According to DigiTimes, Intel is planning to launch three 65W low-power desktop CPUs (central processing units) targeting small form factor (SFF) computers (such as the Mac mini) and all-in-one computers (like the iMac) in the middle of January next year. That would make a Macworld announcement very feasible (the show runs Jan. 5-9 in San Francisco). The article says that vendors including Apple, Acer, Hewlett-Packard and Dell have already decided to launch products based on these CPUs.

There will be a total of three new chips, according to DigiTimes including the Core 2 Quad Q8200 (2.33GHz/4MB L2), Core 2 Quad Q9400 (2.66GHz/6MB L2) and Core 2 Quad Q9550 (2.83GHz/12MB L2), which will cost US$245, $320 and $369, respectively, in lots of 1,000. Those prices would make it feasible for Apple to use them in its consumer/prosumer desktops. It would certainly make sense for the iMac, though I'd think Apple would still use older technology in the Mac mini to keep prices as low as possible.

The new chips purportedly share the same specifications and model number as Core 2 Quad processors that were launched in March and August. However, they'll see their TDP drop from 95W to 65W.

Moving to the quad-core chip would be a pretty major change for the iMac as it's always used, for the most part, laptop technology. However, as Electronista points out, an optimized processor potentially mitigates these problems while letting Apple either trim costs or upgrade other components of the system. And as HardMac notes, "the iMac has passed from the role of a toy machine -- a poor man's Mac -- to that of machine of the main office, while the Mac Pro has climbed more and more in the range so as to appeal only to the most demanding of the professionals."

So I think the announcement of a quad-core iMac announced during CEO Steve Jobs' keynote (it's not official yet, but I'll be amazed if he doesn't do the keynote) is very likely. A quad-core Mac mini -- I'm less convinced of that.

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