Intel to Launch First Mobile Quad-Core in Q3?

According to DigiTimes, mobile Quad-Cores are on their way, finally, but the initial batch are not going to be cheap. The new Quad-Core will come courtesy of Intel and debut as an Extreme part, similar to how new desktop models are debuted. If these rumors are fulfilled, the 2.53GHz part will cost $1,038 to system builders.

The chip will undoubtedly be targeted towards the serious enthusiast and also to those who need a mobile workstation. Besides carrying similar benefits of the 45nm desktop parts, the QX9300 will include 12MB of cache, have a TDP of 45W and a FSB of 1066MHz.

Despite this first offering being very expensive, it’s good to finally see them en route. According to Intel, mainstream mobile Quad-Core adoption will not occur until the latter-half of 2009, so we may not see more affordable parts until sometime until Q1/Q2 2009. I am most curious about the cooling-solution, since Quad-Cores on the desktop side can get very hot… which is bad news for a notebook.

With the market demand for top-level notebooks still below average, Intel expects the quad-core notebook CPUs will not become standard in the performance/mainstream notebook market until the second half of 2009, and therefore should not impact the desktop PC market, noted the sources.

Source: DigiTimes