Small form factor Penryn chips announced

Intel has announced the introduction of small form factor Penryn and Montevina chips at IDF – these will introduce a new breed of sleek and stylish Centrino 2 notebooks.

There will be eight small form factor mobile processors, including two Power Optimised performance chips, two new low-voltage and two new ultra-low voltage Core 2 Duos, along with new Core 2 Solo and Celeron processors.

The new CPU packaging measures just 22 x 22mm—which compares to the standard 35 x 35mm—while the TDPs are also said to be lower than the 35W TDP carried by Intel’s standard mobile Core 2 Duo processors.

Additionally, Intel has announced the introduction of the Intel GS45 Express chipset, which is a full-featured small form factor of the GM45 Express chipset that’s at the heart of the Montevina platform. The two chips that make up the GS45 Express chipset are just 25 x 27mm and 16 x 16mm, compared to 34 x 34mm and 31 x 31mm respectively.

I guess this means the rumours about the Penryn update for the Macbook Air might actually come true. Let’s hope Apple fixes the other problems with the Macbook Air at the same time...

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