The future of laptops is rosey, Santa Rosa(ey)
Global demand for PCs continues to increase. That comment is somewhat illuminating and expected, but doesn't explain what's happening in the percentage mix between desktop and notebook shipments.
The release of Microsoft's Vista operating system will help fuel the global increase of desktop models, but laptop sales will still grow at a faster rate. Intel's research indicates that in 2006 the breakdown of overall sales was around 70:30 in favour of the big, beige boxes. That's destined to draw to 50:50 by 2010. Notebooks are really, really big business, with an 18 per cent year-on-year increase predicted until 2011 (195m expected shipments, incidentally).
No wonder that Intel is paying special attention to the mobile market, then.
Click for larger imageIntel's Mooly Eden (what a great name) reckons that 2007 is the year of the gaming laptop, and announced that the mobile Core 2 Duo will be released in Extreme flavour, replete with an unlocked multiplier. Dual-core models are slated first, with quad-core on the horizon.
The Centrino branding will be familiar to you - which encompasses a range of key technologies that underpin the guts of a laptop, guaranteeing interoperability - and Intel has brought out subsequent refreshes as newer technologies emerged.
The current incarnation, Napa (rev2), will soon be superceded by Santa Rosa, and Intel helped spill the beans for the new platform spec. that will be released next month.
Santa Rosa can be thought of as an incremental update of Napa. Thinking of the three main constituents of the Centrino platform - CPU, mainboard, WiFi - Santa Rosa packs in an Intel Core 2 Duo mobile processor with an 800MHz FSB, for fasters transfers from the northbridge, and, depending upon implementation, from system memory. That's up from 667MHz on Napa.
Click for larger imageThe first Santa Rosa models will ship with Merom-based cores, superceded by 45nm Penryn in due course. What Santa Rosa will also bring is dynamic overclocking if a single core is in use. Read more about this in our Intel Penryn and Nehalem unmasked article.
A faster FSB leads nicely to a new chipset. The Intel Mobile 965-Express chipset adds in a few new features. The first is 'better' integrated graphics than the previous generation's; Intel would be hard-pushed to make it any worse than Mobile 945-Express's onboard graphics, frankly. The GMA X3100 supports Vista Premium compatibility, although that doesn't mean much, as it's a DX9 part with limited underlying horsepower. Fine for basic gaming at 800x600, but that's it.
External connectivity is good, with a PCIe x16 link for adding discrete graphics and the usual options for flat-screen, TVs and CRT displays. 2D enhancements include improved de-interlacing via Intel's Clear Video Technology. If you're familiar with the HQV benchmark, a Santa Rosa-equipped laptop scores around 95 out of a possible 130 (compare that to the preceding 945's pitiful score of just 5 marks). The chipset misses out on integrated HDMI support, a la AMD 690M, though.
Hooked up to the northbrigdge is the ICH8M southbridge, which packs in 10 USB ports, ExpressCard, PCIe and PCI connectivity and an upgrade to WiFi via Intel's 4965ABGN Kedron module. 802.11n, the new wireless standard that's not yet ratified, promises up-to 5x faster speeds than current 802.11g. It's nice to see Intel jumping the IEEE gun.
Click for larger imageThat, then, is provision for a processor with a faster FSB, a chipset to complement it, and a wireless module on an as-yet unconfirmed standard.
That's not all, folks. Santa Rosa carries Robson Technology, now known as Intel Turbo Memory, the flash-based disc-caching system that speeds up loading times of frequently-used data.
Santa Rosa is an obvious continuation of the Centrino series. There will also be another Santa Rosa Centrino variant - Pro - that covers the business features found on Intel's Q-series chipsets, mainly regarding vPro. We've already covered them here.
Click for larger imageIntel will release an add-in WiMAX card, Dana Point, early next year and launch a combo card with WiFi and WiMAX, dubbed Echo Peak, with Centrino Montevina - the next refresh.
