According to a ZDNet story (“On the near horizon — 1GHz notebooks “) Intel is on track to deliver mobile Pentium III processors at speeds of 1 GHz. Due in the first half of 2001, the chips for Windows notebooks will bridge the performance gap between notebooks and PCs.
The higher power consumption and greater amount of heat associated with faster mobile chips prevent Intel and PC makers from offering the fastest available chips for notebooks, accounting for the gap. However, Intel hopes that desktop replacement notebooks fitted with the 1GHz mobile chip will offer customers the convenience of portability coupled with acceptable performance, when compared to desktops with Intel’s Pentium 4 chip running at 1.4GHz and faster.
We all know that G3s and G4s are faster pound-for-pound than their Windows bretheren, but this move by Intel is sure to put even more pressure on Apple (and Motorola and IBM) to deliver faster CPUs or risk losing sales to higher clock speed Intel CPUs.
Should Apple care? Is clock speed really that important? Is it time for Apple to look for another CPU provider?
