Intel's New Mobile Core 2 Extreme X7800 & X7900, Core 2 Duo P Socket (Santa Rosa) CPU’s

01/02/07

Both Intel and IBM have had breakthroughs in transistor fabrication process, so we can be sure that Moores law will continue to prove itself true. Now we know that we can look forward to smaller, more powerful processors that will consume less power.
Now that Windows Vista has finally been released to the public, it seems we will all need hardware updates to run Microsoft’s heavy new OS. (There really is no good reason to update and lots of reason not to, but lets face it, sooner or later we are all going to be running Windows Vista on our computers. Microsoft has always been the marketing genius.) So what does Intel have for planned for this year?

Well, first off we have new Mobile Core 2 Extreme X7800 Processor coming in Q2.

Intel expects to introduce its high-end Core 2 Extreme branding to notebooks in Q3 of 2007 according to the latest roadmap. The upcoming Core 2 Extreme X7800 uses the same Merom core used by the Core 2 Duo mobile family of processors. Intel’s Core 2 Extreme X7800 will arrive clocked at 2.6 GHz, operate on an 800 MHz FSB and feature 4MB of L2 cache like the rest of the Core 2 Duo family. Intel technologies such as VT, EIST, EM64T and XD/NX bit are supported, though Intel has removed support for Intel Dynamic Acceleration.

In Q4 Intel will release the Core 2 Extreme X7900, which will clock at 2.8 GHz but will have the same features as the Core2Extreme X7800. The only major difference is that the Core 2 Extreme X7900 will only be available for Socket P (unlike the rest of the Core 2 Duo family).
Also in Q4, Intel will release two new processors – the Core 2 Dou L7800 and the Core2Duo L7250. The Core 2 Duo L7800 will be identical to the Core 2 Extreme X7800 except it will support Intel Dynamic Acceleration. The Core 2 Duo L7250 will be the mainstream processor and will be similar to today’s Core 2 Duo L7300, except that its L2 cache will only have 2MB.

Intel Core 2 Extreme Mobile

Intel Core 2 Duo T700 Series

 As far as Socket P goes it seems that Intel will start shipping Socket P Core 2 Duo’s in Q2. In Q3 they will start to fade out the current mainstream processors, including the T2300, T2300E, T2400, T2500, T2600 and T2700 to be replaced by the Santa Rosa lineup in Q4.

Sources from Taiwan cited by DigiTimes are now saying a new Socket P Core 2 Duo chips are on the way.
Intel is preparing to release these new Core 2 Duo versions optimized for the Santa Rosa platform. These include T7700, T7500, T7300 and T7100 models.
Intel's Santa Rosa platform is said to be out in the 2nd Quarter of this year. Santa Rosa will use the 965 Express and ICH8 chipset and updated graphics engine - GMA X3000. The platform will also come in two versions: Centrino Duo and Centrino Pro.
Prices will range between $209 and $509 for the updated socket Core 2 Duo chips to work on the Santa Rosa platform

Sources: http://www.laptoplogic.com/news/detail.php?id=2013 , http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5918