Ten days or so ago, we explained the operation of the Turbo mode of the Core i5 and Core i7 processors of the iMac. In short, Intel does not focus any more on frequency, but within the more general framework of the maximum thermal envelope of a processor and authorizes overclocking more or less according to the load of each one of their cores.
Thus, the Core i7 runs normally at 2,8 GHz but can under certain conditions reach 3,46 GHz.
However Intel now seems to want to go even further in this process, and even for low consumption processors. The Core i7 640UM will be certainly the processors that breaks some records. Originally running at 1,2 GHz, it will be nevertheless able to push the frequency of one of its cores to 2,26 GHz. However its golden virtue will be its TDP that will be limited to 18W and will include a graphic part.
Intel decided to follow what the auto industry does with its engines. They decrease the cubic capacity, which is the only means of radically lowering consumption for small loads, and then bolt on a turbo able to deliver a power close to and perhaps even higher than that of larger engines. There is, thus low fuel consumption for light usage (most of the time for an engine of a car or for a CPU) and significant power when needed.
This processor will arrive at the first quarter 2010 and will cost $305, a rather high price in the catalogue of the foundry.
