Grasshopper Posted February 28, 2004 Share Posted February 28, 2004 On the newer Centrino/Mobility notebook computers, the CPU speeds listed are much lower than the current "standards".I've read on Intel's website that Centrino has an updated CPU instruction set and sleeker form factors that support wifi.So are those speeds similar to, say, a P4 2 GHz? And why are the quoted speeds so much lower? Is it because of the instruction set?Another question...What does it mean on a notebook when it says "256MB shared DDR memory"? What "sharing" is occuring and is it good to avoid?tbird Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zox Posted February 28, 2004 Share Posted February 28, 2004 Quoted speeds are much slower due to power consuption and instructions.If you really want your laptop to work for 4-6 hours on battery, you'll basicaly work with half of your power (I mean CPU).Most of the time you don't need full CPU power to read online or do some small tasks therefore Power Mangement instructs CPU to lower it's speed therefore consume less power.Beside CPU large Power consumer is LCD so in newer models as soon as you boot your laptop on battery, screen will dim a bit to consume less power.These settings can all be changed in your ACPI/APM depends on your manufacturer.Centrino/Mobility is very good CPU.It is the first mobile CPU designed from scratch to be "mobile"CPU as opose to all other mobile CPU's so far.Brief explanation:Both AMD and Intel so far were designing CPU's for desktop, once that design is done, and CPU can go to production, they take that CPU and redesign it for laptops.They usually strip it down and use same/similar die for easier production, etc..Centrino/Mobile chip was outsourced project given to Israely scientists/engineers to be designed from scratch as a mobile chip.They took Pentium 3 as an reference and built Pentium M.Even AMD admited that Centrino/Pentium M is great processor but they were fast to attack wireless chip as garbage that comes with it :)Shared memory is probably shared with video.To cramp more stuff into small space of laptop and make it cheaper, they usually put graphic chip on board and design it to use system RAM.Therefore chip itself is very cheap so they earn money.Of course your graphics suffer since system RAM is usually slower then video RAM and info has to travel from graphic chip to system RAM through motherboard, which slows it down.I am sure there are people here who can explain this better :'( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grasshopper Posted February 28, 2004 Author Share Posted February 28, 2004 That's quite sufficient. Thanks for the info, especially on the Centrino. I was skeptical that it was some sort of stunt pulled by Intel to sell more laptops, but the "from scratch" info sure changes my outlook on Centrino. It is somewhat expensive though.I bought my wife a P4 VAIO a few months back and I got her quite a set up (docking station so that she can use regular mouse/keyboard/several other USB devices, speakers, wi-fi, etc.) so that she's not "confined" to a notebook at home, but unhook 3 plugs (speaker, USB to DS, and power) and she's ready to be mobile. The more I watch her work with that setup, the more I like it. So I'm trying to tempt myself with a notebook for my surfing/email/general all-day stuff/mobility while keeping my #1 desktop machine as a gamer since I'm not even coming close to pushing it right now. So a good quality, bang-for-buck notebook is what I'm looking for.I love computer shopping.... :'( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zox Posted February 28, 2004 Share Posted February 28, 2004 It's not a stunt at all.I tested several notebooks for a month and I can tell you there is a huge difference.Centrino performed by far the best with longest battery life of all and almost dead cold without any heat dissipation.AthlonXP mobile was good performer but man was it hot, so I was afraid that it might die sooner due to huge heat.They are bit pricey but if you go with Averatec or some other less known name, you might get good price. I love computer shopping....Tell me about it, I am freak when it comes to computer shopping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SonicDragon Posted February 28, 2004 Share Posted February 28, 2004 I was wondering the same thing about centrino. Thanks for the info! I'm sure it'll come in handy.Good luck with the notebook purchase! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted February 28, 2004 Share Posted February 28, 2004 Yes, the Centrino/Pentium M is quite unique. Would love to have one of these puppies myself. :)In addition to the things that zox mentioned another key thing about the CPU chip itself is the 1MB L2 cache and 32KB L1 cache onboard.Some info about Centrino Mobile Technology as it began to hit the market: Centrino Mobile Technology is made up of 3 key aspects : Pentium-M codenamed "Banias", Intel 855 Chipset family and a Wi-Fi module. Notebooks to be branded as Centrino will need to satisfy these 3 key aspects, if not, it will be branded as a Pentium-M notebook with Wi-Fi module from third party manufacturers other than Intel own Wi-Fi module. Intel has spent many months validating Centrino mobile technology to work with the current industry WLAN standards and security matters and we can expect 3rd party solutions coming out in the near future as well. For a start, Centrino notebooks will cost above $1500 and will be able to run approximately 6 hours on a full battery charge.That was taken from a very well done and comprehensive review of Centrino/Pentium M technology including some enlightening facts and details about each of the components that went into "Centrino" and their respective points of interest here: VR-Zone.com - Reviews: Intel Centrino Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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