Intel Microprocessor

The microprocessor in the MacBook is an Intel Core 2 Duo with the following features:

• 1.83 GHz or 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo microprocessor

• 2 MB shared, on-chip L2 cache on the 1.83 GHz configuration

• 4 MB shared, on-chip L2 cache on the 2.0 GHz configurations

• Intel Advanced Digital Media Boost

• Connection to the North Bridge IC over a 667 MHz frontside bus

• Supports Intel 64 Architecture

See the Intel Core 2 Duo Processors support site for detailed microprocessor documentation.

Intel Advanced Digital Media Boost accelerates data manipulation by applying a single instruction to multiple data at the same time, known as SIMD processing. SIMD technology accelerates vector math operations and floating-point calculations. Advanced Digital Media Boost supports Intel Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE) versions 1, 2, and 3 and allows the processor to execute an SSE3 instruction every clock cycle.

For information on Advanced Digital Media Boost, refer to Technology@Intel Magazine.

Intel 64 architecture increases the linear address space for software to 64 bits and supports physical address space up to 40 bits. The technology also introduces a new operating mode referred to as IA-32e mode. IA-32e mode operates in one of two sub-modes:

• Compatibility mode enables a 64-bit operating system to run most legacy 32-bit software unmodified

• 64-bit mode enables a 64-bit operating system to run applications written to access 64-bit address space

In the 64-bit mode, applications may access:

• 64-bit flat linear addressing

• 8 additional general-purpose registers (GPRs)

• 8 additional registers for streaming SIMD extensions (SSE, SSE2, SSE3 and SSSE3)

• 64-bit-wide GPRs and instruction pointers

• Uniform byte-register addressing

• Fast interrupt-prioritization mechanism

• New instruction-pointer relative-addressing mode

An Intel 64 Architecture processor supports existing IA-32 software because it is able to run all non-64-bit legacy modes supported by IA-32 architecture. Most existing IA-32 applications also run in compatibility mode.

For information on Intel 64 Architecture, refer to the following website:

http://www.intel.com/technology/intel64/index.htm

Processor Bus

The processor bus is an up-to-667 MHz bus connecting the processor to the North Bridge IC. The bus has 32-bit wide data running in both directions. The processor has 32-bit addressing.

The point-to-point architecture provides each subsystem with dedicated bandwidth to main memory. The North Bridge IC implements an independent processor interface. The input clock to the processor PLL is 166 MHz.

Memory

The computer provides two RAM slots that accommodate 200-pin DDR2 SDRAM SO-DIMMs up to 1.25” in height. The SO-DIMMs must be DDR2 PC2-5300-compliant and must be unbuffered, unregistered, 8-byte, nonparity, and non-ECC. The 1.83 GHz model ships with two 256 MB DDR2 SDRAM SO-DIMMs for a total of 512 MB. The 2.0 GHz models ship with two 512 MB DDR2 SDRAM SO-DIMMs for a total of 1 GB. Additional RAM must be installed in pairs of equal sizes. For additional information, refer to RAM Expansion Developer Note.

Direct Media Interface Bus

The North Bridge and South Bridge ICs are connected by a Direct Media Interface (DMI) bus, a high-speed, bidirectional, point-to-point link supporting a clock rate of 1 GB per second in each direction.

Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) Boot ROM

The Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) Boot ROM consists of 2 MB of on-board flash EEPROM. It includes the hardware-specific code and tables needed to start up the computer, load an operating system, and provide common hardware access services.The EFI Boot ROM connects to the South Bridge via Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) bus.

Graphics/Video Subsystem

Internal to the North Bridge IC is the Intel GMA950 graphics subsystem. The MacBook has a mini-DVI connector for an external video monitor. For more information on the graphics subsystem and display capabilities, refer to Video Developer Note.

For more information on PCI Express, refer to PCI Developer Note.

Serial ATA Drive Interface

The MacBook comes with a 5400 rpm Serial ATA (SATA) Gen-I (1.5 Gbps) hard disk drive. A 4200 rpm SATA drive is available as a configure-to-order option. The SATA hard disk drives operate through an AHCI 1.1 controller that supports advanced SATA-II features such as Native Command Queuing (NCQ) and PHY power management.

For more information on SATA, see the Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO) website.

For information on the AHCI controller, see http://www.intel.com/technology/serialata/ahci.htm.

Ultra ATA Interface

In the MacBook computer, the South Bridge controller provides an Ultra ATA/100 interface (running at UATA/66) to the slot-loading SuperDrive or Combo drive. The drive can read and write optical media, as shown in Table 1 and Table 2.

The optical drive is configured as device 0 (master) and complies with the ATA/ATAPI-5 industry standard. For information on parallel ATA interfaces, see the International Committee on Information Technology Standards (INCITS) Technical Committee T13 AT Attachment website.

FireWire Controller

The computer has one IEEE-1394a FireWire 400 port, which supports transfer rates of 100, 200, and 400 Mbps. For more information, see FireWire Developer Note.

Ethernet Controller

The computer has a built in Ethernet port for a 10BASE-T/UTP, 100BASE-TX and 1000BASE-T Gigabit operation. For more information, see Ethernet Developer Note.

USB 2.0 Controller

The South Bridge IC includes an integrated USB 2.0 controller supporting the Bluetooth module, IR receiver, built-in iSight camera, built-in trackpad and keyboard, and 2 external USB 2.0 ports. The USB ports comply with the Universal Serial Bus Specification 2.0. For more information, see Universal Serial Bus Developer Note.

AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR Module

The MacBook computer has an internal AirPort Extreme module, connected to a dedicated 1-lane PCI Express link and a Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR (enhanced data rate) module, connected to the USB 2.0 controller. AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth have independent built-in antennas. For more information, see AirPort Developer Note and Bluetooth Developer Note.

Audio System

The computer has a built-in microphone, a combination analog audio line-in and S/PDIF digital optical audio line-in jack, and a combined analog output and S/PDIF digital optical audio line-out jack. For more information, see Audio Developer Note.

System Management Controller

The MacBook uses an advanced system management controller (SMC) to manage thermal and power conditions, while keeping the acoustic noise to a minimum. The SMC is fully independent of the operating system.