Apple’s next
generation of MacBook pro notebooks may receive an introduction in as soon as
two weeks’ time, Apple Insider is reporting, following tips from a number of
unnamed sources. This March time frame would reportedly put Apple just a few
weeks behind its planned schedule, according to the site, following delays
caused by flaws found in Intel’s new “Sandy Bridge” processors.
On Jan. 31,
Intel officials announced that they were recalling their 6-Series
chipset, known as “Cougar Point,” though they had located the problem and were
beginning to manufacture new chipsets with the repair in place. By Feb. 7, the
chipmaker said it had resumed shipments of the chipsets to PC
makers whose device configurations were not affected by the issue found on the
6-Series chipset. Among those systems makers was Apple, according to a Feb. 16
report from Taiwan-based DigiTimes.
“Apple is
normally slower in upgrading its notebook products to the latest platform and
is currently still using Calpella for most of its PC models; as a result, the
company has completely avoided the impact,” the site reported.
Apple Insider
sources added that the move to the Sandy Bridge architecture wouldn’t be the only
major highlight of the new lineup. Apple’s latest line of MacBook Air
notebooks, introduced in October 2010, took design cues from the iPhone and iPad — which
had been influenced by Mac designs, bringing Apple’s design cues full circle — and
so feature instant-on capabilities and SSD (solid-state disk) drives instead of
hard drives, and keep things light by doing without optical drives. Such
features, states the report, are expected to “become more prevalent in many of
the models planned for future design cycles over the next 12 to 18 months.”
For more, read the eWeek article: New Apple MacBook Pro Notebooks May Arrive in March: Report.
