What's Next for Laptops?
Windows Vista may have brought some interesting features (such as Vista SideShow displays) to certain laptops, but a number of even more-exciting laptop changes are in store.
By the time you read this, Intel is likely to have unveiled the fourth generation of its Centrino mobile platform, code-named Santa Rosa. In April, the company announced that this platform revision for premium business notebooks (with extra features such as Active Management Technology, for IT staffers who manage a multitude of notebooks) will be known as Centrino Pro; at press time, however, Intel hadn't yet revealed the nomenclature that it intends to use for the consumer variant of the Santa Rosa platform.
Santa Rosa will include mobile Intel 965PM or GM graphics chip sets (the latter with integrated GMA X3000 graphics) and an 800-MHz frontside bus (up from Centrino Duo's 667-MHz bus) that can underclock during periods of low CPU use to save power. Also confirmed are DDR2-800 memory support, built-in draft-802.11n Wi-Fi with 802.11a/b/g backward compatibility, and a new CPU socket supporting a range of faster mobile processors expected to debut in the same time frame.
Intel has said that its Turbo Memory technology, which uses Vista's ReadyBoost feature and either 512MB or 1GB of NAND flash memory to speed up application launch times, will be an option rather than a requirement for Centrino laptops. Santa Rosa notebooks will probably also support not-yet-available hybrid hard drives that will be equipped with built-in flash memory.
Flash memory-based solid-state drives constitute another replacement alternative for traditional hard disks, and 32GB versions have recently begun providing performance, power, and weight benefits to ultralight portables such as Sony's VAIO UX and Fujitsu's LifeBook P1610 and B6210.
Meanwhile, AMD will soon launch its next-generation mobile platform, which includes the Hawk processor family (the first 65nm mobile part will appear in this family), and the recently announced M690 mobile chip set. The M690 chip set supports an ATI Radeon X1250 graphics option that can handle DVI or HDMI output and built-in ATI Avivo image and video enhancement, as well as third-party 802.11n Wi-Fi products and hybrid hard drives. The M690T variant will support 32MB of a local frame buffer technology that is touted to extended battery life by ensuring that the CPU remains in a low-power-state mode when appropriate.
Danny Allen
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