Yesterday, a rumor indicated that Apple was not really satisfied by the future Intel Mobile platform, and more precisely by the performance of the integrated chipset planned for entry-level Arrendale-based notebook, supposed to be used in MacBook. It remains unclear if there is a direct link or not, but an information clearly indicates that Intel decided to improve current situation and to improve the rather disappointed performance levels of the integrated graphical cores and their associated drivers. According to a representative, Intel is developing a driver which will allow GPGPU on the integrated graphical core of the Clarkdale, the desktop-dedicated CPU corresponding to the Arrendale. So, one can imagine that it would be possible to apply the same driver for the mobile CPU Arrendale. This driver will ensure the minimal level of expected performance: hardware video encoding/decoding, as well as associated tasks, such as DVD conversion.
However, one should not expect miracles, and a Citroen 2 CV will never go faster than the latest Porsche (now own by VW), but one should point that this is something new for Intel, and might well be the first step of the giant towards this strategy followed by NVIDIA.
