Intel Fills in Details on MacBook Air Chip

The Core 2 Duo S, which first appeared in Apple's MacBook Air, trims both size and power consumption by a significant degree.

The shrunken Core 2 Duo processor that Apple dropped into its iconic Air is now available for public consumption. Intel finally slipped out specs on the “Core 2 Duo S” at developer conference in San Francisco this week.

According to Electronista, the Duo S uses a 45-nanometer process to help it run cooler and more efficiently, producing a difference of about 3 watts saved under peak performance conditions. Intel also managed to shrink the processors down 60 percent from their ordinary Core 2 Duo brethren.

Besides Apple, Lenovo is also currently using the Duo S chips in the Air-like ThinkPad X301. For the time being, the chips are only available in 1.6GHz and 1.86Ghz variants, but faster models are rumored to be on the way.