Intel announced that it would be releasing its first quad-core processor for laptops next month.

"We're bringing quad-core to mobile in August," said Sujan Kamran, regional marketing manager for client platforms at Intel in Singapore. Kamran declined to disclose specifics of the quad-core chip, which will carry Intel's Core 2 Extreme moniker.

While the article goes on to say that quad-core "is more about bragging rights than a genuine boost in performance", Apple is working on their next revision of Mac OS X (Snow Leopard) which is expected to specifically focus on multi-core performance.

It's not clear if Apple would use such a chip in their MacBook Pros, which currently use Dual-Core mobile processors from Intel. Apple also uses the Intel's mobile processors in their iMac. The "Core 2 Extreme" version of the mobile chip typically draws more power which may prevent it from finding its way into the MacBook Pro initially.