No, I’m not taking a moment of thought. I’m talking about Intel’s Core i5 and i7 ultra-low voltage processors. They have been announced, but have yet to be seen in official products yet. Acer has teased new TimelineX products which will use them and MSI, also going with the whole X theme, has announced that its latest Macbook Air look alike – the X360 – will be using these processors as well. Neither have announced release dates for their products, however.
And I’d really wish they’d get the hell around to it.
Here’s why. While I was doing research for my roundup of Core i3, i5, and i7 mobile processors for Bright Hub I came across processor listing which are not actually in any products yet. These are the Core i5 520 UM, the Core i7 620UM, and the Core i7 640 UM. These are ultra-low voltage processors in the same vein as the ones which we see today based off Core 2 architecture and put into the , the , the series and other ultraportables.
But here is where things get a bit off the wall – these babies have Turbo Boost. And not just regular Turbo Boost, but some kind of Millenium Falcon hyperdrive Turbo Boost. The base clock speed of the Core i7 620 UM, for example, is 1.06 Ghz. But it can turbo all the way up to 2.13 Ghz. In other words, it can DOUBLE ITS CLOCK SPEED when conditions allow.
I mean, hot damn. What this means is that these processors are going to be the best of both worlds. While they’re unplugged they can run in a low-power state which keeps clock speeds near the base and allows for battery life of eight hours or more. While they’re plugged in, however, they can turn into little hellions capable of keeping up with other processors which aren’t made specifically for low voltage applications.
Obviously, Intel could screw this up. But they’re on a ball right now, so they probably won’t. If this works as intended it will finally give us no-compromise laptops which are capable of respectable performance and also respectable battery life. Let’s keep our fingers crossed – and wait for the first reviews of the Acer TimelineX and MSI X360 to roll in.
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