MHz (14" model)

L2-Cache: 256K

Bus: 133 MT/sec

Memory: PC2100 DDR SDRAM (267 MT/sec)

EveryMac profile

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Details for Powerbook and MacBook Pro

The never-shipped 1.67 GHz MacBook Pro 15"

CPU: Core Duo "Yonah" L2400 (1.67 GHz) (2006 Jan 5: $316)

L2-Cache: 2M (shared by both cores)

Bus: 667 MT/sec

Memory: PC2-5300 (667MHz) DDR2 SO-DIMM

EveryMac profile

This system never shipped. On 2006 Feb 14, Apple announced that the MacBook Pro line (which had not yet shipped) would feature 1.83, 2.0 and 2.16 GHz processors, thus eliminating the 1.67 GHz version.

MacBook Pro, 2006 Feb 14 and 2006 Apr 24

CPU: Core Duo "Yonah" T2400 (1.83 GHz), T2500 (2.0 GHz) or T2600 (2.16 GHz) (2006 Jan 5: $294 - $637)

L2-Cache: 2M (shared by both cores)

Bus: 667 MT/sec

Memory: PC2-5300 (667MHz) DDR2 SO-DIMM

AppleMatters profile

lowendmac profiles: 15-inch, 17-inch

MacBook Pro, 2006 Oct 24

CPU: Core 2 Duo "Merom" T7400 (2.16 GHz) or T7600 (2.33 GHz) (2006 Aug 28: $423, $637)

L2-Cache: 4M (shared by both cores)

Bus: 667 MT/sec

Memory: 667 MHz PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM

EveryMac's profiles: 2.16 15", 2.33 17"

lowendmac profiles: 15-inch, 17-inch

MacBook Pro, 2007 Jun 5

CPU: Core 2 Duo "Merom" T7500 (2.2 GHz) or T7700 (2.4 GHz) (2007 May 9: $316, $530)

L2-Cache: 4M (shared by both cores)

Bus: 800 MT/sec

Memory: 667 MHz PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM

EveryMac's profiles: 2.2 15'', 2.4 17''

MacBook Pro, 2007 Nov 1

CPU: Core 2 Duo "Merom" T7800 (2.6 GHz) (2007 Sep 2: $530)

L2-Cache: 4M (shared by both cores)

Bus: 800 MT/sec

Memory: 667 MHz PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM

EveryMac's profile (which only makes brief mention of the 2.6 GHz version)

MacBook Pro, 2008 Feb 26 (2.4 GHz version)

CPU: Core 2 Duo "Penryn" T8300 (2.4 GHz) (2008 Jan 6: $241)

L2-Cache: 3M (shared by both cores)

Bus: 800 MT/sec

Memory: 667 MHz PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM

EveryMac's profile

MacBook Pro, 2008 Feb 26 (2.5 and 2.6 GHz versions)

CPU: Core 2 Duo "Penryn" T9300 (2.5 GHz) or T9500 (2.6 GHz) (both 2008 Jan 6: $316, $530)

L2-Cache: 6M (shared by both cores)

Bus: 800 MT/sec

Memory: 667 MHz PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM

EveryMac's profiles: 2.5 15'', 2.6 17'' (which mentions the 2.6 GHz option)

MacBook Pro 15'', 2008 Oct 14

CPU: Core 2 Duo "Penryn" P8600 (2.4 GHz) (2008 Jun 13: $241), T9400 (2.533 GHz) or T9600 (2.8 GHz) $(both 2008 Jul 14: $316, $530)$

L2-Cache: 3M (2.4 model) or 6M (higher models) (cache is shared by both cores)

Bus: 1.066 GT/sec

Memory: 1.066 GHz PC2-8500 DDR2 SDRAM

NOTE: In 2008 Oct, the 17-inch MacBook Pro still had the same CPU, bus and memory specs as the 2008 Feb 26 version, but its screen and hard drive were changed in conjunction with the all-new "unibody" 15'' model.

MacBook Pro (17-inch Unibody, January 2009)

CPU: Core 2 Duo "Penryn" T9550 (2.66 GHz) ()

L2-Cache: 6M

Bus: 1.066 GT/sec

Memory: 1.066 GHz PC2-8500 DDR2 SDRAM

EveryMac's profile: 2.66 17''

MacBook Pro (15-inch Unibody, March 2009)

CPU: Core 2 Duo "Penryn" T9550 (2.66 GHz) ()

L2-Cache: 6M

Bus: 1.066 GT/sec

Memory: 1.066 GHz PC2-8500 DDR2 SDRAM

EveryMac's profile: 2.66 15''

MacBook Pro (SD card slot, June 2009)

CPU: Core 2 Duo "Penryn" P8400 (2.26 GHz), P8700 (2.53 GHz), P8800 (2.66 GHz), T9600 (2.8 GHz), or T9900 (3.06 GHz) ()

Cores/Threads: All models have 2 cores and 2 threads.

L2-Cache: 3M (2.26, 2.53 and 2.66 GHz models) or 6M (2.8 and 3.06 GHz models)

Bus: 1.066 GT/sec

Memory: 1.066 GHz PC2-8500 DDR2 SDRAM

EveryMac's profiles: 2.26 13'' 2.53 13'' 2.53 15'' 2.66 15'' 2.8 15'' 2.8 and 3.06 17''

MacBook Pro (April 2010)

CPU: Core 2 Duo "Penryn" P8600 (2.4 GHz) or P8800 (2.66 GHz), or Core i5 "Arrandale" i5-520M (2.4-2.93 GHz), i5-540M (2.53-3.06 GHz) or i7-620M (2.66-3.33 GHz)

Cores/Threads: All models have 2 cores; "Core 2 Duo" models have 2 threads; "Core i5" and "Core i7" models have 4 threads.

L2-Cache: 3M (Core 2 Duo and Core i5 models) or 4M (2.66 Core i7 model)

Bus: 1.066 GT/sec

Memory: 1.066 GHz PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM

EveryMac's profiles: 2.4 13'' 2.66 13'' 2.4 15'' 2.53 15'' 2.66 15'' 2.53 and 2.66 17''

Idle Speculations on MacBook Pro

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Details for PowerMac and Mac Pro

Power Mac G3 (Blue and White), 1999 Jan 5

CPU: IBM PowerPC 750 (300, 350 or 400 MHz)

L2-Cache: 512K (300 MHz model) or 1M (faster models)

Bus: 100 MHz

Memory: PC100 SDRAM

lowendmac profile

Power Mac G4 450, 1999 Aug 31

CPU: IBM PowerPC 750 (450 MHz)

L2-Cache: 1M

Bus: 100 MHz

Memory: PC100 SDRAM

lowendmac profile

Power Mac G4 "Gigabit Ethernet", 2000 Feb 16

CPU: 2x IBM PowerPC 750 (450 or 500 MHz)

L2-Cache: 2M (1M per processor)

Bus: 100 MHz

Memory: PC100 SDRAM

lowendmac profile

Power Mac G4 "Digital Audio", 2001 Jan 9

CPU: Motorola 7410 "Nitro" (single 466 MHz or dual 533 MHz)

L2-Cache: 1M (or 2M for dual 533 model)

Bus: 133 MHz

Memory: PC133 SDRAM

lowendmac profile

EveryMac profiles: 466, 533

Power Mac G4 "Digital Audio", 2001 Feb

CPU: Motorola 7450 "V'ger" (667 or 733 MHz)

L2-Cache: 1M

Bus: 133 MHz

Memory: PC133 SDRAM

lowendmac profile

EveryMac profiles: 667, 733

Power Mac G4 "Quicksilver", 2001 Jul 18

CPU: Motorola 7450 "V'ger" (733 or 867 MHz)

CPU: 2x Motorola 7450 "V'ger" (800 MHz)

L2-Cache: 1M (2M for dual 800 model)

Bus: 133 MHz

Memory: PC133 SDRAM

lowendmac profile

EveryMac profiles: 733, 867, dual 800

Power Mac G4 "Quicksilver", 2002 Jan 28

CPU: Motorola 7455 "Apollo 6" (800 or 933 MHz)

CPU: 2x Motorola 7455 "Apollo 6" (1.0 GHz)

L2-Cache: none on 800 MHz model; 2M on 933 MHz model; 4M (2M per processor) on 1.0 GHz model

Bus: 133 MHz

Memory: PC133 SDRAM

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EveryMac profiles: 800, 933, dual 1.0

Power Mac G4 (Mirror Drive Doors), 2002 Aug 13

CPU: 2x Motorola 7455 "Apollo 6" (867 MHz, 1.0 GHz or 1.25 GHz)

L2-Cache: 1M (867 and 1.0 GHz models) or 2M (1.25 GHz model)

Bus: 133 MHz (867 model), 167 MHz (faster models)

Memory: 266 MHz PC2100 DDR SDRAM (867 model) or 333 MHz PC2700 DDR SDRAM (faster models)

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EveryMac profiles: 867, 1.0, 1.25

Power Mac G4 (Firewire 800), 2003 Jan 28

CPU: Motorola 7455 "Apollo 6" (single 1.0 GHz, dual 1.25 or dual 1.42 GHz)

L2-Cache: 1M (1.0 GHz model), 2M (dual 1.25 GHz model), or 4M (dual 1.42 GHz model)

Bus: 133 MHz (1.0 GHz model), 167 MHz (faster models)

Memory: 266 MHz PC2100 DDR SDRAM (1.0 GHz model) or 333 MHz PC2700 DDR SDRAM (faster models)

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EveryMac profiles: 1.0, 1.25, 1.42

PowerMac G5, 2003 Jun 23

CPU: IBM PowerPC 970 (single 1.6, single 1.8, or dual 2.0 GHz)

L2-Cache: 512K

Bus: 800 MHz, 900 Mhz or 1.0 GHz

Memory: 333 MHz PC2700 DDR RAM (1.6 GHz model) or 400 MHz PC3200 DDR RAM (faster models)

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EveryMac profiles: 1.6, 1.8, 2.0

PowerMac G5 (PCI-X 2), 2004 Jun 9

CPU: 2x IBM PowerPC 970fx (1.8, 2.0 or 2.5 GHz)

L2-Cache: 1M (512K per CPU)

Bus: 900 Mhz, 1.0 GHz or 1.25 GHz

Memory: 400 MHz PC3200 DDR RAM

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EveryMac profiles: 1.8, 2.0, 2.5

PowerMac G5 Single, 2004 Oct 19

CPU: IBM PowerPC 970fx (1.8 GHz)

L2-Cache: 512K

Bus: 600 Mhz

Memory: 400 MHz PC3200 RAM

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EveryMac profile

PowerMac G5, 2005 Apr 27

CPU: 2x IBM PowerPC 970fx (2.0, 2.3 or 2.7 GHz)

L2-Cache: 1M (512K per CPU)

Bus: 1.0, 1.15 or 1.35 GHz

Memory: 400 MHz PC3200 DDR RAM

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EveryMac profiles: 2.0, 2.3, 2.7

PowerMac G5 Dual, 2005 Oct 19

CPU: IBM PowerPC 970MP "Antares" (2.0 or 2.3 GHz)

L2-Cache: 2M (1M per core)

Bus: 1.0 or 1.15 GHz

Memory: 533 MHz PC2-4200 DDR2

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EveryMac profiles: 2.0, 2.3

PowerMac G5 Quad, 2005 Oct 19

CPU: 2x IBM PowerPC 970MP "Antares" (2.5 GHz)

L2-Cache: 4M (1M per core)

Bus: 1.25 GHz

Memory: 533 MHz PC2-4200 DDR2

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EveryMac profile

Mac Pro (Quad), 2006 Aug 7

CPU: 2x Intel Core 2 Duo "Woodcrest" 5130 (2.0 GHz), 5150 (2.66 GHz) or 5160 (3.0 GHz) (all 2006 Jun 26: $316 - $851)

L2-Cache: 8M (4M for each pair of cores)

Bus: 1.33 GT/sec

Memory: 667 MHz DDR SDRAM

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EveryMac's profile

Mac Pro 8-core, 2007 Apr 4

CPU: 2x Intel Core 2 Quad "Clovertown" X5365 (3.0 GHz) (2007 April 4: $1350)

L2-Cache: 16M (each pair of cores shares 4M)

Bus: 1.33 GT/sec

Memory: 667 MHz DDR2 ECC fully-buffered DIMM

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Mac Pro 8-core, 2008 Jan 8

CPU: 2x Intel Core 2 Quad "Harpertown" E5462 (2.8 GHz), E5472 (3.0 GHz) or X5482 (3.2 GHz) (all 2007 Nov 11: $797 or 851, $958, $1279)

Cores/Threads: All models have 8 cores and 8 threads.

L2-Cache: 24M (each pair of cores shares 6M)

Bus: 1.6 GT/sec

Memory: 800MHz DDR2 ECC fully buffered DIMM (FB-DIMM) RAM

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EveryMac profile

Mac Pro "Gainestown Nehalem", 2009 Mar 3

CPU: 1x Xeon W3520 (2.66 GHz) or W3540 (2.93 GHz) ($284, $562)

    or 2x Xeon E5520 (2.26 GHz), X5550 (2.66 GHz) or X5570 (2.93 GHz) ($373 - $1386)

Cores/Threads: Each Xeon CPU has 4 cores and 8 threads; thus the dual-CPU machines have 8 cores and 16 threads.

Cache: 256K L2 and 2M L3 per core (1 processor = 4 cores, i.e. either 9M or 18M total cache)

Bus: Controls memory directly; uses QuickPath Interconnect at 5.86 GT/sec (2.26 GHz 8-core model) or 6.4 GT/sec (all other models) for data transfer between one processor and the other, and between processor(s) and the video, hard drives and rest of the system.

Memory: 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM

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EveryMac profiles: Quad 2.66, Octo-core 2.26.

Mac Pro (late 2009 3.33 GHz), 2009 Dec 4

CPU: 1x Xeon X5590 (3.33 GHz) ($1600)

Cores/Threads: 4 physical cores, 8 threads.

Cache: 256K L2 and 2M L3 per core (1 processor = 4 cores, i.e. 9M total cache)

Bus: Controls memory directly; uses QuickPath Interconnect at 6.4 GT/sec for data transfer between one processor and the other, and between processor(s) and the video, hard drives and rest of the system.

Memory: 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM

Mac Pro "Westmere", 2010 August

CPU: 1x Xeon W3530 (2.8 GHz 4-core), W3565 (3.2 GHz 4-core) or W3680 (3.33 GHz 6-core) ($unknown, $562, $999)

    or 2x Xeon E5620 (2.4 GHz 4-core), X5650 (2.66 GHz 6-core) or X5670 (2.93 GHz 6-core) ($387, $996, $1440)

Cores/Threads: From 4 to 12 cores, with 2 threads per core.

Cache: 256K L2 and 2M L3 per core (i.e. from 9M to 27M total cache)

Bus: Controls memory directly; uses QuickPath Interconnect at 4.8 GT/sec (2.8 GHz 4-core model), 5.86 GT/sec (2x 2.4 GHz 4-core) or 6.4 GT/sec (6-core and 12-core models) for data transfer between one processor and the other, and between processor(s) and the video, hard drives and rest of the system.

Memory: 1066 MHz DDR32 ECC SDRAM (single-processor systems)

    or 1333 MHz DDR32 ECC SDRAM (dual-processor systems)

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Idle Speculations for Mac Pro

Late 2011 (speculation)

(written in 2010 July)

Intel is expected to offer processors based on the Sandy Bridge microarchitecture to follow the Gainestown, Westmere and similar generation Nehalem processors. These will continue to use the 32-nm process but will add improvements to the core, notably a 256-bit vector unit capable of performing twice as many floating-point operations per clock cycle. This and other core changes will place higher demands on the cache and memory system, so it is unlikely the number of cores will change. Although Sandy Bridge is expected to include products with integrated GPU functions [48] there should also be server-type versions without the GPU and with other things in its place (perhaps more cache, or more and better memory bandwidth).

The first Sandy Bridge processors will probably begin shipment in early 2011 (based on production schedule estimates [47]), which is somewhat more than 2 years after the debut of Nehalem with the first Core i7 products. Therefore a Mac Pro based on Sandy Bridge would come more than 2 years after the first Nehalem Mac Pros, possibly significantly later.

The 8-core "Beckton" designs and any Sandy Bridge replacements thereof, and the 12-core "Eagleton" version of Xeon-EX [39] are both expected to be aimed at the 4-socket server market where the price per CPU is much higher, mainly because of their vastly higher transistor count and correspondingly lower yield..

However, Apple has also been rumored to be looking at AMD alternatives, and the 6-core "bulldozer" design and others like it seem like a possibility.

---

Special Relationship With Intel

On several occasions it has been clear that Apple has been able to get certain part numbers from Intel a little ahead of the rest of the industry. Recent examples include:

• 2007 Jan: The Pentium M "Crofton" used in Apple TV (see macnn [7]).
• 2007 Apr 4: The 3.0 GHz Xeon X5365 "Clovertown" used in the first 8-core Mac Pro (see electronista [8]).
• 2008 Apr 29: The 3.07 GHz Core 2 Extreme X9100 "Penryn", used in the top-model iMac, released to the general market on July 14. (see TG Daily [15]).
• the original MacBook Air's 1.6 and 1.8 GHz processors (described by Anand [12]).
• On 2009 Mar 3, Apple announced its first Nehalem-based Mac Pros. These used the Xeon W3520, W3540, E5520, X5550 and X5570 (or by some accounts, the X5580). All were scheduled to become available to the general market around 3 weeks later (see TG Daily [35]).

Before Apple became a major customer of Intel, a similar type of relationship existed with IBM regarding the PowerPC G5 (the 970, 970FX, and 970MP).

---

Appendix A

Overview of Recent Intel Codenames

For the most part, each Intel microprocessor codename refers to a particular microarchitecture (design) on a particular process (lithography feature size). This table summarizes the codenames, by process (rows) and microarchitectures (columns):

	Pentium 4	Pent. 4 HT	Pentium D	Pentium M, Core	Core 2 Duo	Core 2 Quad	Core i7	(future)	(future)	(future)
180 nm	Willamette Nov 2000
130 nm	Northwood Jan 2002	Northwood Nov 2002		Banias
90 nm		Prescott Feb 2004	Smithfield	Dothan May 2004
65 nm		Cedar Mill	Presler	Yonah Jan 2006	Conroe Aug 2006	Kentsfield
45 nm					Wolfdale Jan 2008	Yorkfield	Nehalem Nov 2008
32 nm							Westmere early 2010	Sandy Bridge early 2011	Ivy Bridge
22 nm								Ivy Bridge	Haswell	Haswell

italics = "Tick", boldface = "Tock" in the Intel marketing department's "Tick-Tock" metaphor.

A "Tick" is the move to a smaller lithography, usually allowing for better power efficiency and sometimes added cache or other features that are easy to add. A "Tock" is a new microarchitecture, allowing for better performance with (roughly) the same yield and transistor count. According to Intel, their long-term goals in process technology development are to develop the next smaller size (fitting twice the transistors in the same area) every two years.

Releasing a new microarchitecture during the "other in-between" year makes sense, and will naturally occur even if it is not planned that way, simply due to market forces and the allocation of limited development resources. The "Tick-Tock" metaphor was first used by Intel marketing in 2007, but the pattern can be easily seen here. Each "tick" has come near the beginning of an even-numbered year, and a "tock" comes near the end of the same year. (Thus the wait from a "tock" to the next "tick" is somewhat longer).

Most of the codenames shown above are for the mainstream desktop variants, with the notable exception of Pentium M. Pentium M was the mobile version of Pentium III, marketed alongside the desktop processors Pentium 4, Pentium 4 HT (with HyperThreading) and Pentium D (dual-core). The Pentium 4 and Pentium D microarchitecture design was abandoned when it became clear that the move to many cores in the desktop CPU was imminent and power efficiency became the top priority.

The change from Core 2 Duo to Core 2 Quad is not shown as either a tick or a tock, because a Core 2 Quad is little more than two Core 2 Duo dies in the same package, linked to each other by the same front side bus that connects off-chip to the Northbridge.

Ivy Bridge is shown in two places, as is Haswell, because it is not yet known (as of early 2009) how long it will take to bring the 22nm lithography process to production. Because of this, improvements planned for Ivy Bridge might be brought out on 32nm (shown by the smaller non-italic "Ivy Bridge". In this instance, another codename (perhaps also ending in "bridge" will occupy the first "Haswell" spot in the table, and Haswell itself will be in the second spot tot he right. If 22nm is successful, the next pocess technology will be 16nm.

Brief Chronology of Intel CPU Products and Process Technology

year	process	feature length	wafer size	speed	product	transistors
1971	"p232"	10 µM	50 mm	740 KHz	4004	2250
1974	"p336"	6 µM	75 mm	2.0 MHz	8080	6000
1976	"p440"	3 µM	100 mm	5.0 MHz	8085	6500
1978		3 µM	100 mm	5.0 MHz	8086	29,000
1982	"p544"	1.5 µM	125 mm	6.0 MHz	80286	134,000
1985	"p644"	1.5 µM	150 mm	16 MHz	80386	275,000
1989	P648	1.0 µM	150 mm	25 MHz	80486	1,180,000
1991	P650	0.8 µM	150 mm	66 MHz	Pentium	3.1 million
1993	P852	0.6 µM, 0.5 µM	200 mm	100 MHz	Pentium
1995	P854	0.35 µM	200 mm	166 MHz	Pentium Pro	5.5 million
1997	P856	0.25 µM	200 mm	600 MHz	Pentium III	9.5 million
1999	P858	180 nm	200 mm	2.0 GHz	Pentium 4	42 million
2001	P860 P1260	130 nm	200 mm 300 mm	3.07 GHz	Pentium 4 HT	77 million
2003	P1262	90 nm	300 mm	3.8 GHz	Pentium 4 HT	77 million
2005	P1264	65 nm	300 mm	2.33 GHz	Core Duo	151 million
2007	P1266	45 nm	300 mm	3.2 GHz	Xeon X5482	820 million
2009	P1268	32 nm	300 mm	2.66 GHz	Nehalem EX	~900 million
2011	P1270	22 nm	300 mm
2013	P1272	16 nm	300 mm

Approximate Chronology of Memory Products and Process Technology

This table is from 20011100 Iwai, who cites the 1999 ITRS Roadmap. There are other similar tables in ITRS Roadmaps, and in the bigfiles/Computers-and-History.

year	feature length	bits	transistors
1971	10 µM	1 Kib	2200
1974	6 µM	4 Kib	8500
1977	4 µM	16 Kib
1980	3 µM	64 Kib
1983	2 µM	256 Kib
1986	1.2 µM	1 Mib
1989	0.8 µM	4 Mib
1992	0.5 µM	16 Mib
1995	0.35 µM	64 Mib
1998	0.25 µM	256 Mib

---

Appendix B

Lithography Details

year	process	feature length	light source	wave	energy
1971	"p232"	10 µM
1974	"p336"	6 µM
1974	"p338"	4 µM
1976	"p440"	3 µM
1982	"p542"	2 µM
1982	"p544"	1.5 µM
1989	P648	1.0 µM	Hg	400 nm (violet)	3.1 eV
1991	P650	0.8 µM	Hg	400 nm	3.1 eV
1993		0.6 µM	Hg	400 nm	3.1 eV
1993	P852	0.5 µM
1995	P854	0.35 µM	Hg KrF	400 nm 248 nm	3.1 eV 5.0 eV
1997	P856	0.25 µM	KrF	248 nm	5.0 eV
1999	P858	180 nm	KrF	248 nm	5.0 eV
2001	Px60	130 nm	KrF ArF	248 nm 193 nm	5.0 eV 6.4 eV
2003	P1262	90 nm	ArF	193 nm	6.4 eV
2005	P1264	65 nm	ArF	193 nm	6.4 eV	alternating phase-shift masks
2007	P1266	45 nm	ArF	193 nm	6.4 eV	double patterning
2009	P1268	32 nm	ArF	193 nm	6.4 eV	immersion
2012?	P1270	22 nm	ArF	193 nm	6.4 eV	non-planar devices
2014?	P1272	16 nm	?			might not be reached, or perhaps will be implemented with doubly stacked 22nm devices
2017?	P1274	11 nm	?			even less likely

---

Appendix C: Old Speculations

Those wishing to see how far off-base I was can compare the following to what actually came to pass.

 

Summer 2010 (speculation)

(written in 2009 October and 2010 February)

The single-processor desktop Nehalem product will move up to a 6-core "Gulftown" implementation in conjunction with its transition to the 32-nm process "later in 1Q 2010"[46]. This product was rumored to be branded "Core i9" [42]) but is now believed to be a future "Core i7-980X" [43] or perhaps keeping the "Core i7 Extreme" branding) [40]. Xeon EP is also scheduled to transition to 32-nm, but that won't happen until significantly later. On the Intel roadmap briefing from 2009 Feb 10^th it looks like the end of 2010, or perhaps even a bit later.

However, prior to that time the 8-core "Beckton" Xeon EX will have been released on the 45-nm process. It is easy to speculate that Apple could decide to offer one or more high-end Mac Pro or Xserve products based on it. However, such speculation is highly unrealistic. The Beckton design has twice as many cores, but more than three times as many transistors (2.3×10⁹ vs. 7.3×10⁸ for the 4-core "Gainestown"[38]) and this drives production cost way up because of yield considerations. Beckton also requires special "memory buffers" that are not needed in Gainestown designs[37], and there are other things that make the overall system design costlier. Because it is designed for a 4-socket system (4 Beckton chips on the motherboard), putting two of them into a 2-socket system like the Mac Pro would be a waste, and Intel prices it with this in mind: there is no way Apple could offer any product anywhere near the prices of its current products using two Beckton CPUs.

It is also possible that Intel will release a Xeon EP 45-nm product with more cores, however sources[41],[42] indicate this is highly unlikely and that the 32-nm Westmere process is being used instead. (A 6-core 45nm part would use too much power to be practical, unless its clock speeds were significantly lower).

Rumors in October 2009[42] indicated that Apple might yet again have a special deal with Intel allowing them to get the 6-core Nehalem EP sooner. The same sources also indicate that larger memory modules will be officially supported, allowing systems with 64GiB or 128GiB.

However Apple's slow schedule for updating the Mac Pro, combined with the comparatively low pressure to add a "mere" 1.4x performance boost that the Gulftown would provide, makes me think this update won't come until summer, maybe at the WWDC.

Beyond 2010 : Looking further, there is a 12-core "Eagleton" version of Nehalem-EX expected a year or two after the 8-core Xeon EX [39].

 

MacBook Pro, Early 2010 (speculation)

(written in 2010 January)

An Intel leak[44] makes it seem very likely that Nehalem-based mobile CPUs under the Core i5 brand will be used in a future MacBook Pro. Unlike desktop Core i5s, which lack the hyperthreading feature, Mobile Core i5 CPUs have 2 cores and 4 threads [45].

MacBook Pro Core i5 (speculation)

CPU: Core i5 540M "Arrandale" (3.06 GHz) ($257)

L2-Cache: 3M

Bus: 1.066 GT/sec

Memory: 1.066 GHz PC2-8500 DDR2 SDRAM

 

Mac Pro, Early 2009 (speculation)

(written in 2009 February)

The "Harpertown" versions in the Jan 2008 Mac Pros came out in November 2007. Along with several other projects (such as the Penryn chips used in the 2008 MacBooks) it uses the new 45-nm process with Hafnium hi-k MOSFET gates. (The 32-nm process, currently still in development during 2009, uses similar chemistry and should be able to easily reach 4.0 GHz, a "holy grail" hitherto achieved only with liquid cooling rigs).

As of November 2008, it now seems likely that Intel and Apple are moving on to Core i7 (code named Nehalem), rather than new steppings of the Harpertown and similar Core 2-based Xeon designs. The reader should note that "Nehalem" (without a suffix) and "Core i7 desktop and notebook" products work only on single-socket motherboards. These are the CPUs initially released in November 2008; they lack the ability to communicate between two CPUs to keep their caches up to date.

Any computer built around a 2-socket or 4-socket motherboard is commonly called a "server". To the non-Apple part of the industry, the 8-core Mac Pro is a server system — as is any of the dual-socket Power Macs. Intel's current offerings for server motherboards are branded "Xeon DP" (dual processor) and "Xeon MP" (multi-processor). Mac Pro uses the Xeon DP 54xx series. The Nehalem "EP" processor, still promised for "1Q 2009", will work on two-socket motherboards, and will be sold under the "Xeon" brand name and with numbers in the 55xx range (W5580, X5570, E5540, etc.). It has the ability to snoop the cache of a second processor via the dedicated QPI/CSI link (discussed further below). The planned 8-core Nehalem "EX" processor, which will also be called "Xeon", is for 4-socket motherboards, and can handle complex multi-processor cache coherency situations. It replaces the current (pre-i7) solution for 4-socket boards which is the 6-core "Dunnington" (Xeon 74xx series) The Xeon EX chips will probably have numbers in the 75xx range. (Incidentally, there are also Intel "Xeon" processors without multi-CPU capability, designed for single-socket server systems. The only thing setting them apart from the desktop Core i7 processors is their support for ECC memory. They will have "35xx" numbers, like W3570 and W3520.)

Core i7 has architecture improvements that substantially improve power efficiency, and this allows a faster clock speed at the same power level (i.e. temperature). They also support 2-way simultaneous multithreading similar to that introduced in the 3.06 GHz Pentium 4. Two concurrent threads can share one core thanks to two complete sets of user and rename (writeback) registers. This makes the processor appear to have twice as many cores as seen by the operating system and application software. However, this requires improvements to the cache and memory system.

Core i7 indeed has a substantially faster PCMS⁵, making the 2-chip design much more practical by eliminating the Northbridge bottleneck. Each CPU chip now contains its own memory controller, with the memory DIMMs connecting directly to the processor. In a two-CPU server like the next Mac Pro, each CPU has half of the system memory. When accessing the other half of memory, access is slower. For this reason the OS is likely to use address translation to place each task's program and data within one CPU's memory when possible, and schedule its threads preferentially on that CPU's cores. A similar thing is already being done to optimize cache utilization (as can be seen by using Activity Monitor to watch the CPU usage on a dual-core system while running a single, non-multithreaded computation task.)

The memory controllers in these Nehalem CPUs use DDR3 (at 1033 or 1333 MHz) to communicate to RAM, and QuickPath Interconnect, also called CSI (Common System Interface) to communicate with the second processor and everything else outside the PCMS⁵. The DDR3 memory controller and the CSI, normally part of the Northbridge chip, is integrated into the CPU. (which is why the CPUs have such a large pin count). This makes the higher bus speed and wider (3x 64 bits) path to memory possible, and this in turn enables 4 cores to run with less cache on-chip. The total amount of cache is 1M of L2 and 8M of L3 shared among the 4 cores, which is less than the 12M that a Harpertown Core 2 Quad has, but with the faster memory this should be little problem.

The higher performance of the CSI-based method of sharing memory between two CPU chips is clear from benchmarks: a dual-socket, 8-core system based on the 3.4 GHz "Harpertown" X5492 has a CPU2006 fpbaserate of less than 90; a dual-socket 2.8 GHz Nehalem system scores 160⁶.

PCI-X (including any video cards) is handled by a new "bridge" chip of which Tylersburg is the first example. This page shows a few different examples of what's possible and also illustrates the DDR3 interface.

In addition to the major PCMS improvements, Apple can add plenty of other improvements to the system (e.g. the new Firewire IEEE 1394-2008, and perhaps even the long-awaited Blu-Ray Disc).

The move to Core i7 may come in the form of a "new flagship" update, similar to the introduction of the first 8-core Mac Pro in 2007 April, and the Power Mac G5 Quad in 2004 October. In both events the bottom and middle systems were quite similar in performance to their predecessors, and Apple added a new system at the top using a much better PCMS⁵.

Option 1, a single new flagship model based on Nehalem Xeon EP

CPU: 2x Xeon X5570 (2.93 GHz) or W5580 (3.2 GHz) $($1386 or $1600)$ (8 physical cores, 16 threads)

Cache: 2M L2 and 16M L3 (each 4 cores share 8M)

Bus: 6.4 GT/sec QuickPath

Memory: 1333 MHz DDR3 ECC

See AppleInsider

Additional Options (If moving more of the line to Nehalem)

CPU: 1x or 2x Xeon E5540 (2.53 GHz), X5550 (2.66 GHz) and/or X5560 (2.8 GHz) ($744 - $1172) (4 or 8 cores, 8 or 16 threads)

Cache: 256K of L2 per core and 2M of L3 per core

Bus: 6.4 GT/sec QuickPath

Memory: 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC (bottom model) or 1333 MHz DDR3 ECC (other models)

(Price details for the Xeon EP products: None of these prices had been announced yet when I made this prediction. I used two sources, wiki and rumor1. The details are: E5540 for $744 (wiki); X5550 for $958 (wiki) or $285 (rumor1); X5560 for $1172 (wiki); X5570 for $555 (rumor1) or $1386 (wiki); W5580 for $990 (rumor1) or $1600 (wiki). I find the lower prices suspicious because they are very similar to the existing "Core i7" prices. The Core i7 products do not work on two-socket motherboards.

Once these chips are actually shipping, they can be found by searching online shopping websites for their Intel product numbers. The Intel product number is "BX80602" plus the processor name, e.g. "BX80602E5540" for the E5540, or "BX80602W5580" for the W5580. )

 

MacBook Pro, Early 2009 (speculation)

(written in 2008 October)

In Oct 2008 Apple updated the 15-inch MacBook Pro (and also its consumer models, MacBook and MacBook Air) to use the newer Intel 45-nm "Penryn" processors with a 1.066 GT/sec bus to memory. When they did this they left the 17-inch MacBook Pro behind in regards to bus speed (and even processor speed — the 15-inch model offers a 2.8 GHz option, 17-inch is still either 2.5 or 2.6).

I suspect they will move this model up to the 2.8 GHz T9600, the 2.8 GHz processor used in the 15-inch MacBook Pro.

I also suspect they will make this update more attractive to top-end customers by offering a quad-core BTO option. I consider the gap in clock speeds between Q9100 and QX9300 to be suspiciously large, so I'm guessing Apple has a special deal on a 2.4 GHz "Q9200". In any event they need a chip that has a suitable package. FCBGA6 has not been used for anything over 35 watts TDP, but special Intel chips for Apple are not a new thing (the most relevant example is the original MacBook Air's 1.6 and 1.8 GHz processors (described in detail here); other examples include the 3.0 GHz Xeon X5365 "Clovertown" used in the first 8-core Mac pro (see this article); the 3.07 GHz Penryn released in 2008 April for the top-model iMac; and the Pentium M "Crofton" used in Apple TV (see here)). Such a processor would be 300 to 400 more expensive causing the price of the MacBook Pro to be, say $600 higher, but Apple has customers who would pay for it.

MacBook Pro 17-inch, 2009 (speculation)

CPU: Core 2 Duo "Penryn" T9600 (2.8 GHz) (2008 Jul 14: $530) or Core 2 Quad "Penryn QC" Q9200 (2.4 GHz) (2008 Late: exclusive)

L2-Cache: 6M or 12M (6M shared by each pair of cores)

Bus: 1.066 GT/sec

Memory: 1.066 GHz PC2-8500 DDR2 SDRAM

 

Early 2009 iMac (speculation)

(written late 2008)

Mobile versions of the Core 2 with 4 cores (Core 2 Quad) have been out since Aug 2008. Given Apple's intense work on the Snow Leopard (Mac OS X version 10.6) with its showcased OpenCL capability, it is likely that Apple will want to bring the consumer line up to 4 cores soon. I expect to see these chips move into both the iMac and the MacBook Pro, or their equivalents, very soon.

Rumors in November 2008 indicated that an additional line of lower-power desktop Core 2 Quads will also soon come out: the Q8200, Q9400 and Q9550. This is more likely to be the chip on which Apple will base its new iMacs.

iMac, early 2009 (speculation)

CPU: Core 2 Quad "Yorkfield" Q9400 (2.66 GHz) or Q9550 (2.83 GHz) (2009 Jan: $320 or $369)

L2-Cache: 6M or 12M (3M or 6M shared by each pair of cores)

Bus: 1.066 GT/sec

Memory: PC2-6400 (800MHz) DDR2 SDRAM

Larrabee iMac (speculation)

There is also Intel's planned Larrabee GPU, a graphics processor chip rumored for summer 2009 release that will compete well against ATI and NVidia, but also be more suitable for non-image computing tasks. It thus fits very well with OpenCL making performance under Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6) even more impressive. This is most likely to see use in the iMac. There might also be a Mac Pro BTO option or an Intel video card.

I also think Apple is developing a new, fully 3-D window UI. An unannounced surprise (like the Quartz UI was before the official release of MacOS X), it will more closely resemble a CAD walkthrough than anything we've seen so far. Windows Aero's "Filp 3D" gives a taste.

 

Concerning MacBook Pro (speculation)

(written a week before the 2008 Oct 14 announcements)

Apple recently moved up from the 65-nm "Merom" family of Core 2 Duo processors to the 45-nm "Penryn" family, but are still on an 800 MT/sec bus to memory. I suspect they will move up the P8600, T9400 and/or T9600 that use a 1.066 GT/sec bus, but are otherwise similar to the present T8300, T9300 and T9500 chips. It's also about time they improved the speed of the memory frontside bus — PC2-6400 SODIMM prices are only marginally higher than PC2-5300.

In conjunction with the widely-rumored new case design (about which I care little, and you can read elsewhere) they may also be planning a quad-core option (perhaps using the Q9100 or QX9300) for a new flagship 17-inch MacBook Pro. I consider the gap in clock speeds between Q9100 and QX9300 to be suspiciously large, so I'm guessing Apple has a special deal on a 2.4 GHz "Q9200".

All of these chips (T8300 through QX9300) are of equal or very slightly faster clock speeds than the current line-up, and were added to Intel's product line in summer of 2008. The dual-core processors have the same price as the present ones. The quad-cores are much more expensive but Apple has customers who would pay for it. I'd guess they'll boost the memory speed even further for that model, too. Power usage is a big issue when you consider faster memory, which is probably why Apple has moved away from Intel's Montevina chipset (from AppleInsider [20]).

The case redesign probably is accompanied by manufacturing cost improvements enabling Apple to lower the prices slightly on the main line (by $100 or $200), making a little more room for the much higher price of the quad-core option.

MacBook Pro, 2008 Oct 14 (speculation)
option 1: low-end

CPU: Core 2 Duo "Penryn" P8600 (2.4 GHz) (2008 Jun 13: $241)

L2-Cache: 3M (shared by both cores)

Bus: 1.066 GT/sec

Memory: 800 MHz PC2-6400 DDR2 SDRAM

option 2: most likely 15-inch and 17-inch models

CPU: Core 2 Duo "Penryn" T9400 (2.533 GHz) or T9600 (2.8 GHz) (both 2008 Jul 14: $316, $530)

L2-Cache: 6M (shared by both cores)

Bus: 1.066 GT/sec

Memory: 800 MHz PC2-6400 DDR2 SDRAM

option 3: a new flagship quad-core 17-inch BTO option

CPU: Core 2 Quad "Penryn QC" Q9200 (2.4 GHz) (2008 Oct: exclusive)

L2-Cache: 12M (6M shared by each pair of cores)

Bus: 1.066 GT/sec

Memory: 1.066 GHz PC2-8500 DDR2 SDRAM

 

Concerning Mac Pro in Early 2009 (speculation)

(written in 2008 October)

The Harpertown versions in the Jan 2008 Mac Pros came out in November 2007 [10]. Along with several other projects (such as the Penryn chips used in the 2008 MacBooks) it uses the new 45-nm process with Hafnium hi-k MOSFET gates. This process should be able to reach 4.0 GHz (a "holy grail" hitherto unachieved with previous fabrication processes).

The Harpertown CPUs released in Sep 2008 (X5470 3.33 GHz and X5492 3.4 GHz) are too expensive for all but the top-model Mac Pro, but there is likely to be a new stepping with slightly higher voltage and the same power requirement, and consequentally higher yield, that will enable the existing speeds to be sold at a lower price. This happened across the entire Clovertown line when stepping G0 came out in July 2007 (see the Clovertown section of Wikipedia's Xeon list). Although no such imminent steppings are announced, Apple is known to have worked with Intel to get the first shot at a new production run through their close relationship with Intel (the most relevant example is the 3.0 GHz Xeon X5365 "Clovertown" used in the first 8-core Mac pro (reported by electronista [8]); other examples include the 3.07 GHz Penryn released in 2008 April for the top-model iMac; the original MacBook Air's 1.6 and 1.8 GHz processors (described by Anand [12]); and the Pentium M "Crofton" used in Apple TV (on macnn [7])). There is also the leaked news (see here) that Intel will "update in early Q4'08" related to the current "Client platforms"; this most likely refers to a refresh of the existing Core 2 line, and high-end desktop Xeons are very likely to be included in that.

A modest improvement is possible, and likely sometime in the life-cycle of the 45-nm shrink/derivative families, by increasing the cache size. Intel has often come out with different lines of CPU chips that use essentially the same design and die layout but with differing clock speed, cache and bus interface.

So for early 2009 I predict Apple will offer clock speeds of 3.4, 3.2, and 3.0 or something similar, perhaps dropping the 3.0 clock speed to consolidate the line and make room for a new flagship (see below). PCMS⁵ specs will be otherwise unchanged, but Apple can add plenty of other improvements to the system (e.g. the new Firewire IEEE 1394-2008, and the long-awaited Blu-Ray Disc) to keep their customer base.

Mac Pro 8-core, early 2009 (speculation)

CPU: 2x Core 2 Quad "Harpertown" (3.0, 3.2 or 3.4 GHz)

L2-Cache: 24M (each pair of cores shares 6M)

Bus: 1.6 GT/sec

Memory: 800MHz DDR2 ECC fully buffered DIMM (FB-DIMM) RAM

New Flagship (speculation)

A mid-cycle "new flagship" update has happened twice in recent memory: the introduction of the Mac Pro 8-core in 2007 April, and the Power Mac G5 Quad in 2004 October. In both events the bottom and middle systems were unchanged or retained the same performance as their predecessors, and Apple added a new system at the top using a much higher-performance PCMS⁵. I call such a system a "new flagship" because of the attention it draws to the most demanding customers.

In late 2008, Intel will release some of the first Nehalem processors including certain Bloomfield and Gainestown products, under the Core i7 product name. Both are 4-core chips, using a new single-die layout, and they provide two significant improvements over everything mentioned above, simultaneous multithreading and a new memory system.

Intel refers to its implementations of simultaneous multithreading as "Hyper-Threading Technology", and the feature was last seen in the Pentium 4. Two concurrent threads can share one core thanks to two complete sets of user and rename (writeback) registers. This makes the processor appear to have twice as many cores as seen by the operating system and application software. However, this requires improvements to the cache and memory system. The Gainestown supports two CPUs (in two sockets linked by the motherboard — an 8-core system); Bloomfield is single-socket only. Intel is aiming the former at servers and the latter at high-performance desktops.

The memory system for all Nehalem CPUs uses DDR3 (at 1033 or 1333 MHz) to communicate to RAM, and QuickPath Interconnect, also called CSI (Common System Interface) to communicate with a second processor and everything else outside the PCMS⁵. The DDR3 memory controller and the CSI, normally part of the Northbridge chip, is integrated into the CPU. (which is why the CPUs have such a large pin count). This makes the higher bus speed and wider (3x 64 bits) path to memory possible, and this in turn enables 4 cores to run with less cache on-chip. The total amount of cache is 1M of L2 and 8M of L3 shared among the 4 cores, which is less than the 12M that a Harpertown Core 2 Quad has, but with the faster memory this should be little problem.

PCI-X (including any video cards) is handled by a new "bridge" chip of which Tylersburg is the first example. xtreview.com [9] shows a few different examples of what's possible and also illustrates the DDR3 interface. The initial Nehalems achieve 4.8 GT/sec through their CSI interfaces, later ones will be faster.

Another advance whose timing is about right to be part of this new flagship is use of the Intel Larrabee GPU, a graphics processor chip rumored for summer 2009 release that will compete well against ATI and NVidia, but also be more suitable for non-image computing tasks. It thus fits with the OpenCL part of Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6). I also think they're developing a new, fully 3-D window UI. An unannounced surprise (like the Quartz UI was before the official release of MacOS X), it will more closely resemble a CAD walkthrough than anything we've seen so far. Windows Aero's "Filp 3D" gives a taste.

As for timing, it seems unlikely Apple would wait much more than a year after Intel's release of the new processors before using them — but it will be too soon after the early 2009 update to replace the whole line. So I suspect there will just be a single "New Flagship" Mac Pro.

Option 1, a new 8-core top model based on Gainestown

CPU: 2x Core i7 965 3.2 GHz ($999) (8 physical cores, 16 virtual cores)

Cache: 2M L2 and 16M L3 (each 4 cores share 8M)

Bus: 4.8 GT/sec QuickPath

Memory: 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC or 1333 MHz DDR3 ECC

See Fudzilla [29].

Option 1a, based on Bloomfield (will be used for 4-core models, if Apple decides to switch their entire line over to Nehalem)

CPU: single Core i7 940 "Bloomfield" 2.93 GHz ($562) (4 physical cores, 8 virtual cores)

L2-Cache: 1M L2 and 8M L3 (shared by the 4 cores)

Bus: 4.8 GT/sec QuickPath

Memory: 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC or 1333 MHz DDR3 ECC

See nV News [18], gizmodo [19], Tom's Hardware [27].

Additional Options (If moving more of the line to Core i7)

CPU: 1x or 2x Core i7 E5530 (2.4 GHz), X5550 (2.8 GHz) and/or W5580 (3.2 GHz) ($530 - $1600) (8 physical cores, 16 virtual cores)

Cache: 1M or 2M L2; 8M or 16M L3 (each 4 cores share 8M)

Bus: 4.8 GT/sec QuickPath

Memory: 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC (bottom model) or 1333 MHz DDR3 ECC (middle and top models)

see Tom's Hardware [27].

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Footnotes

1 : AiO: "All-in-One": A desktop computer that contains the motherboard and a display, and sometimes other items too. The original Macintosh was an AiO, but on this page I am referring to it as a "Compact".

2 : Announced date shown only if different from Available date.

3 : PDA: "Personal Digital Assistant": I use this acronym, which dates from the Newton and Palm Pilot days, to describe the iPhone because of its similar form factor and functionality. Both are a good match to the all-in-one replacement device predicted as far back as the late 1970's.

4 : These are the systems that I have owned (or used heavily at school or at work): Apple ][+, Mac 128, Mac 512KE, Mac IIsi, Powerbook 140, Centris 660AV, Power Mac 6100, Power Mac G3 (Blue and White), iMac G4 15", iBook G4 12", Power Mac G5 (dual 970fx), MacBook Pro 17" (Core 2 Duo). With the exception of the Blue and White G3, I still own all of these systems, and all are in good working order except the iBook (intermittent crashes during boot).

5 : PCMS: Processor, Cache and Memory System. Other parts of the computer (graphics, hard disk, and I/O) are beyond the scope of this article and generally not a limiting factor for the types of workloads Apple addresses when they pick a faster processor.

6 : SPEC CPU2006 fp_base_rate from TechRadar [33].

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Sources

Sources used in my Research

The following is a partial list of citations used for the above. If it was found by a search, the search query text is shown; otherwise the page was found through a link from one of the other pages listed here.

[7] macnn, Intel chip inside AppleTV, profits slide 39%, 20070116

[8] electronista, Apple's new Mac Pro uses special-run Xeon, 20070405

[9] xtreview, Intel Tylersburg chipset, 20070917 (searched on Tylersburg Intel)

[10] Intel, Intel's Fundamental Advance in Transistor Design Extends Moore's Law, Computing Performance, 20071111 (searched on Intel hafnium press release)

[11] xbitlabs, Meet Intel Wolfdale: Core 2 Duo E8500, E8400 and E8200 Processors Review, 20080107

[12] AnandTech, The MacBook Air CPU Mystery: More Details Revealed, 20080117

[13] MacRumors, Intel's Custom Processor for MacBook Air, 20080117

[14] The Inquirer, Someone finally finds a use for DDR3, 20080320 (searched on Bloomfield Gainestown)

[15] TD Daily, Update: Apple upgrades iMac, gets Intel's Montevina CPU early, sort of, 20080428

[16] vr-zone, Apple uses 3.06Ghz X9100 Montevina chip on the newly release iMac, 20080429 (searched on iMac X9100)

[17] AnandTech, The Nehalem Preview: Intel Does It Again, 20080605

[18] nV News Forums, 20090718

[19] Gizmodo, Crazy Fast Intel Bloomfield Processor Getting Early September Release, 20080724 (searched on Bloomfield Intel)

[20] AppleInsider, Apple's next-gen Macs to have something special under the hood, 20080728 (I read this site regularly)

[21] MacRumors, Firewire Specification Approved For Speeds Up To 3.2 Gigabits/sec, 20080731

[22] overclockers.com.au, forum discussion, 20080824 (searched on Bloomfield Gainestown)

[23] expreview, Lynnfield on track for Holiday Refresh 2009, Havendale purposed delay to Jan 2010, 20080904

[24] MacRumors, buy a MacPro 8core at 2.8ghz, wait or not? (forum discussion), 20080909 (searched on "Mac Pro" Bloomfield)

[25] AppleInsider, MacPro - need advice from Intel Roadmap Watchers, (forum discussion), 20080923 (searched on W3570 Intel)

[26] MacRumors, Intel Roadmap leak (includes Gainestown price sheet) (forum discussion), 20080923 (searched on Gainestown Intel)

[27] Tom's Hardware, Intel's '09 Roadmap Revealed: Part 1, 20080923 (searched on W3570 Intel)

[28] Tom's Hardware, Intel '09 Roadmap Revealed: Part 2!, 20080924 (searched on Intel Roadmap Bloomfield)

[29] Fudzilla, Nehalem to launch on November 17th, 20081009

[30] PC-Hardware, Intel Beefs Up Server Line with More Nehalem Processors, Phases Out Notebook CPUs, 20081113 (searched on W5580 intel X5570)

[31] Apple Insider, New Intel Xeons offer upgrade path for Mac Pro in early 2009, 20081113 (I read this site frequently)

[32] Apple Insider, Apple waiting on quad-core desktop chips from Intel, 20081119

[33] TechRadar, Intel dual-socket Nehalem EP benchmarked 20081120

[34] AnandTech, Intel's 32nm Update: The Follow-on to Core i7 and More, 20090211

[35] TG Daily, Apple gets another secret Intel processor, 20090303

[36] Tom's Hardware, Intel's 6-Core CPU Possibly Delayed, 20090420

[37] The Register, Intel pushes Nehalem EXs into 2010, 20090526

[38] AnandTech, AMD's Six-Core Opteron 2435, 20090601 (Transistor count for Gainestown is on page 3)

[39] The Inquirer (Nebojsa Novakovic), POWER7 vs Nehalem-EX, 20090907 (searched on Intel Eagleton cores)

[40] PC Games Hardware, Core i7-980X aka Core i9: Intel's 6-core desktop CPU pictured, 20090918

[41] Hardmac, Future Mac Pro: Apple to Enjoy Short-Term Exclusive Use of Future Xeon CPU?, 20091015 (referenced by a Register article)

[42] The Register (Chris Mellor), Apple plans turbocharged Mac Pro speedster, 20091016

[43] OCClub.ru, News about Intel Core 2 Duo E8700 and Core i7 980X, 20091203 (in Russian, but see image at occlub.ru/images/posts/12_09/i980x.jpg). Google translate gives the following translation:

News about Intel Core 2 Duo E8700 and Core i7 980X
  Recently, from unofficial sources, it became clear that the recent news about the upcoming Core 2 Duo E8700 is a fakie. It is learned that Intel has to produce such a model does not plan to.
  In addition, it also became known that the processor which is scheduled for release in the near future and is based on 32 nm core code-named c Gulftown will be the naming of Intel Core i7 980X, instead of Intel Core i9 as previously thought.
  Intel Core i7 980X will be produced in the performancs of LGA 1366, have six physical cores (12 virtual), have L3 cache level equal to 12 MB. Presumably nominal frequency is equal to 3,33 GHz.
  In addition to all new product will have an unlocked multiplier.

[44] Apple Insider, Intel promo confirms Apple's plans for Core i5 MacBook Pros, 20100113

[45] Electronista, Intel ships mobile Core i5, i3 to PC builders, 20091217

[46] AnandTech, New Westmere Details Emerge: Power Efficiency and 4/6 Core Plans, 20100203

[47] ZDNet, Intel sets production date for Sandy Bridge, 20100413

[48] cnet, The next, big thing for Intel: Sandy Bridge, 20100416

— -- —

Wikipedia, future Xeon (searched on Intel Future Xeon)

Wikipedia, future Core 2 (searched on Intel Future "Core 2")

Wikipedia, Nehalem

Wikipedia, Gulftown (searched on Core i9 Gulftown)

Wikipedia, Core 2 (discusses Allendale, Conroe, Kentsfield, Merom, Penryn, Wolfdale, and Yorkfield)

— -- —

Readers may also be interested in these Wikipedia lists of microprocessors, arranged by the marketing model name:

IBM PowerPC 750 ("G3")

Motorola PowerPC 74xx ("G4")

IBM PowerPC 970 ("G5")

Intel Core,

Intel Core 2,

Intel Xeon,

Intel Core i7.

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