\"Santa Rosa\" Whaazat?
May 09, 2007 at 02:20:00 PM, by Thai Tan
If Santa Rosa sounds Greek and Spanish, here is some solace!
Get your 'Santa Rosa' dose to make more sense of today's steroidal news coverage of the mobile computing world.
Its been a long day, it really is. The period from May 8 2007 to the next couple of days should go down the history books as nothing short of revolutionary. Why shouldn't it be! It was the day when the non-disclosure agreements from Intel were lifted. Notebook manufacturers now had the luxury to go public with their secret-secret well crafted and feature-packed notebooks based on the new Intel mobile platform.
"Santa Rosa" has been the buzz-word for today. It also is the name given to Intel's fourth generation mobile platform for notebooks. "Santa Rosa" is actually the code-name given to the platform. Thanks to a successful marketing strategy, the Centrino branding is segmented in to two distinct divisions - 'Centrino Duo' for consumer notebooks and 'Centrino Pro' for business use.
The heart of the "Santa Rosa" platform has to be the second generation mobile Core 2 DUo processors. These feature faster 800MHz FSB compared to 667Mhz of the previous generation Core 2 Duos. The processors belonging to the second generation Core 2 Duo are odd-numbered as follows:
- T7100 (1.8GHz, 2MB cache L2)
- T7300 (2.0GHz, 4MB cache L2)
- T7500 (2.2GHz, 4MB cache L2)
- T7700 (2.4Ghz, 4MB cache L2)
- Also featuring, are low version variants in the form of 1.4GHz L7300 & 1.6GHz L7500.
Coupled with the new Core 2 Duo processors, is the Intel 965 Mobile Express Chipset (965GM/PM) with 800MHz FSB. Although processor and memory at right up there communicating @ 800MHz FSB, memory speeds are still an disappointment. Initial memory used in most notebooks would be 667MHz DDR2 RAM. DDR2 800MHz memory are expected to hit laptops later this year. (Fingers crossed)
The graphics are powered by Intel GMA X3100 graphics adapter featured along with the GM chipset. GMA X3100 is DirectX 10 capable and Windows Vista Aero ready. Up to 384MB of memory can be shared from main RAM for graphics to make the most of X3100 core.
Integral part of the "Santa Rosa" platform is the draft 802.11n capable Wi-Fi add-in card named Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN. It is backward compatible with previous generation 802.11a/g networks.
Hear, hear! That was "Centrino Duo". Here on we discuss the additional advantages of the "Centrino Pro" branding and what it brings to the table...err...notebooks. Centrino Pro has enhanced networking capabilities, all thanks to the Intel 82566MM and 82566MC Gigabit Network Connection chip that supports remote wake-up over WiFi.
Optional component include, Intel's Turbo Memory - a Flash cache residing between a notebook's hard drive and the chipset which help decrease application load times and reduced wake from sleep lag. ITM will be available in 512MB or 1GB capacities at first.
Centrino Pro adds Active Management 2.5 facilities which Intel hopes will appeal directly to corporate technology managers, who'll be able to troubleshoot laptop fleets remotely over wires or wireless. The Pro version also activates Intel's Virtualisation and Trusted Execution technologies.
Expect more news on the same in the next couple of days. We hope this write-up does help you get in touch with the topic!
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