At the start of IDF Taiwan Mooly Eden, vice president of mobile platforms group, Intel, demonstrated a working quad-core CPU design which will eventually target notebook platforms.

Intel is still in the early stages of development. Eden noted the chip only came from the fab three days ago but, despite the need for a large cooling system, it nevertheless ran the recently released game Enemy Territory: Quake Wars throughout the keynote seemingly without a hitch.

Intel claimed the chip contains 840 million transistors and will run at a power envelope of 45W, slightly higher than Intel's mainstream TDP of 35W, meaning that the extra performance is going to come at an understandable hit in battery life. Intel said it is on track to launch the CPU in the second half of 2008.

Sources at notebook makers revealed that, at launch, the CPU will fall into the Core 2 Extreme series. The core is part of the Penryn family and the chip will form part of the Montevina platform.

Also during the keynote address, Eden presented a new strategy for cooling notebooks based on compressor technology similar to that used in refrigerators and air conditioners. The compressor on display was a cylinder about 2cm in diameter and 10cm long and Eden showcased a notebook stand and cooling system containing three compressors which he claimed can reduce notebook chassis temperatures by around 10-degrees Celsius. Eden also showed how the compressors can be incorporated directly with a notebook's heatsink and fan assembly to be installed internally in the system.

Finally, Eden also revealed a material Intel is developing that is permeable to air but acts as a barrier to liquids. Using the material, notebook makers will be able to design notebooks that take air for cooling through the keyboard rather than from vents on the underside or rear, which is typical in notebooks today, but still be protected from accidental spillages. Such a design has several advantages, particularly in giving designers more flexibility in terms of the layout of the motherboard and components, and it should improve cooling as the keyboard offers a larger surface area for air intake and is less likely to become blocked or covered.

Intel is still refining the compressor and waterproof material but we should hopefully see notebooks featuring these technologies over the next year or so.

By: DocMemory
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