The next generation of Intels Core processors, codenamed "Haswell" will be arriving soon, with increased CPU and GPU performance.
Intel have said their new "Haswell" processors will be arriving in approximately 3,337,200,000,000,000 nanoseconds, which in case you're wondering is the fourth of June, co-incidentally the first day of the Computex trade show in Taipei. This will be the fourth generation of Intel's core processors, following on from the Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge models, and they promise increased perfomance especially in terms of graphics and video processing.
The new processors will have support for DX 11.1 which means that the latest generation of games should run better on computers fitted with Haswell chips.
More interesting from a video point of view is support for OpenGL 4.0 and OpenCL 1.2. This should mean that software needing 3D and GPU acceleration should be able to take advantage of the power of the GPU and give increased speed in displaying and rendering complex graphics.
The Haswell chips will also support the latest Display Port 1.2 standard with support for 4K x 2K resolution and up to three monitors from a single connection.
There is also faster Intel QuickSync video, which should bring faster Mpeg and H264 encoding.
The Haswell Chips will come in a number of different form factors, including models with low power consumption aimed at mobile applications. Apple are expected to adopt the new chips in their next generation of Macbooks and the rumoured replacement for the Mac Pro may have the desktop variety of the Haswell processors.
Hopefully we will find out more from Intel at Computex and at Apple's WWDC conference on June 10th