New laptops in May

After a quiet period, information is starting to seep through on the next evolution of Intel's mobile platform, code-name Santa Rosa.
The major new feature will be the migration to a 800 MHz bus, up from the current 667 MHz. it will also integrate the Robson technology, allowing some processes to be accelerated with flash memory. Furthermore, GMA 3000 will replace the ageing GMA950.
It will come along with CPUs made for a 800 MHz bus, but with similar frequencies to those currently available.
The fastest will be the Core 2 Duo T7700 running at 2.4 GHz. However, these CPUs will be more affordable than the current line.
According to Dailytech , we'll have to wait another quarter to gain faster CPUs. Intel should then ship Merom CPUs running at 2.6 and 2.8 GHz. Some models will implement Intel's Dynamic Acceleration, which allows overclocking one of the CPU's cores in some circumstance when using apps that do not support multi CPU processing. In a nutshell, one core will be partially deactivated, while the other will be able to run beyond it's spec. The aim is a gain in performances without impacting thermal dissipation.
Knowing that Apple is completely dependent on Intel's innovations, our laptops are unlikely to be updated until those product ship. Of course, this is only about the motherboard-CPU subset. Apple could very well offer a different design, more powerful video cards, or even HD or Blue Ray displays in the meantime.
For those wishing to look even further, Dailytech unveils information on the Montevia platform, due for 2008. It will allow to make even thinner machines, support Robson version 2 and introduce 4 core CPUs for laptops...
And to think that in the PPC days it took months of investigation and incredible risk taking to learn precious little about the near future of our macs' evolution :)