Yesterday, the MacBook Air, an ultra-light laptop was announced at Macworld 2008.
Although it doesn’t yet have all the power you normally find in a full powered laptop, what they did is amazing. They shrunk the size of the Core 2 Duo chip by %60, and were able to slip it into a computer so thin it can fit into an office envelope.
This chip is about the size of a coin, 30 years ago a processor that size would have filled a hall. They could’ve theoretically slipped something like that into a casing the size of an iPod, and created a full featured computer like the mac mini, just plug in a monitor, keyboard and mouse.
The faster processor they stuck in there now is 1.8Ghz, but I’m sure the next upgrade will change that.
They also have an optional solid state drive (SSD), which is more durable and faster. Currently they only have 64 GB, and the price is in the sky, but let’s not forget that the technology is new, and this is the first mac ever offered with a SSD.
My bet is that in about 2 years SSD will be standard for all laptops, as will be the minimized chip size and 1.8 drives. Can’t wait.
