Beginner's Guide to Upcoming Technology
From Mac Guides
In the fast-paced world of technology, many consumers get lost. This guide helps you understand when new technologies are coming and what benefits they'll have to give you a better of idea of when to make a purchase.
Contents |
2008
DDR3 SDRAM
DDR3 SDRAM (short for double-data-rate three synchronous dynamic random access memory, not to be confused with GDDR3 RAM) is the next step in the evolution of RAM. The successor to DDR2 SDRAM offers higher bandwidth to increase performance when compared to its predecessors. The disadvantage of this is that at least initially, DDR3 SDRAM will have higher latency when compared to DDR2 SDRAM. However, benefit of the extra bandwidth should mean that DDR3 SDRAM will still offer a noticeable performance increase. In addition to increased performance, the new RAM also runs cooler and reduces power consumption by roughly 15% resulting in slightly increased battery life in notebooks.
DDR3 SDRAM is available to purchase now, although no current Apple products will be compatible with it. As the Mac Pro uses FB-DIMMs, it is unlikely this technology will be used in the Mac Pro soon. The rest of the Apple lineup uses Intel's Centrino platform. In June 2008, Intel will launch the Montevina platform which is compatible with both DDR2 SDRAM and DDR3 SDRAM. When Apple integrates Montevina into their lineup, they may upgrade some models to DDR3 SDRAM, however, currently DDR3 SDRAM is much more expensive than the equivalent amount of DDR2 SDRAM, so there could be a longer wait before the new RAM becomes mainstream.
Intel's Montevina
Intel's Montevina platform (now known as Centrino 2) will be launched in June 2008. It will support Penryn processors and offers a slightly faster 1066 MHz FSB (up from 800 MHz from Santa Rosa) and therefore slightly higher clock speeds of up to 3.06 GHz (up from 2.8 GHz).
Intel's GMA X4500
Alongside Montevina, the new GMA X4500 will be launched. An incremental update to Intel's GMA X3100, this new integrated graphics chip offers an additional 2 unified shaders than its predecessor to bring it to a total of 10 unified shaders.
Intel's Quad-Core Penryn Microprocessor
The Core 2 Extreme QX9300 will be Intel's first quad-core mobile processor. WIth a TDP (Thermal Design Power) almost identical to Intel's dual-core Extreme Edition mobile processors, this may only ever make an appearance in the iMac should Apple decide to use it. It is scheduled for a Q3 2008 release.
ATI Radeon HD 3000 Series
ATI's HD 3000 Series eliminates suffixes such as Pro, XT and XTX in order to use a more simplified numbering approach. Basically, the higher the model number, the higher the performance. Most of the 3000 series is actually a simple die shrink of the HD 2000 Series to a 55nm process (whereas most of the HD 2000 Series used a 65nm process) with some minor specification changes and tweaks.
Noteworthy models include the Radeon 3470 and 3650 (successors to the iMac's HD 2400 XT and HD 2600 Pro respectively).
ATI Radeon HD 4000 Series
Scheduled for late 2008 is the Radeon 4000 Series. The next-generation of Radeon graphics cards will offer 256-bit bus width to the mainstream graphics cards and feature both GDDR4 and GDDR5 RAM.
NVIDIA GeForce 9 Series
The successor to the GeForce 8 series is the GeForce 9 series. Using a 65nm process, the new GeForce graphics cards offer better performance without major changes to power requirements.
Of interest are the 9800 GT (successor to the Mac Pro's 8800 GT), the 9800 GTX, the 9800 GX2 and the 9650M GS (successor to the MacBook Pro's 8600M GT).
Blu-ray Optical Drives
As Apple are a member of the Blu-Ray Disc Association's Board of Directors, and with the victory of Blu-ray over rival HD DVD, it is inevitable that Apple will use Blu-ray in their Macs. Rumors say that a Blu-ray slot loading drive was to be included with the Penryn MacBook Pro update, however due to several quality issues, this was not possible. It should be noted that when Blu-ray makes its debut in a Mac, it is likely to only be a BTO option due to the high price tag it carries. Blu-Ray drives are also more power-hungry than the current SuperDrives Apple uses in their computer lines; this means that Blu-Ray drives will probably appear in desktop Macs before they appear in notebook Macs.
LED Displays
LED displays offer more vibrant colors with reduced power consumption. Apple promised it would transition its displays to use more environmentally friendly LED displays as soon as possible. Apple's MacBook Air, 15" MacBook Pro and 17" HD MacBook Pro are currently the only Macs to use LED displays.
SSD (Solid State Drives)
The solid-state drive is currently a BTO option in the MacBook Air. These flash based drives are rapidly falling in price and widely available 128 GB models should be available before the end of 2008.
2009
Intel's Nehalem
Intel's eagerly anticipated Nehalem microarchitecture promises some massive improvements over the current Core Microarchitecture. One of the most dramatic improvements is the integration of Intel's QuickPath Interconnect, equivalent to AMD's HyperTransport. This new technology eliminates the FSB (Front SIde Bus), which has been a bottleneck in current systems. Nehalem also promises to be more energy efficient than Penryn and offer significant performance gains.
While Nehalem should debut in 2008, most variants won't be available to the mass market, and therefore available to Apple until 2009.
Intel's Capella platform
The sixth-generation Centrino platform will be introduced in 2009 and is designed for Nehalem processors.
