Merom, which is the code name of the mobile variant of the Intel Core 2 processor, is allegedly going to replace Yonah. Yonah is another code name for the Intel Core Duo chip found in the iMac, MacBook, MacBook Pro and Mac mini, and now it is one step away from being somewhat outdated, but not obsolete.

When asked for more info on Merom, Intel could only say that it is "a mobility-optimized, dual-core processor based on the new, state of the art, Intel Core microarchitecture". Their selfishness on details resulted to more backfence talks about the product which was recently announced together with its desktop counterpart -- the Conroe. One of those rumors that have been gaining ground is that Merom will be marketed as the Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile and is destined to replace the current 2MB Yonah chips found in MacBook Pros.

Merom comes with a 667 MHz frontside bus and 4 MB of L2 cache, double the 2MB found in current MacBook Pros. Intel is offering Merom in 2.0, 2.16 and 2.33GHz clock speeds. Apple will most likely announce new Intel-based Mac Pro desktops at WWDC on August 7. And until nothing official comes out from Apple, this will just join the long list of WWDC 2006 Apple rumors.