Intel announces 2.8 GHz notebook processor

Leipzig (Germany) – Intel officially introduced a new Core 2 Extreme model for notebooks : The X7900 model increases the performance for high-end notebooks with a clock speed of 2.8 GHz.

According to heise online, the processor comes with the regular 4 MB L2 cache and support for FSB800, which was introduced earlier this year as part of the Santa Rosa platform. As the X7800, the new 7900 is also rated at a thermal design power of 44 watts, which means that you will not be able to find this CPU in your average notebook, due to its special cooling needs.

The tray price of the chip is $851. The company did not say if and when it will reduce the price for the X7800 version.

The first customer to get this high-end processor was once again Apple, which quietly began offering the chip two weeks ago for its new iMac. A 2.8 GHz iMac with a 24" monitor is currently from $2300, which translates into a $250 premium over a 2.4 GHz (non-"Extreme") model. Intel gave Apple preferred treatment before when it provided the company with 3.0 GHz Xeon quad-core processors several months before the chip was officially announced.