Apple has recently refreshed its 13-inch MacBook Pro, featuring the new Magic Keyboard, doubled entry RAM, storage, and faster processors, starting at $1,699 in Canada. Now, NotebookCheck has discovered that the new 10th-generation quad-core CPUs found in these MacBooks appear to be exclusive to Apple, at least for now.
The source notes that the latest 10th-generation parts Apple is offering in its latest 13-inch MacBook Pro are still not listed on Intel’s Ark of Ice Lake parts, suggesting that the iPhone maker currently has exclusive access to this silicon from Intel although it has previously revealed these parts will soon be hitting the market.
At the moment, the top of the line Ice Lake part listed on Intel’s website is a Core i7-1065G7 quad-core (15 W) part chip with a base frequency of just 1.3 GHz with a boost to 3.9 GHz. However, even the Core i5-1038G7 (28 W) part available for the new 13-inch MacBook Pro has a base clock of 2.0 GHz and can boost to 3.8 GHz.
Apple’s exclusivity on the parts could be relatively lengthy given Intel’s well-documented woes with its 10nm node. Given that mass quantities of the 10th-generation parts available to other OEMs are currently capped at a based clock speed of just 1.3 GHz, it suggests that Intel may not yet have sufficient yields of the higher-performing chips to offer more widely.
As to how long will Apple’s exclusivity on Intel’s new Ice Lake parts last remains unknown at this point.
