As we all know by now, Apple has jumped on the Intel bandwagon — and for good reason. They’re blazing fast! But when it comes to processing power, there’s no such thing as “too fast,” particularly when you’re dealing with HD video and 24-bit audio. Intel’s new Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Extreme processors combine dramatically improved performance, along with significantly lower power consumption. The company is planning to offer ten models of these latest-generation dual-core CPU chips, which combine an ultra-compact design with clock speeds from 1.86 to 2.93GHz. The server versions are already shipping, with desktop versions expected by mid-August and chips for laptop computers by the end of the month. According to Intel, the new chips will deliver up to 40% faster performance while consuming 40% less power than its Pentium D Processor 960. Much of the speed gain comes in the form of floating-point calculations, which is critical for low-latency audio and HD video production.
