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Centrino 2
20 September, 2008 in Laptops - General
July 15th marked the launch of Intel's Centrino 2 platform, their fifth update to the Centrino brand, and the notebook industry has snapped to attention with a large roll-out of new systems, but what really matters is how this will affect you and your choice in notebooks.
Note that some features discussed here will not be released until later this year.
Processors:
Of course, the most obvious draws of any new Intel Platform are the new processors. At first glance, the initial run of processors appears only incrementally different from their 45nm Santa Rosa brothers (Naturally, first glances can be deceiving). The low-end P8400 gives a .16 GHz speed increase from the 2.1 GHz T8100 processor, while the "sweet spot" T9400 and P9500 are a mere .03 GHz faster than the 2.5 GHz T9300. The high-end and Extreme edition processors give a .2 GHz and .26 GHz boost respectively.
What that first glance doesn't tell you is that:
1. These processors are operating on a 1,066 MHz Front-Side Bus (FSB), compared to Santa Rosa's 800 MHz, which puts the FSB speeds of these processors much more closely in line with Intel's desktop lineup.
2. The new processors also feature another update to Intel's SSE4 instruction set (Now termed SSE 4.1) for enhanced multimedia performance. In applications that can utilize these new SSE instructions (a rather limited group at the moment as developers are still writing support for them), the instruction set can give as much as a 20% performance improvement over older SSE3-based processors with identical speeds.
3. One of the most welcome changes brought with Intel's Centrino 2 processors, however, is the lower power footprint. All of the P-series processors run at a mere 25W under peak load (a 10W reduction under the Penryn-refreshed Santa Rosa platform). This will bring another small, but welcome, boost to battery life. The T series processors still run at 35W in order to balance the price to performance ratio more fairly for end-users, while the Extreme Edition X9100 runs at 44W (but if you are buying an Extreme Edition processor, you probably weren't looking for battery life, anyway).
Memory:
One of the most frequently-questioned design decisions of the Santa Rosa platform was that, even though the FSB was 800 MHz, the chipset could only support a maximum speed of 667 MHz from the memory. Intel's new mobile chipset does away with this limitation. Depending on the Manufacturer's choice, Centrino 2 systems can support DDR2-800 MHz memory, but the systems can also support faster, cooler DDR3 memory. Again, depending on the Manufacturer's choice, Centrino 2 notebooks can support either DDR2/800, or DDR3/1066 memory which will match the FSB. Memory speed is almost never an issue anymore because it is so much faster than the I/O that controls the hard drive and optical drive. Therefore there is really little advantage to using DDR3/1066 over DDR2/800, other than it uses less power (1.8V for DDR2/800 vs. 1.5V for DDR3/1066) and as a result runs a little cooler and gives marginally better battery life.
Intel has also released new Turbo Memory modules of up to 4GB for better performance. For more details on Intel Turbo Memory see our article on Intel Turbo Memory 2.0.
Graphics:
Intel's Graphics Media Accelerator integrated video platform has come a long way since the GMA 900 was released. WIth their new X4500 graphics unit, Intel's goal was to create an integrated graphics chip that was 170% faster than their previous X3500. Initial benchmarks show that they have met this goal, and the GMA X4500 has equivalent performance to nVIDIA's low-end GeForce 8400 GS dedicated graphics card. You may still not want to play Crysis on a GMA, but Intel is making gaming more and more viable on their integrated graphics platform.
In addition to the new Intel GMA X4500 integrated graphics solution, new and much more powerful discrete graphics solutions have been introduced by both nVIDIA and ATi in conjunction with the Centrino 2 platform for gamers, animators, engineers and other 3D graphics power users.
Wireless Networking:
One of the big draws of the Centrino 2 platform is that Intel has released two new WiFi cards that offer more speed, and one that offers more range. The 5300 WiFi card will give speeds up to 450Mb/s (the older Intel 4965 WiFi was up to about 144Mb/s) and the 5100 WiFi card will give speeds up to 300Mb/s. The 5300 WiFi also provides greater range.
In addition, WiMAX, a new wireless technology designed to provide reliable wireless broadband over long range, is a major part of the Centrino 2 Platform. Unfortunately, there are still a few certification issues, so WiMAX is not ready for deployment quite yet. For more information on this exciting new technology, see our article on WiMax.
So, is Centrino 2 right for you? It may just be if you're looking to get the most bang for your buck right now, or if you're looking to upgrade an older Centrino (or earlier) notebook. If you purchased a notebook within the past year, the platform alone may not be enough to warrant an upgrade unless your own uses dictate a need for newer, faster processor, Front Side Bus Speed, Wireless data transfer, or video solution. If you are in the market for a new notebook, however, Centrino 2 is certainly the new mobile performance king.