A Preview of Intel's Centrino 2 Platform
by Anand Lal Shimpi on July 15, 2008 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
Final Words
There's not much data to go on about making a conclusion here - Centrino 2 should be yet another evolutionary step over the previous generation Centrino. Processor performance hasn't really changed (thankfully our Centrino 2 test system was able to at least confirm this for us), and battery life should improve slightly thanks to lower voltage on the 25W TDP CPUs, the lower GM45 TDP and lower DDR3 operating voltage - but don't expect huge gains.
The new WiFi options are interesting, but what really matters there is how much more OEMs will charge for the 5300 over the 5100. With only a $10 difference in OEM cost, we have a feeling that the actual street price difference will be far greater. It also remains to be seen how big of a tangible performance increase we can see from the 5300 over the 5100.
Here's what we need from Intel or a capable OEM to truly determine the worth of Centrino 2:
- A fully working, fully optimized Centrino 2 notebook
- A similarly configured Santa Rosa Refresh notebook for comparison
- The ability to switch between WiFi Link 5300 and 5100 cards to truly determine their tangible value
- A Centrino 2 system with discrete graphics to truly evaluate how the switch between IGP and discrete graphics works
- Working GM45 drivers with full video decode support and proper application support for it as well. Many of these notebooks will be shipping with Blu-ray drives and in the interest of actually being able to watch a Blu-ray movie on a battery, hardware decode acceleration needs to work.
Until then, we can only conclude about Centrino 2 what we know on paper. It shouldn't really be any faster, clock-for-clock, than the Santa Rosa Refresh based Centrino notebooks. Initial results we've seen from OEMs that have gotten systems to work shows that performance and battery life of their new Centrino 2 systems aren't any different than their previous Santa Rosa Refresh systems. Compared to earlier Santa Rosa and Napa machines, the upgrade should be worth it, but if you just bought a notebook - don't be fooled by the 2, it's not time to upgrade.
Honestly the most exciting Centrino 2 CPU is one that isn't even launching today - the Core 2 Duo SP9400 runs at 2.40GHz but ships in a svelte 22mm x 22mm package (as compared to 35mm x 35mm), which should enable some fairly high powered, small form factor notebooks.
We're confident that Intel and its partners will bring Centrino 2 to market in the next month or so without problems, the brand is too big of a cash cow not to. We just wished that Intel would take its mobile launches as seriously as it does its desktop ones.
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gfxmatters - Friday, July 18, 2008 - link
So now that we have established that the HD video is broken (unless you like frame-skipping :>), how about the 3D and some games? I like Intel (I own many) and give them the benefit of the doubt on CPUs, but not GPUs. Why? Track record, from Vista issues to reported game perfornace and compatibility! Let's see the numbers....SmartyPants - Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - link
Not 100% sure, but don't the new Lenovo Thinkpad X200 have Centrino 2? Some people have gotten their hands on units and reviews are popping up.FITCamaro - Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - link
I'm glad this feature is finally making a real push in the market. And it doesn't get any lower power than an integrated Intel GPU. All I want on the go is web browsing, DVD playback and Office. If I'm playing a game on a laptop, its with the power cord plugged in.nysupport - Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - link
http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1880/85/">http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1880/85/kevinkreiser - Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - link
Seriously, does anyone know when G45 based boards will finally hit the market? The article mentions that GM45 laptops should be out within 30 days, but it seems like I've been waiting for what seems like 6 months for the G45.Brian23 - Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - link
I think your package info for the chips is wrong. 35mm^2 is smaller than the size of your pinkey fingernail. I think you meant to say 35mm x 35mm. That would be 1225mm^2 or 1.225cm^2.strikeback03 - Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - link
actually, that should be 12.25cm^2MrSpadge - Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - link
Hi Anand,you're writing:
"Note that here, while the voltages dropped vs. Merom, maximum current draw actually went up to 44A from 41A. This could be due to greater leakage, the higher clock speeds offered by Penryn or simple inexperience with the 45nm process compared to Intel's tried-and-true 65nm process upon its release."
It's much simpler than that. P = U*I, so if P=const (35W) and V goes down, I has to go up.
Regards,
MrS
crimson117 - Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - link
Not so much "new platform" as "new marketing opportunity for OEMs".I don't mean to knock Centrino - the original platform really did move the wireless revolution along.
Centrino2 however brings nothing new other than upgraded (or downgraded!) components.
I think AMD went the right way by including graphics requirements in their http://game.amd.com/us-en/amdgame_whatis.aspx">AMD GAME! platform, but only time will tell. Centrino is such a strong brand name it might be hard to top. It would be nice to see a gaming-based Centrino.
ltcommanderdata - Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - link
It'd be nice if you could also get a similarly configured system with the 2.53GHz T9400 and P9500 to try to ascertain the realworld battery-life benefits between the 35W and 25W TDPs. (I'd wish they'd just call the 25W TDP parts Medium Voltage, Mxxxx parts, which makes it more intuitive where they belong compared to LV and ULV parts.)And maybe a comparison between a 2.4GHz SL9400 and a 2.4GHz P8600 to see how big a difference the loss of 3MB of L2 cache is. With a 1066MHz FSB, it probably isn't a big deal.