Intel adds Sandy Bridge chips for ultraslim laptops
Intel has added three power-frugal Sandy Bridge chip models to its lineup, while a research note Monday from a Gleacher & Company analyst says the chipmaker will boost its presence in the burgeoning market for ultrathin laptops like the MacBook Air.
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the second chip drop in Intel's mobile Sandy Bridge rollout this year, extending the February wave of new mobile parts into the low-power tier that thin machines actually need. The segment itself has been assembling for a while: PC makers have been chasing Apple's wedge since 2008, when they moved to adopt the chips used in the original MacBook Air, and Asustek laid out ultra-thin notebooks on Intel CPUs back in August 2009.
What makes the timing notable is what sits behind it. A rumored slip of next-generation Ivy Bridge to 2012 leaves Intel with a longer Sandy Bridge runway than planned, and a separate unconfirmed Citi claim from early June says Intel is in talks with Apple to fab its custom A4 and A5 chips — an idea an Intel executive already pushed back on publicly. The Gleacher note that Intel will boost its presence in the ultrathin market is analyst opinion, not a confirmed product plan.
First-order effects
- Notebook OEMs building Air-style machines now have three power-frugal Sandy Bridge models to design around, letting them ship thinner systems on Intel silicon without waiting for the next architecture.
- The addition keeps Intel's roadmap filled through a period when Ivy Bridge is rumored to arrive in 2012 rather than sooner, so partners' thin-and-light designs stay on Sandy Bridge longer.
Second-order effects
- Apple's MacBook Air remains the reference design every PC maker is copying with these parts, which deepens Intel's dependence on Apple both as trendsetter and — if the rumored A4/A5 foundry talks were real — potential customer.
- Rival chip suppliers in the thin-and-light niche face a wider low-power menu from Intel at exactly the moment PC vendors commit to ultra-thin lineups, squeezing alternatives out of the fastest-growing form factor.
Third-order effects
- If Intel keeps feeding the segment part by part, it moves from supplying thin laptops toward defining the category itself — setting the power, size, and price envelope that OEMs design against, with Apple's Air as the template.
- The open question hanging over all of it is manufacturing capacity: Intel's willingness to build non-Intel cores, floated but unconfirmed in May, would make its fabs a competitive weapon independent of which architecture wins.
The trend: Thin-and-light laptops are consolidating around Intel's low-power silicon cadence, with the MacBook Air serving as the design standard the rest of the industry builds toward.