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Santa Rosa Becomes Centrino |
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Written by Adam Gosling
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Thursday, 10 May 2007 |
Intel has launched its latest iteration of the Centrino mobile platform
ushering in new CPUs, better management and a host of incremental
improvements that should translate to a significant performance
improvement.
Apart from the faster Intel Core2 Duo processors with a faster
front-side bus, introduction of 802.11n (Draft 2.0) networking and the
introduction of support for flash memory to speed boot times, the big
change in Centrino is that it is split in two.
The release heralds the introduction of Centrino Pro, which adds
business oriented features such as Intel
Active Management Technology which provides business-class notebooks
with wireless and remote management. Intel Centrino Pro
is sort of the mobile equivalent to Intel's vPro platform on the
desktop. It is all designed to allow corporate IT departments to manage
both
desktops more effectively and efficiently. It's not adding a lot of fun
for the user.
Where users will benefit from the new platform is in areas such as
graphics performance, applications speed and battery life. The Draft N
high-speed networking support could offer better connectivity in places
where 802.11n access points are available. Unfortunately, earlier plans
to include 3G cellular wireless broadband were scrapped when a deal
with Nokia and Intel fell through.
Intel is heavily committed to the emerging WiMAX technology which is
not likely to start appearing until early 2008, perhaps Intel decided
to wait till then to offer users true wide area wireless broadband
functionality. So until then we'll be using PC cards or relying on
system builders like Lenovo to include 3G support themselves.
On the graphics side, the Mobile Intel 965 Express chipset family with
Intel
Clear Video Technology offers users a high-def video
experience which is capable of using more system RAM for graphics
processing. That's all going to help people running the new Windows
Vista interface, Aero, but means the entry-level RAM budget for the
latest notebooks should be 2GB rather than 1GB. Fortunately the price
of RAM is very low at the moment so shoppers should seriously consider
bolstering the memory in their new 965 Express laptops.
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