Intel's Core Duo Launch - Notebook Performance Revealed
by Anand Lal Shimpi on January 5, 2006 8:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
It seems almost anti-climactic, given how much we’ve seen of Intel’s new Centrino platform and not to mention that we’ve already been able to benchmark the new Core Duo CPU. Believe it or not, despite the months of leaks of new logos and pre-NDA benchmarks, today is the official launch of Intel’s Centrino Duo platform. Or another way of looking at it: today is Yonah’s public birthday.
We were so excited about Yonah when we first heard about it, but now that we already know so much is there anything more worth talking about? And is there even anything more worth getting excited about? We already know it’s going to be called the Core Duo, we already know about Intel’s Leap ahead slogan and we’ve heard the word platform from Intel more times in the past year than we’ve heard in the past decade. Is this even an article worth doing?
As if you didn’t already know the answer to that rhetorical question, we should at least point out one thing. In our previous articles we looked at Yonah very similar to a fish out of water, we compared a very fast, very cool running, low power mobile processor to a bunch of desktop alternatives. We used it to give us a clue into future desktop performance from Intel, but it was what we didn’t do that makes this article today so very important. What we didn’t do with Yonah was stick it in a notebook and see how it fares in its natural habitat. And that’s what we’re here for today.
Today’s article is very much a look at Yonah and Centrino Duo as they were intended to be viewed - as members of a mobile society. The primary point of comparison here today will be Dothan and the previous generation Centrino. While we would like to compare to AMD’s Turion 64, we only had a very limited time with the notebooks in this review and we could not get a Turion 64 notebook given the short notice and time constraints. The other point worth mentioning is that the Turion 64 vs. Yonah comparison will be a lot more fair and make a lot more sense when AMD releases their dual core Turion later this quarter.
As we mentioned above, not only is today the official launch of Intel’s Centrino Duo platform, it is the official unveiling of Intel’s new logo and slogan - Leap ahead.
We’ll save all criticisms of the Viiv brand and Leap ahead for you the readers, but here are the new logos:
And for old time's sake, here's the old logo in use:
The new slogan is supposed to signify Intel’s shift away from focusing “inside” and starting to look at platforms and solutions for the end users.
With that out of the way, it’s time to look at what Intel’s Israel team has been working on for the past couple of years.
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OvErHeAtInG - Saturday, January 7, 2006 - link
You hit the nail on the head. The increased power consumption would not be worth it. And IIRC was pointed out in the article, higher memory freq would provide a really minimal performance increase since the FSB is already lower bandwidth than that.psychobriggsy - Friday, January 6, 2006 - link
Did anyone else notice the strange mention of three compaq laptops on page 13 IIRC of the review?Anyway, this looks like a good product from Intel which will keep them ahead in mobile areas for the foreseeable future. AMD may catch up of course, but we will see what they offer later this year. I'm sure that revision F will be good though, and DDR2 will reduce power consumption on AMD notebooks a bit more.
Stolichnaya - Friday, January 6, 2006 - link
Looks like the 'i' is going to crash on it's left side any time...nserra - Friday, January 6, 2006 - link
You are all dreaming here, thinking that amd can release a processor (platform) as good as this for the notebook area. The only extra is the 64 bit.They lack all the others, and primary ones:
-Good platform from one of their partners.
-Low power chipset to couple with the processor.
-Brand recognition....
nidomus - Monday, January 9, 2006 - link
coughfanboycoughBrucmack - Friday, January 6, 2006 - link
I'm normally not a spelling nazi, but this is the second time I've seen this on Anandtech, and it's really annoying...On page 5, the word you're looking for is "segue", not "segway".
Shark Tek - Thursday, January 5, 2006 - link
Great package but I don't have money for it :(http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1908402,00.as...">Dell Inspiron E1705
Type: Gaming, General Purpose, Media
Operating System: MS Windows XP Media Center
Processor Name: Intel Pentium M T2500
Processor Speed: 2 GHz
RAM: 1024 MB
Hard Drive Capacity: 80 GB
Graphics: nVidia GeForce Go 7800GTX
Primary Optical Drive: Dual-Layer DVD+/-RW
Wireless: 802.11a/g
Screen Size: 17 inches
Screen Size Type: widescreen
System Weight: 8.2 lbs
Calin - Friday, January 6, 2006 - link
But that isn't a portable laptop, is a towable one :(Shark Tek - Thursday, January 5, 2006 - link
That power consumption will be equal or better than previous Pentium-M generation. Now lets wait for AMD what they have to offer when they launch the Turion64 X2.They wont be sufficient to compete with "Core Duo" the only real advantages over intel are 64 bit support and cheaper cpu prices, nothing else.
Intel will leap forward a few more years in the mobile market.
Viditor - Thursday, January 5, 2006 - link
Keep in mind that you're just making an "enthusiastic guess" here...
AMD has started a new process of strained silicon on their 90nm chips which is specifically targeted at reducing power and increasing effeciency.
These are released in new steppings rather than new architectures (remember Rev E cut power requirements in half compared to previous generations of 90nm chips).
Even more important is the platforms...remember that the Turion isn't even 1 year old, and the platform designs are still minimal at best. It would be foolish to discount AMD at this point.
That said, Intel deserves hearty congratulations on the duo and it's platform! 2006 is going to be an interesting year...!