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Intel Announces New, Slower, Chip

kshkval writes "According to Business Week, Intel is marketing the Centrino, a 1.6 Ghz chip that is slower than previous laptop processors from Intel, but does more. Hey, isn't that what Apple and AMD have gotten so much guff about? The worm turns..."

400 comments

  1. Go INTEL! by naelurec · · Score: 5, Funny

    A better built, more efficient chip .. I like it. Though since its winter, I'll stick with my AMD chips to keep me warm.

    1. Re:Go INTEL! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      One has to realize that the new chip competes directly with the Transmetia Processors, not with Intel P4. So instead of looking at it as a step back 1.5 Ghz, look at it as an increase of 600 Mhz over the 1 Ghz Crusoe. I wonder what the will market it as (fade to daydream of "Intel-Pentium-4-Mobile-Hyperthreading-Altra-Mobil e")

    2. Re:Go INTEL! by deadsaijinx* · · Score: 1

      i also use it to make alphabet soup.... mmmmmm

      --
      YOU SUCK BALLS!
    3. Re:Go INTEL! by MalleusEBHC · · Score: 5, Funny

      (fade to daydream of "Intel-Pentium-4-Mobile-Hyperthreading-Altra-Mobil e")

      ***Error. Your fade has been interrupted and your laptop put to sleep mode due to low battery.

    4. Re:Go INTEL! by juggleme · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Actually, you'll need to get one of the new 3.06 GHz P4s; it's power dissipation is above and beyond any Athlon. The highest an Athlon ever got was ~74 W max; the current P4 has an average of 81 W and a max of ~105 W.

      http://www.aceshardware.com/read.jsp?id=50000365

    5. Re:Go INTEL! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Sure, but if AMD made this new 1.6GHz chip, they'd call it a 2100+ just to confuse everyone.

    6. Re:Go INTEL! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting
      ...current P4 has an average of 81 W and a max of ~105 W...

      No kidding. I am so sick of all that Intel FUD and fanboy cheerleading.

      Say it with me, ladies: "A Pentium 4 without proper cooling will die just as quickly as an Athlon without proper cooling."

    7. Re:Go INTEL! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How am I supposed to cook my hot grits with this chip? Insensitive clods.

    8. Re:Go INTEL! by GreenHell · · Score: 2, Informative

      "A Pentium 4 without proper cooling will die just as quickly as an Athlon without proper cooling."

      Hardly.

      --
      "I won't mod you down - I feel the need to call you a twit explicitly, rather than by implication."
    9. Re:Go INTEL! by homesteader · · Score: 1

      The new G4 (MPC7457 and MPC7447) draw a paltry 10 watts at 1 GHz I guess that means the real reason my Mac is slower is the subsidization of power keeping energy cheap making it more cost effective to have 1 P4 instead of 8 G4's

    10. Re:Go INTEL! by sebi · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Right. That comparison from September 2001 is really interesting. And so relevant to the topic at hand.

    11. Re:Go INTEL! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      a) It's still Athlon's and P4's.
      b) It's relevant to the post it's replying to.

      Unless you want to bring up specific chips, rather than the original poster's broad comment regarding P4s and Athlons, then there's really nothing to be complaining about.

    12. Re:Go INTEL! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      actually intel is planning to go with a naming scheme just like amd for thier for thier mobile pentium chip.

    13. Re:Go INTEL! by inode_buddha · · Score: 1

      Thanks for the info, I feel *so* old... I've been bitching for years about my dual Pentium Pro 200 MHz box sucking ~ 40 watts/cpu... tho the deep pipelines and 1 Mb caches compensates for that a bit.

      You should see what Linux runs like on it tho, screw the laptops when we have this!

      --
      C|N>K
    14. Re:Go INTEL! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You do know that a P4 gives off more heat than a Thoroughbred Athlon, right?

    15. Re:Go INTEL! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't even think about that. This 1.6Ghz chip keeps up with a P4 2.2/2.4 It's BARELY slower.

      Competing with Transmeta - Transmeta 1Ghz are the slowest piece of junk ever. An 800Mhz P3 is faster.

    16. Re:Go INTEL! by juggleme · · Score: 2, Interesting

      IMHO, one of the better reasons for getting an old G3 imac at this late date is that the entire machine (including monitor) draws a maximum of 150 W. The new one is 130 or 160 depending on the screen size. Not too shabby...

      http://www.apple.com/imac/g3/specs.html
      http:// www.apple.com/imac/specs.html

    17. Re:Go INTEL! by Dr.+Spork · · Score: 1
      Your comment sounds funny because it makes me picture an Intel board meeting where they discuss how they're going to move in on Transmeta's turf. That's funny, because Transmeta has no turf. I haven't followed recent developments, but I suspect there really aren't many. I'm not sure why Transmeta hasn't been bought yet, because they hold some pretty significant patents and IP. But it's funny to consider them "in the game" somehow. I feel sad about it. I was a fan of what they were doing. I hope it's AMD who buys them (but I think the chances are low).

      Maybe Transmeta is being stung by the same problems as nVidia, since IIRC they both use TSMC for all their fabbing.

    18. Re:Go INTEL! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey,it's only winter in the Northern Hemishpere! :-)

    19. Re:Go INTEL! by nnd · · Score: 2, Informative

      you can get very small (~10 inch screen) laptops from fujitsu, sony, and i believe a few others that run on a crusoe processor. all the ones i have seen were 867mhz.

    20. Re:Go INTEL! by quarter · · Score: 3, Interesting

      one of the coolest things I read about banias/centrino was this IDF demo, where it was drawing only 7 watts while doing 30fps mpeg4 encoding, then dropping down to 1 watt when it was done.

    21. Re:Go INTEL! by RzUpAnmsCwrds · · Score: 1

      It's not relavent. It's called thermal protection, and it's been on AMD motherboards for nine months. It's been in AMD CPUs since Palamino.

    22. Re:Go INTEL! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      2002 was a bad year for tmta, but they have had a few quarters of 6M in revenues, enough to keep them going for a while. They still need to break into he US market in a big way if they're going to survive.

      They state in their 10K that their reliance on TSMC is a risk. It *has* hurt them, but some of their problems are their own.

    23. Re:Go INTEL! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So it's improved since the Palomino core used in the test?

      Thank you. That's the type of inoformation that I was looking for.

    24. Re:Go INTEL! by eechuah · · Score: 1

      Wrong. AMD has a thermal diode, which TELLS the motherboard that the chip is overheating. If the motherboard doesn't respond in time, TOO BAD. Intel's P4 has a thermal throttle that automatically slows down the chip during high temp conditions; doesn't depend on the motherboard.

      Sometimes, the lack of facts on /. amazes me.

    25. Re:Go INTEL! by ccp · · Score: 1


      I still don't understand why there's no ATX mobo to try a Transmeta chip on.

      I have no need for blazing speed, but I'd like a quiet machine.

      Please, Taiwan?

      Cheers,

    26. Re:Go INTEL! by dxroland · · Score: 1

      No kidding. My heat doesn't work and my Athlon is the only thing that keeps me from freezing at night!

    27. Re:Go INTEL! by RzUpAnmsCwrds · · Score: 1

      Look at Tom's followup, it describes a very inexpensive circuit that can protect the CPU, and how that circiut managed to protect the CPU during heatsink failure.

      That circuit has been on many motherboards for quite some time.

      And, let's be real. A properly installed heatsink will almost NEVER disloge itself from the system randomly. Fan failure is more common, but that can be handled by the BIOS or software like MBM5.

  2. "bout time... by natron+2.0 · · Score: 0, Redundant

    sounds like intel has finnaly decided to jump on the bandwagon...but what is up with that name? Centrino?

    1. Re:"bout time... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      They were going to use experimental "Centium" chips, but they smashed them all together accidentally. The results were virtual processors, dubbed "centrinos" by physicists. Make absolutely sure you don't place your centrinos by anticentrinos. Also, the chips have a small mass, and count as dark matter.

    2. Re:"bout time... by Ponty · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's the particle released when you smash together two Apple Centris Macs. Because there aren't many Centrises available anymore, they couldn't use as many Centrinos per chip as they wanted, so they had to drop the speed back down to 1.6GHz.

    3. Re:"bout time... by Stonent1 · · Score: 1

      But most of the Centrises I've seen had a 68LC040 VS. a 68040, so that goes along with Intels "new" lesser chip.

    4. Re:"bout time... by russellh · · Score: 1
      Because there aren't many Centrises available anymore

      ...actually I think I saw a pallet of centris and LC macs on ebay just the other day. for $150 or something. wow, technology rocks.

      --
      must... stay... awake...
    5. Re:"bout time... by JebusIsLord · · Score: 4, Funny

      Actually i believe a Pentium-4 decays naturally into an Athlon, a Duron, and an anti-centrino.

      --
      Jeremy
    6. Re:"bout time... by The+Jonas · · Score: 2, Funny

      I haven't been eating any 'Apples' lately. Would that be called a "Malnutrino?" But seriously folks, the RIAA has teamed up with a famous actor to release the byte-sized 'Alpacino' processor. "Say hello to my little friend!"

    7. Re:"bout time... by mark-ss · · Score: 1

      Don't go bashing the Centris--I've got a 650 running in my lab that bascially hasn't been turned off since I got it in late 1993 (it runs a small ccd camera for capturing images of electrophoresis gels). Same original hard drive and power supply.

    8. Re:"bout time... by Ponty · · Score: 1

      I'm not bashing them at all. I had a Centris 650 for years. It was a wonderful machine. I loved it. I still like the beast (it's doing word processing work at my dad's office probably almost ten years later.)

    9. Re:"bout time... by You're+All+Wrong · · Score: 1

      It's not just the name, but what about the logo?
      """
      The logo, featuring a striking magenta color and a completely new shape, suggests flight, mobility, and forward movement.
      """

      Bollocks!

      Turn your head sideways, and what do you see?

      Bollocks!

      YAW.

      --
      Your head of state is a corrupt weasel, I hope you're happy.
    10. Re:"bout time... by e2d2 · · Score: 1

      This is exactly why I have created a centrino detector 3 miles deep inside an old volcano using an old shark tank left here by the last occupant and 10k gallons of egg whites. It has the ability to detect these centrinos, capture them, and put them on display in the Moma under the name of Justin Bailey.

    11. Re:"bout time... by hibiki_r · · Score: 1

      I'd say that they want to imitate Ford's success in Spanish-speaking countries. Just like Ford released the Nova (doesn't work in Spanish), Centrino sounds awfully close to "Cetrino", which means pig-like.

      Way to go, Intel!

    12. Re:"bout time... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Chevy is the one that made the Nova, not Ford.

    13. Re:"bout time... by Theaetetus · · Score: 1
      Had to... Logically, with pent meaning five, the chip after the Pentium should be the model 6... Which would make it the Sexium... "Sexy? Mmmmm..."

      -T

  3. from the because-you-don't-need-3ghz-HT-laptops... by dynoman7 · · Score: 5, Funny

    we don't?!?!

    --
    Blarf.
  4. Niiiiiice logo.... by llamaluvr · · Score: 2, Funny

    The logo, featuring a striking magenta color and a completely new shape, suggests flight, mobility, and forward movement.

    Sold!

    --
    Insightful: 76, Off-Topic: 379, Flamebait: 24, Funny: 152, Interesting: 201, Underrated: 55, Troll: 9, Total: 896
    1. Re:Niiiiiice logo.... by cymen · · Score: 2, Funny

      Looks like a great logo for a new feminine product--not a processor... Logo within logo! What next?

    2. Re:Niiiiiice logo.... by Oculus+Habent · · Score: 1

      Perhaps someone in marketing was too heavily influenced by the Butterfly?

      --
      That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
    3. Re:Niiiiiice logo.... by neuroticia · · Score: 1

      *laughs* "suggest flight, mobility, and forward movement" yeah right. More like "Suggests that the art director hired someone who doesn't know how to use Photoshop/Illustrator, and is impressed by simple shapes"

      Intel... The logo on your computer just got uglier.

      -Sara

    4. Re:Niiiiiice logo.... by Stonent1 · · Score: 1

      Well, it's got "Wings"! Always!

    5. Re:Niiiiiice logo.... by zx-6e · · Score: 1

      But will it run LOGO? A LOGO within logo running LOGO... Imagine that...

    6. Re:Niiiiiice logo.... by duren686 · · Score: 1

      It looks like a gender-confused moth to me. Granted, moths fly, are mobile, and move forward, but it's still too buggy for me.

      (I apologize for this onslaught of bad punnery)

      --
      Y2K Compliant since the late 1890s
    7. Re:Niiiiiice logo.... by ak_hepcat · · Score: 1

      That's what I thought too, but was immediately struck by the fact that MS's butterfly had been cliped, and so wouldn't fly..

      Hmm....

      --
      Support FSF: Stop thinking with your wallet, and think with your imagination. (cc/non-commercial)
    8. Re:Niiiiiice logo.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      with a logo shaped tattoo on it's logo...

    9. Re:Niiiiiice logo.... by The+FooMiester · · Score: 1

      I like the logo, and I am nominating it for a Brown Ring of Quality.

      --
      The previous has been a secret message to my comrades.
  5. New marketing, just wait by Pharmboy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Perhaps now we will see a new wave of marketing, measuring and such from Intel, although I doubt it.

    They have made a tremendous amount of money due to the ignorance of "moms and dads" who assume that bigger numbers mean faster computer.

    They are more typically going to say "yea, but this is for laptops only, they are different" and still focus the race on ghz. I mean, you can't blame them. their job is to make money for their shareholders, not impress /.ers with their honesty.

    --
    Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
    1. Re:New marketing, just wait by Sebastopol · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I mean, you can't blame them. their job is to make money for their shareholders, not impress /.ers with their honesty.

      Yup. Just like Apple, AMD, IBM, Oracle, Sun, Motorola, Microsoft, RedHat, and just about every other corporation except maybe Ben & Jerry's.

      --
      https://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
    2. Re:New marketing, just wait by PincheGab · · Score: 1
      I have a different take on it: I think this is a good chance for Intel to start focusing on minimization... If they do this "single chip" thing long enough, then PDAs, cellphones, gameboys, etc... might eventually be running on top of a single-chip style platform from Intel.

      I'm glad this is happening, more competition means better prices. I generally like Intel products, so this is good news for me.

    3. Re:New marketing, just wait by Oculus+Habent · · Score: 1

      Intel will start pushing what they call:

      The GigaFLOP Myth

      For those who missed it, this was humor.

      --
      That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
    4. Re:New marketing, just wait by Wyatt+Earp · · Score: 3, Informative

      Ben and Jerry's isn't a nice friendly company any longer.

      It's a division of Unilever

      http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/710694.stm

      While everything over at Benjerry.com makes you think all is happy and hippy in Vermont, the whole thing is a division of a Anglo-Dutch multinational.

    5. Re:New marketing, just wait by Pharmboy · · Score: 3, Informative

      I have a different take on it: I think this is a good chance for Intel to start focusing on minimization... If they do this "single chip" thing long enough, then PDAs, cellphones, gameboys, etc... might eventually be running on top of a single-chip style platform from Intel.

      I'm glad this is happening, more competition means better prices. I generally like Intel products, so this is good news for me.


      Actually, AMD tried the "most stuff on a chip" technique several years ago, with built in video and NIC built into the support chips. They failed miserably. I actually purchased 5 of these systems to use on a network where the clients need barely more than a terminal. I sent all 5 back. Nvidia is atempting to do similar now, but its not very cost effective for most applications. Up to now, it has looked better on paper than in practice.

      Hopefully, Intel will do better. I prefer Intel chips over everything else. (no comments from the peanut galley please) Doesn't mean I don't think they are full of crap in their marketing dept. :)

      --
      Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
    6. Re:New marketing, just wait by jericho4.0 · · Score: 1

      The NV2 chipset does pretty damn well in practice, from my experience.

      --
      "A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
    7. Re:New marketing, just wait by Sebastopol · · Score: 2, Funny


      Yup. I remember that whole brouhaha a few years back.

      But actaully, Vermont is mostly happy and hippy.

      --
      https://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
    8. Re:New marketing, just wait by Ponty · · Score: 5, Funny

      Unilever: Because you only need one Lever.

    9. Re:New marketing, just wait by Sebastopol · · Score: 1

      ...of course, even after your update, there remains the first half of my orignal post, you know, the one that points out my legitimate statement about profit motives?

      --
      https://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
    10. Re:New marketing, just wait by kraksmoka · · Score: 1

      IMHO wouldn't ben & jerry's want the coolest chip possible. after all, how much heat can you dissipate when you're using super high density intergalatic lactic cooling units on your processors , hell, people have used everything else to cool off a cpu

      --
      "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." - Rahm Emanuel
    11. Re:New marketing, just wait by eatdave13 · · Score: 1

      No WONDER I can't find Chubby Hubby anymore... corporate bastards.

      --
      "Verbing weirds language." -- Calvin
    12. Re:New marketing, just wait by Jaysyn · · Score: 1

      It's being sold in Florida still.

      (or was that a bad joke?)

      Jaysyn

      --
      There is a war going on for your mind.
    13. Re:New marketing, just wait by kirn_malinus · · Score: 1
      They have made a tremendous amount of money due to the ignorance of "moms and dads" who assume that bigger numbers mean faster computer.

      Right, the article says "In making such claims, though, Intel might itself be bolstering the arguments its rivals have long been making that chip speed is hardly everything when it comes to gauging processor performance".

      Am I the only one who finds this statement hilarious? It almost gives validity to Intel's marketing blitz that claims clock speed is everything. It makes it sound like these "arguments" somehow need Intel to "bolster" them before they will be valid...

      --
      All circuits busy.
    14. Re:New marketing, just wait by Mac+Degger · · Score: 1

      Hehe...they shouldn't be considering a merger with InterBrew anytime soon then :)

      --
      -- Waht? Tehr's a preveiw buottn?
    15. Re:New marketing, just wait by permaculture · · Score: 1

      Many years ago I went to school next to the Unilever building on the Victoria Embankment in London UK.

      You got the impression of unspeakable evil burning deep inside. It was like walking past 'Wolfram and Hart' every morning.

      --
      Environmentalism is the new Victorianism. Everyone ties on a green corset and pretends we're virtuous.
    16. Re:New marketing, just wait by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Onbaord sound came in handy, when I started mixing on my PC (two sound cards, woopppieee)

      On board NIC was ok too a bit better than the stock RTL8xxx you get on a $10 NIC.

      On board GFX, a pain but WTF it's a cheap home server boxen now! and I just put my GFX card in the new box, cheap upgrade and good re-cycling.

    17. Re:New marketing, just wait by justin_saunders · · Score: 1

      But the logo has magenta in it. What else do you need?
      Sheesh.

      Justin.

      --

      "My cat's breath smells like cat food." - The Tao of Ralph Wiggum.
    18. Re:New marketing, just wait by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm unaware of any AMD-produced chipset with video included. Perhaps you're thinking of the Cyrix MediaGX- a massive flop, yes- or one of the integrated offerings from Via or SiS, which supported any Socket 7 CPU.

      I built a few MVP4 (IIRC) systems, and they've been chugging along fine for years now. There's a SiSly Compaq around here that's doing well now that it has XP on it, too.

    19. Re:New marketing, just wait by zbuffered · · Score: 1

      they shouldn't be considering a merger with InterBrew

      They'd be UniBrew. Because you only need one brew.

      Nooa, I needsh 8!. Gimmean other bear!
      *starts to cry*

      --
      Synergy is your friend
    20. Re:New marketing, just wait by brauwerman · · Score: 1

      Ben and Jerry's sold out to a multinational concern years ago.

  6. Sideways-ass logo by clmensch · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is it me or is that logo a two-colored sideways ass? Awful.

    --
    There is no gravity...the earth just sucks.
    1. Re:Sideways-ass logo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Must be you. I don't see shit!

    2. Re:Sideways-ass logo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      no -- it is you. You're a two-colored sideways ass.

    3. Re:Sideways-ass logo by SouperDouper · · Score: 1

      I'm sure that was meant with no pun intended...At least...I hope so.

    4. Re:Sideways-ass logo by RatBastard · · Score: 1

      No, not really. It looks like a two-tone stylized representation of a certain part of a woman's body, though.

      --
      Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
    5. Re:Sideways-ass logo by Psyko · · Score: 1

      I was going to post a thread about how crappy the new logo looked and how pathetic some of these marketing ideas are but you beat me to it :(

      --
      01:36AM up 426 days, 2:46, 1 user, load average: 0.14, 0.11, 0.05
    6. Re:Sideways-ass logo by wkitchen · · Score: 1

      It has great potential as a tattoo.

    7. Re:Sideways-ass logo by tandr · · Score: 1

      it is called two-colored sideways hearth. But ,as Miky Rurk (sp?) said in "9 1/2 weeks" "I have a girl that have hearth shaped ass"...

    8. Re:Sideways-ass logo by IonSwitz · · Score: 2, Funny


      It's just you, dude... It's just you.

      If you squint a lil, it does look like the
      profile of a parrot's beak, with the Intel logo as an eye. ie, it's a self-portrait from the marketing department, saying "Polly wants crack".

      "Centrino", by the way, wouldn't that mean "One hundred rhinos"? Nice.

    9. Re:Sideways-ass logo by smithmc · · Score: 1

      "Centrino", by the way, wouldn't that mean "One hundred rhinos"? Nice.

      No, it would mean one-hundredth of a rhino. Question is, which hundredth?

      --
      Downmodding is the refuge of the weak. Don't downmod, make a better argument!
  7. Take that! by CommieBozo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Moore's Law doesn't stand a chance!

    1. Re:Take that! by Devil's+BSD · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Moore's Law doesn't stand a chance!

      Not quite. Moore's law correlates to gigahertz generally, but the actual statement was that the number of transistors on a chip would double every 18 months or so. More transistors means more power, but not necessarily more gigahertz.

      --
      I'm the Devil the Windows users warned you about.
  8. Not a processor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The Centrino is not a single processor but a "mobile technology" including microprocessor, wireless networking, etc.

    Processor is a misnomer.

    1. Re:Not a processor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yeah, but the processor (the Pentium M) will also be available separately.

      from the article:
      Although the CPU itself -- called Pentium M -- that's part of the Centrino brand will also be sold separately, most analysts believe that Intel will offer PC makers major discounts -- and advertising dollars -- to make the bundle irresistible. Intel is expected to offer generous reimbursements to PC makers that mention Centrino in their ads.

    2. Re:Not a processor by fitten · · Score: 1

      I hope they make their way into desktop machines with bioses that allow for the agressive power management.... passive cooling anyone?

  9. I'll bite by PhysicsGenius · · Score: 0
    a 1.6 Ghz chip that is slower than previous laptop processors from Intel, but does more. Hey, isn't that what Apple....have gotten so much guff about?

    Not entirely. Apples chips cost more but do the same amount (or less, there's no MMX in an PowerPC). They are also more expensive per clock-cycle and embedded in a desktop (or server, if Apple made a server worthy of the name).

    1. Re:I'll bite by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      there's no MMX in an PowerPC
      Yeah, technically correct, but still disingenuous. They call it "AltiVec".

      "price/cycle"? Do you calculate "price/rpm" when you buy a car? Wait, don't answer; I'm already pretty sure you do.

    2. Re:I'll bite by jrstewart · · Score: 2, Informative
      Not entirely. Apples chips cost more but do the same amount (or less, there's no MMX in an PowerPC). They are also more expensive per clock-cycle and embedded in a desktop (or server, if Apple made a server worthy of the name).


      First of all, some PowerPCs have AltiVec, which is more-or-less MMX. In any case if you discount MMX-accelerated memcpy applications don't use MMX anyway. We'd probably be better off with a DMA engine (or maybe a DSP). Secondly, the quote is referring to the fact that PowerPCs get more computation done per clock-cycle than x86 (particularly Intel) CPUs. So you should be measuring $/MIPS or somesuch (Intel (or rather AMD) probably still wins though).

      There are a lot of interesting trade-offs in processor design and lately Intel has been optimizing for cycle time rather than performance. Long term this is bound to fail in market segments that actually care about performance but what Intel knows (and what most of the world is just beginning to figure out) is that the vast majority of the PC market is no longer performance oriented. With modern graphics cards even cutting edge games aren't the CPU suckers they once were.
    3. Re:I'll bite by coolmacdude · · Score: 3, Informative

      I cant believe some freak idiot modded your post informative. AltiVec IS NOT MMX. MMX was some stupid extra instructions that resulted in some performance gains for some apps. AltiVec is an incredible advanced vector prossessing unit that doubles or even triples the chip speed.

      --

      -You may license this sig for only $6.99.
    4. Re:I'll bite by AtATaddict · · Score: 1

      Actually, AltiVec/VMX(IBM) is basically just a whole mess of extra instructions that result in performance gains for some(but a large "some") applications.

    5. Re:I'll bite by FVK · · Score: 1

      PhysicsGenius I hope you stick with physics because you've managed to demonstrate your complete ignorance of modern CPU's.

      "Apple's chips ... are also more expensive per clock-cycle and embedded in a desktop". WTF does that even mean?

      "...if Apple made a server worthy of the name" It's called Xserve, and you want one.

      And to top it all off: "there's no MMX in a PowerPC" has seriously got to be one of the most dimwitted things ever said on Slashdot. Congratulations on that, by the way.

      I guess I shouldn't be so harsh, you're the physics genius, not the computer genius, right?

    6. Re:I'll bite by caluml · · Score: 1

      Nope, but pounds/bhp, yes.
      That's what makes the Subaru Impreza 4WD Turbo such fun - lots of bang for your buck.

      I don't work for Subaru btw.

    7. Re:I'll bite by coolmacdude · · Score: 1

      Yes but it isn't comparable in any way to what MMX was.

      --

      -You may license this sig for only $6.99.
  10. Yay! Moore's law in reverse! by CoolVibe · · Score: 4, Funny

    Cool, what will we get in 40 years? Do we get the ENIAC back? Now _that_ is what I call a computer. Woohoo!

    1. Re:Yay! Moore's law in reverse! by Drakonian · · Score: 3, Funny

      I think it's going to go even faster in reverse. You might get the Analytical Engine or maybe even the abacus!

      --
      Random is the New Order.
    2. Re:Yay! Moore's law in reverse! by Glonk · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Cool, what will we get in 40 years? Do we get the ENIAC back? Now _that_ is what I call a computer. Woohoo!

      I realize you meant this as a joke, but Moore's Law talks about transistors, not speed. It's just that historically they've tended to go hand in hand.

    3. Re:Yay! Moore's law in reverse! by deadsaijinx* · · Score: 1

      i realize that your just trying to prove your geek merit, but no one likes it when you nit-pick a joke. It was funny, the understanding of moore's law was a bit off for the sake of the joke, and my grammar/spelling is atrocious, get over it.

      --
      YOU SUCK BALLS!
    4. Re:Yay! Moore's law in reverse! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It was funny

      if you say so.

      no one likes it when you nit-pick a nit-pick.

    5. Re:Yay! Moore's law in reverse! by Halvard · · Score: 1

      I say she's not a computer unless she's young, single, wears a skirt and is involved in breaking German encrypted messages.

    6. Re:Yay! Moore's law in reverse! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey, don't pick on him, he's a nerd. We have a hard time with humor and other social skills.

    7. Re:Yay! Moore's law in reverse! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If there's one thing I can't stand, its someone nitpicking a nitpickers nitpick.

    8. Re:Yay! Moore's law in reverse! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You freak, quick splitting hairs over that poor nitpicker's nitpicking of a nitpicked nitpick.

    9. Re:Yay! Moore's law in reverse! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't know why people think this, or why I see it in all (well, OK, not _all_) the books about computing history. The abacus isn't at all like a computer, it's just a more advanced way of counting on your fingers + toes. It's the difference between an automatic system, and a manual one.

      Sorry, hate to go off an tangents, but it's a pet peeve of mine ;)

    10. Re:Yay! Moore's law in reverse! by MacGod · · Score: 1
      I think it's going to go even faster in reverse. You might get the Analytical Engine or maybe even the abacus!

      I for one am finally looking forward to getting one of these new-fangled slide rules all the kids are talking about these days!

      --
      "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one " -Albert Einstein
  11. Wow .... by taniwha · · Score: 1, Funny

    just in time for Valentines day ....

    1. Re:Wow .... by enos · · Score: 5, Funny

      just in time for Valentines day

      because nothing says 'you're hot!' like a new processor...

      --
      boldly going forward, 'cause we can't find reverse
    2. Re:Wow .... by JanneM · · Score: 1

      because nothing says 'you're hot!' like a new processor...

      Well, it says "this is hot" about the new processor if nothing else...

      --
      Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
  12. Wireless in chip? by TiMac · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Is this really a good idea? Apple gets crap all the time because many of its components cannot be upgraded, such as its graphics cards, etc.

    So now Intel is removing a laptop user's ability to easily upgrade his/her wireless capability...say from 802.11b to .11g?

    I wonder how easy it will be for PC Cards, etc to override the CPU's wireless functionality....

    --

    1. Re:Wireless in chip? by WatertonMan · · Score: 1
      Most Mac's graphics cards can be upgraded. Which Macs are you talking about? I think the iMacs may not be able to. But all the Macs with PCI slots or the like support upgrades. Many people upgrade their graphics cards. Personally I don't do anything quite intensive enough to need such upgrades. Indeed I can't recall the last time I used a PCI slot for anything but an ethernet card. (On Macs or PCs)

    2. Re:Wireless in chip? by MagicYoshi · · Score: 1

      There's nothing preventing you from adding new network cards. You could easily add a .11g wireless card if you wish. I'm sure you can also disable the .11b built-in functionality, as well. This is simply taking what they think will be commonly used and integrating it into a smaller footprint.

    3. Re:Wireless in chip? by Wesley+Felter · · Score: 1

      The wireless isn't in the CPU; it's just a Mini PCI card like everyone already uese.

    4. Re:Wireless in chip? by Wyatt+Earp · · Score: 1

      The Apple laptops, eMac and iMacs don't have upgradable video cards.

      The towers however have a 4x AGP bus and 4 PCI card slots.

      While the iMacs can't take extra internal hard disks, Firewire kind of eliminates that problem, my 17" iMac has 3 80GB drives in external cases in addition to my 20GB iPod and a 30GB portable drive.

    5. Re:Wireless in chip? by dan+the+person · · Score: 1

      Wireless in chip indeed. Let me guess you'd prefer a wireless card that has no chips on it?

      The Centrino packages consists of a processor, a chipset, and a wireless chip.

      you will be able to get laptops with this new pentiumIII-M processor that do not use the whole 'centrino' package. The package is just a marketing gimmick really.

      If you get a laptop that does have built in wireless you can always put in a PCCard when 802.11b is no longer fashionable.

    6. Re:Wireless in chip? by JamPonyXpress · · Score: 1

      Not just wireless. According to this Register article of last November, there's also a Verizon digital certificate (think "unique identifier") embedded in it.

  13. Rocket Science by Cyberia · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The bottom line is "Do you want to exchange performance for battery life?" and "Do you not want to have to purchase a wireless card (sd/pcmcia)?" For some, that may be appealing, however, not a big enough reason for thoes of us who would hopefully know better. I for one enjoy a snappy machine.

    1. Re:Rocket Science by damiam · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You think a 1.6Ghz machine isn't snappy? Kids these days...

      --
      It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
    2. Re:Rocket Science by Jon+Abbott · · Score: 1

      I personally enjoy working on a laptop for hours at a time, wireless and all, without worrying about where the nearest AC outlet is. That's why I bought a Powerbook G4.

      Hi, I'm Jon Abbott, and I'm an Engineering student. :^)

    3. Re:Rocket Science by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      thats why you have a choice you lucky bastard!

    4. Re:Rocket Science by Anonvmous+Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "I for one enjoy a snappy machine."

      I would agree with that comment if we were talking about a desktop machine. But we're not, we're talking about laptops, and they're more specialized than desktops.

      Laptops are:

      1.) Very mobile
      2.) Very Powerful
      3.) Very efficient with batteries

      The catch is that you can only pick two of the three.

      See my point?

    5. Re:Rocket Science by MBCook · · Score: 1
      I have a Dell Inspiron 8000, and in my mind I have all three features. It replaced an older laptop. Here is how I have all 3:

      1. Very Mobile - It is a large laptop, but even with 2 batteries it's slightly lighter than my old laptop (which was P-266 era)
      2. Very Powerfull - 900 Mhz (just about the fastest you could get when I bought it), 512 MB, Geforce 2 GO (why I bought it, plays games great!) and more. With the exception of the graphics card, it's actually better than my desktop
      3. Very Efficient with Batteries - With two batteries (what I keep in it, because it's 3 spindle and I have no need for the floppy), I can play 3D games or watch DVD or such and use the backlight, etc for 4 hours straight. If I were to turn down the backlight, slow it down, only play solitare, etc I could go longer. My old laptop had troble going 90 min playing solitare on one battery

      It's a great little machine. As far as I care, it's all 3. It's quite snappy. It's only real problem is the hard drive can only sustain about half the transfer rate of a decent desktop hard drive (15 vs. 30), but that's common for laptops due to battery/noise/heat/etc. The only thing that bugs me is that I can have either built in 10/100 + a modem (what I have) or I could have had built in wireless, but not both. But when someone makes a MiniPCI card with both 10/100 and wireless, I'll buy it in a heart beat. This isn't the fault of Dell though, just not that high a demand for wireless at the time and it would have been VERY expensive I bet.

      --
      Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
    6. Re:Rocket Science by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Eh?

      I have a Dell Inspiron 8000, and in my mind I have all three features. It replaced an older laptop. Here is how I have all 3:

      1. Very Mobile - It is a large laptop ...


      2. Very Powerfull - ... With the exception of the graphics card ...

      3. Very Efficient with Batteries - With two batteries ...

    7. Re:Rocket Science by lpret · · Score: 1

      Your definition of mobile is very different than mine I suppose. I don't want a computer much thicker than an inch. I (like yourself) don't care for onboard CD/DVD or floppy, I just want batteries and small. I have a Sony PCG-U3 that I picked up in Japan, but here is the Dynamism page on it. It's a 933, 512 mb of ram, the ATI Mobility-M, etc. and is smaller than many paperback books. I get 12 hours battery life, and I have nothing to complain about. Except perhaps the price...

      --
      This is my digital signature. 10011011001
    8. Re:Rocket Science by Mac+Degger · · Score: 1

      Hmmm...appart from FormZ, what 3d/CAD/CAM packages are there for the Mac? I'm an engineering student too (mechanical), so I'm just curious, not covertly flaming :)

      --
      -- Waht? Tehr's a preveiw buottn?
    9. Re:Rocket Science by Jon+Abbott · · Score: 1

      I'm an Industrial Engineering student, and I just use our computer labs for our Windows-only software. I use the Powerbook for email, web, M$ Office, scheduling, etc. As long as I can minimize my interaction with Windows by using Linux or OS X, I'm happy.

  14. This isn't about the speed. by Eneff · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Looking at the press release, Intel outlined three priorities:

    o extended battery life
    o thinner and lighter form factors
    o outstanding mobile performance

    This is a chip to compete on the Transmeta level, if you will. The message is "If you want better battery life and acceptable performance, buy this."

    The megahertz myth is irrelevant here.

    1. Re:This isn't about the speed. by Alan · · Score: 1

      I hope they add a "make it so it doesn't fry the users' lap" priority to this list.

    2. Re:This isn't about the speed. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      What exactly are they doing to achieve these goals, other than slowing the ship down to compensate for the fact that it's a powersucking hog?

      Two of those (battery life, thinner and lighter) are essentially the same thing inasmuch as Intel can affect them. The other is basically contradictory to them. So I can have it fast, small, and low-power? And the North Bridge is in Brooklyn? Sold!

      This is a chip to acknowledge that they have nothing to compete on the Transmeta, AMD, and PPC level. Intel-powered notebooks will continue to suck (power, and generally).

    3. Re:This isn't about the speed. by bprotas · · Score: 1

      >This is a chip to compete on the Transmeta level, if you
      > will. The message is "If you want better battery life and
      > acceptable performance, buy this."

      Or, buy a Mac!

    4. Re:This isn't about the speed. by u19925 · · Score: 1

      > Looking at the press release, Intel outlined three priorities: > o extended battery life > o thinner and lighter form factors > o outstanding mobile performance All new intel mobile chips have above characteristics. Go and check their previous press releases.

    5. Re:This isn't about the speed. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      +1 Funny.

      Because it's -1 True.

    6. Re:This isn't about the speed. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or a "make it so it doesn't fry the user's testicles" feature.

    7. Re:This isn't about the speed. by Dr.+Spork · · Score: 1
      Yeah, but Intel are in a bit of a pickle, because unless they're stupid, they need to find some way to explain to their customers that these chips are a LOT faster than 1.6G P4s. Obviously, they chose not to indicate that in the model name, but they better find some way to do it!

      This got me thinking: you know, once Intel retires the P4 (which may take a while) they will almost certainly move to a chip that does more instructions per cycle. But since by then we will be so used to AMD's "rating" number, AMD's chips will "look" faster. Anyway, I hadn't thought about that before.

      Isn't it interesting how we've forgiven AMD for the PR rating crap we were all so mad about initially? Or maybe I'm just now realizing that I've forgiven them.

    8. Re:This isn't about the speed. by djohnsto · · Score: 1

      The Pentium-M (a.k.a. Banias, Centrino) is an updated P3 core with larger caches and support for the P4 instruction set (SSE2, etc.). It's been nearly designed from scratch to be low power. So yes, it *IS* low power, it *IS* fast, it *DOES* run cooler. It's not as fast as a P4M 2.4 proc, but when you're waiting for the slow as hell hard drive and memory, does it matter? I personally can't wait for these to come (and later drop in price ;)

      --
      Dan
  15. Not trying to start a flame war... by Bloodmoon1 · · Score: 1

    But I wonder if all the Intel folk that have always (wrongly) said Apple processors suck because they're slow will sing a different song now.

    --

    Request: ECM unit, 1000 km fullerene cable, 1 tactical nuclear weapon. Reason: Birthday party for foreign dignitary.
    1. Re:Not trying to start a flame war... by be-fan · · Score: 1

      There is a difference between putting an embedded processor in a mobile, small form factor machine, and putting it in a supposedly powerful desktop computer. Apple sucks because it does the latter. Intel rules because it's doing the former.

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
    2. Re:Not trying to start a flame war... by Bloodmoon1 · · Score: 1

      Now see, here we go. G3 and G4 processors are not imbedded processors, they are full blown computer processors. In fact, the main reason they haven't approached the almost usless (Find out how many orders Intel has got for Itanimum or however that made up word is spelled, even Google has shuned them) 2 and 3 GHz marks is because Motorola, the company that makes the chips, focuses more on the embedded market then the computer chip markets. And if Intel is so shit hot, why can their processors that are, by clock rates, 2x faster still not completly destroy G4's, or the sucky chip as you would say. Get your shit together before you post retarded garbage that just shows your ignorance. In fact, it would probably be best if no one else replies to this post because it has already turned into a flaming pit of slashell.

      --

      Request: ECM unit, 1000 km fullerene cable, 1 tactical nuclear weapon. Reason: Birthday party for foreign dignitary.
    3. Re:Not trying to start a flame war... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't cry, Apple girl! OMFG, she's an AOLer to boot! Kill yourself now and save the world from further propagation of your contaminated genetic makeup.

    4. Re:Not trying to start a flame war... by buswolley · · Score: 0

      many people keep an aol address for junk mail.. It doesn't mean they don't know anything

      --

      A Good Troll is better than a Bad Human.

    5. Re:Not trying to start a flame war... by be-fan · · Score: 2, Informative

      Do you understand the concept of hyperbole? It was precisely because of Motorola's focus on the embedded market that I called the G4 an embedded processor. Note that I called Banias an embedded processor as well, which it clearly is not.

      Next, the 2 and 3 GHz marks are not useless. The thing PowerPC people don't understand is that Performance = ClockRate * Efficiency. Note that both are linear factors. Raising the effifiency does not improve the overall performance any more than raising clock rate. However, raising ClockRate is a lot easier than raising efficiency, because most code (outside of a few problem domains) does not lend itself to extensive parallization. Intel, with the P4 architecture, made an engineering decision to emphasise clock rate over efficiency. As the benchmarks clearly show, Intel achieved their goal of having absolutely incredible performance, to the point where a P4 provides more than 70% the floating point performance of a Power4 in CPU-bound benchmarks. PowerPC-heads can wave their arms and shout "efficiency" as much as they want, all that matters is the end result performance.

      Lastly, the G4 is a sucky chip. Its clock rates are lower than its x86 competitors. It's IPC is lower than chips like the Alpha or POWER. It's overall performance isn't very good. In an age when x86 chips (which were famous for bad I/O) have 4.2GB/sec-6.4GB/sec of memory bandwidth, the G4 is stuck in the '90s, with only 1.3GB/sec of memory bandwidth. On top of all that, the desktop version is expensive, and the high clock rate models are only available in an Apple. The G4 is great for a number of uses. XServe, for example, is a good use of the G4 because of its good heat dissapation characteristics. So is the Apple laptop line. But as a general purpose desktop CPU, it blows chunks.

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
    6. Re:Not trying to start a flame war... by drsmithy · · Score: 1
      Thing is, while intel will have their slow, low-power, mobile friendly CPUs *and* their very fast desktop CPUs, Apple will still be stuck with their slow CPUs *everywhere*. They'll still "suck" because they'll still be "slow" (comparatively).

      In the grand scheme of things, the G4 is a fairly quick CPU. However, the fastest P4s are quicker than the fastest G4s at nearly everything _and_ have the benefits of not being crippled by memory bottlnecks. Added to that, the machines they are in are usually cheaper.

    7. Re:Not trying to start a flame war... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Intel never took this position. People with short memories forget that Intel pointed out the opposite when AMD was the first to get to 1 GHz, not so long ago.

      Intel is currently making several RISC processors for specialty application including the Verde StrongARM chip at 800 MHz.

      It is the AMD model numbers that perpetuate the mega"hurts" myth and confuse people. It would have been much better for AMD to argue benchmarks (for a few months, that is . . .)

    8. Re:Not trying to start a flame war... by dkf · · Score: 1

      <sigh>

      While performance might be the product of clock-rate and efficiency, you need to be careful about what is meant by efficiency. The problem is that the efficiency of the Intel architecture has sucked mightily for, what, the last two decades or so? These days the chips might be going at 2.5GHz but the data isn't getting onto or off the chips at anything like the speed required to keep up. It's like attaching ever more powerful engines while having a transmission made of cinnamon muffins; you don't get a lot more power to the wheels which is where it really matters.

      Anyone serious about wanting to do high-performance computing will only consider PCs because they are so cheap, 'cos they're still (after all these years) awful, no matter which manufacturer actually built the CPU.

      --
      "Little does he know, but there is no 'I' in 'Idiot'!"
    9. Re:Not trying to start a flame war... by be-fan · · Score: 1

      but the data isn't getting onto or off the chips at anything like the speed required to keep up.
      >>>>>>>>>
      First, we're talking about single CPUs here, not whole systems.
      Second, your comments haven't been true for a couple of years. The memory subsystems of current PC chips are very good. Good enough that they're entirely competitive with Sun or SGI machines in the same class (2-4 processors). Beyond that, the Sun or SGI machines might scale better, but the overall performance of the PC in its "weight class" (small SMP machines) is unmatched. Nobody thinks that a PC architecture machine will match up to a Power4 in the Power4's normal configuration (16 or 32 way) but it is true that a P4 is on the heels of a single Power4 CPU.

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
  16. Beware! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Don't let your Centrinos collide with Anti-Centrinos, or you'll get a huge explosion that will rain Pentinos, Athlinos, and other junk.

    1. Re:Beware! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also you don't want your protection family, the Julinos, and the recycling kingpin family, Chinos, to collide either. We don't want to see another Valentinos Massacre again!

    2. Re:Beware! by neurostar · · Score: 1

      or you'll get a huge explosion that will rain ... and other junk.

      You mean cyrix-eos?

      *sees the little bee buzzing around, (his wings performing at very low clock speeds) *

  17. Really, though. by Evil-G · · Score: 1

    What's going on? Are we all trapped in the MHz war? Just because a chip is slower in MHz, doesn't mean it's performance is unacceptable. I could happily do my accounts work on a pentium 200, which was once considered top of the range. Anyway, MHz isn't the absolute speed guide. It depends what you do with the MHz you hvae, so you can make a "slow" processor which performs well, or a "fast" preocessor which performs badly. MHz is a crap measurement of speed.

    1. Re:Really, though. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      I could happily do my accounts work on a pentium 200

      Agreed. Right now I'm posting this from a Pentium 166. Despite running at 1/10 the clock speed of the AthlonXP2K sitting next to it, it handles surfing, IM, MP3, P2P, word processing, and file sharing quite well. While in no way does it best the Athlon in any categories, for the applications I use it's perfectly acceptable. On top of that, there are other benefits:
      1. It boots in ~20 seconds (to Win95), including the GRUB delay.
      2. It saves electricity, since it's older and runs cooler.
      3. It's QUIET. The only fans are the CPU and the PSU. Compared to the Athlon, which at one point had 13 fans (6 now), it's dead silent.


      BTW, if you're wondering about the full specs, here they are:
      • Pentium (54C) at 166 MHz
      • Biostar MB8500-TUD Mobo
      • 80MB 72-pin 60ns RAM
      • ATi 3D Rage Pro Turbo PCI w/ 8MB VRAM
      • SoundBlaster 16 PnP ISA (w/ IDE cntrlr!)
      • 3Com Etherlink III ISA
      • Quantum Fireball EX 3.2
      • Quantum Fireball SE 4.3
      • Quantum Bigfoot TS 8.4
      • Dual Boot:
        Windows 95 OSR 3 (USB)
        Redhat Linux 8.0 (GNOME runs like molasses&LN2)
    2. Re:Really, though. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Right. It's not how fast it is, it's how you use it!

  18. Intel needs a new mantra by path_man · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Before, the chant was "High MHz good! Higher MHz better! GHz is the best!" Now, since the general public is no longer susceptible to the pimply-faced kid at CompUSA who convinces ma & paw that a 2.4GHz is indeed 17% faster than a 2.0GHz, Intel needs to shift gears and change their tune.

    The really sad part about the entire remarketing campaign is that they will get away with it. The general public has a very short memory for these kinds of stunts -- just look at how well Microsoft is doing after countless screwings over of the populace. Windows ME anyone?

    The thing to remember is that with enough marketing funds, you can indeed have success even selling snow to eskimos.

    --
    The surest sign of intelligent life in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us. -- Calvin & Hobbes
    1. Re:Intel needs a new mantra by stevejsmith · · Score: 1

      Did you pull that number, 17%, out of your ass or something? 2400 is 20% more than 2000. It's a simple proportion problem: 2400/2000 = (100+x)/100 Which when solved states that x must equal 20. I think even the maw and paw who are being tricked know that one.

    2. Re:Intel needs a new mantra by $carab · · Score: 1

      Windows ME anyone?

      No thanks.

    3. Re:Intel needs a new mantra by ndege · · Score: 1

      "you can indeed have success even selling snow to eskimos"

      Now, if someone can sell yellow snow to the eskimos, that would REALLY impress me. ;)

      --
      Sig Return: 204 No Content
    4. Re:Intel needs a new mantra by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Look up "reciprocal" in the dictionary. 2400 is 120% of 2000. 2000 is 83% (let me spell it out: 100-17) of 2400.

      The question is, what are you taking a percentage of? Both answers are correct (else we wouldn't be able to say "2000 is 17% less than 2400", which we can).

    5. Re:Intel needs a new mantra by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      "High MHz good! Higher MHz better! GHz is the best!"
      4 GHz Good. 2 GHz Baaaaad?

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    6. Re:Intel needs a new mantra by j-beda · · Score: 1
      I don't know the motivations of the original poster, but it seems obvious that the 17% came from the fact that 20/24 = 0.83333...

      This type of problem crops up whenever people quote "percentage more than" or "percentage less than", when A is 100% more than B, B is 50% less than A. Thus 2400 is 20% more than 2000, but 2000 is about 17% less than 2400.

    7. Re:Intel needs a new mantra by stevejsmith · · Score: 1

      2400 is 20% more than 2000, however 2000 is 17.666...% less than 2000. He said more, not less.

  19. Logo? by cascino · · Score: 5, Funny

    The new Intel Centrino mobile technology brand name will be represented by a new logo carrying the famous Intel Inside® mark. The logo, featuring a striking magenta color and a completely new shape, suggests flight, mobility, and forward movement.
    Yeah, either that, or "disposable feminine product"

    1. Re:Logo? by Soko · · Score: 5, Funny

      My first was thought that someone pulled 2 of the wings off of the MSN butterfly.

      Saaayyyyy.....

      Soko

      --
      "Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm." - Anonymous
    2. Re:Logo? by ak_hepcat · · Score: 1

      Damn, i should have read this far first before I posted My comment, which is practically the exact same thing, only different. And I might have spelled 'clipped' correctly too..

      --
      Support FSF: Stop thinking with your wallet, and think with your imagination. (cc/non-commercial)
  20. We can only hope by Vilim · · Score: 1

    I this heralds an era where chipmakers are finally starting to realise that unless you are doing some sort of DC project, or ripping movies 24/7 you don't need twice the power of yesterdays supercomputers in your PDA. Although I will stick with my Athlon to keep warm (Currently, with windchill it is minus 40 C out :eek:)

    --
    History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it - Sir Winston Churchill
    1. Re:We can only hope by MarcQuadra · · Score: 1

      You joke, but when I moved in to this apartment heating was $100/month and electric was $15. Now Electric is $75 and heating is only $50. It's slightly less cost-effective, but the convenience of always-on athlon computing is worth it, not to mention fewer noisy heater firings.

      --
      "Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
    2. Re:We can only hope by Vilim · · Score: 1

      I have my Athlon (1400 mhz) running 24/7 (under Linux, even though that makes no difference :p). All the time it is doing Folding@home (Amdmb Folding Frogs) so it is at 100% CPU utilisation. The side of the case is always off (Just looks cool) and my room is always noticably hotter than the rest of the house. Many times I have to open the window becasue I am sweating buckets. My dad used to complain about leaving it on all the time (electricity bill) but I just payed him twice the amount that a computer uses in a year (I got that statistic off the internet).

      --
      History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it - Sir Winston Churchill
    3. Re:We can only hope by MarcQuadra · · Score: 1

      I think my rig puts out about 1200 watts, that's an athlon 1400, a mac G3 server, and a 19-inch CRT. It's like leaving a space heater on.

      --
      "Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
  21. Great. by amberspry · · Score: 2, Funny
    Brown says: "Megahertz are no longer important..."

    There go my bragging rights...

  22. In related news by blurfus · · Score: 4, Funny

    Intel discovers that size isn't everything...

    --
    will work for Karma
    1. Re:In related news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you further consider that their previous speed-is-everything position was compensation for some male executives'...deficiencies, this sudden reverse can only mean one thing.

      "Male enlargement" actually works! Ack!

      How do I get this stupid spam filter uninstalled?

  23. at an Intel Sales seminar I attended once... by unicorn · · Score: 4, Funny

    A couple years ago I went to an intel sales seminar for retail salespeople (amazing how you can dummy a paystub with photoshop, and a scanner) and halfway through the presentation the trainer threw out "Who knows what iComp is?"

    The entire room lost it when I yelled back "A cheesy marketing ploy!"

    --
    "Politicians are interested in people. Not that this is always a virtue. Fleas are interested in dogs." P.J. O'Rourke
    1. Re:at an Intel Sales seminar I attended once... by Kafka_Canada · · Score: 1

      YOU were that guy! I just about wet my pants laughing...

      well, no, not really.

      --
      Fuck it
  24. Wireless? by NineNine · · Score: 1

    Is this wireless built into a CPU? "Centrino" brand motherboards, what? I want to know. I don't want any of that wireless shit in my boxes. I don't need it, and I don't want to have to deal with securing it. I *would* consider AMD chips, but from my experience, W2K and AMD chips just don't get along. Looks like I'm gonna keep trolling the bargain bins for reliable P2's.

    1. Re:Wireless? by HeghmoH · · Score: 1

      If you don't want wireless, um, don't turn it on?

      --
      Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
    2. Re:Wireless? by traphicone · · Score: 1
      W2K and AMD chips just don't get along

      What are you, drunk?

    3. Re:Wireless? by NineNine · · Score: 1

      I've had consistenly bad experiences with AMD & W2K. Several clusterfucks, in fact. I have no idea why, but I know I can't get good uptime with AMD in a W2K box for some reason.

  25. I WANT VECTOR PROCESSING !!!!!! by zymano · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Vector processors are much cooler running than conventional processors. They are much better at 3d graphics . Why has the computer industry dropped the ball on vector processing ? If more more effort were done on parallel/matrix computing then we wouldn't be worrying about cooling for everything from laptops to supercomputers. Even US. scientists are jealous of the japanese NEC vector supercomputer. Price to performance ratio for the computer can not be beat by US computers. We dropped the ball on electronics , soon cars and soon high performance computing.

    1. Re:I WANT VECTOR PROCESSING !!!!!! by turgid · · Score: 2, Informative

      Your 3D graphics card has a vector processor on it. That's why it can perform the 3D to 2D transformations, lighting calculations etc. orders of magnitude faster that the main CPU in your computer at a much lower clock frequency. SIMD instructions on the main CPU go some way towards vector processing (3DNow!, SSE, AltiVec).

    2. Re:I WANT VECTOR PROCESSING !!!!!! by tim_bissell · · Score: 1

      > We dropped the ball on electronics , soon cars

      SOON cars? Ha ha! You dropped the ball on cars about fifty years ago... And I have no axe to grind, my country (the UK) dropped the ball on cars about the same time...

      Tim

    3. Re:I WANT VECTOR PROCESSING !!!!!! by error0x100 · · Score: 1

      No no moderators, this is not informative, its a misunderstanding. The "vector" processing that turgid is talking about is the "3D math vector" (x,y,z), which more modern CPUs and GPUs have built-in optimized instructions for manipulating. The "vector" processing that zymano is talking about is an ENTIRELY different way of building graphics cards whereby you have an array of smaller, cheaper, simpler processes each dedicated to drawing particular portions of the screen. So instead of one humongous super-powerful chip trying to draw the whole screen (a la GeForceFX), you have a whole bunch of smaller chips, each drawing a different section of the screen, in parallel. The idea being that a smaller chip can draw, say, 1/32th of the screen in less time than a large processor can fill the entire screen, and since you'd have 32 processors working in parallel, the entire image would be drawn faster.

      Some graphics card manufacturers were attempting to build video cards based on this idea, but to my knowledge there have been no mainstream successes.

    4. Re:I WANT VECTOR PROCESSING !!!!!! by turgid · · Score: 1

      Thank you for putting me right! :-)

  26. integration inevitable by feldsteins · · Score: 1

    If the personal computer is really taking a long slow march into being a "consumer electronics device" instead of a nerds toy, then these types of changes are inevitable. (I suppose nerd machines may never dissapear altogether, but..) "Consumers" don't use PCI slots, nor do they know what they are, nor do they care. In fact I'd wager than more than half of the people who do know and care don't use them during the life of the machine anyway. So it makes sense to see "consumerized" computers doing away with these unnecessary technologies to give more flexibility in price and form factor.

    Yes, yes - my computer does have PCI slots and yes, so will my next one. But that's not the point :)

    --
    You like your Macintosh better than me, don't you Dave? Dave? Can you hear me Dave?
  27. Pentium M by Oculus+Habent · · Score: 1

    From Intel's Site:
    Intel® Pentium® M Processor

    does this mean they overclocked a 166 Pentium to 1.6 GHZ?!

    --
    That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
    1. Re:Pentium M by dynoman7 · · Score: 1

      Intel® Pentium® M Processor...does this mean they overclocked a 166 Pentium to 1.6 GHZ?!

      No.No. Say it with me... PentiumMmmmmm. Sound it out PentiumMmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

      --
      Blarf.
    2. Re:Pentium M by linuxbaby · · Score: 1

      Maybe M as in 1000 as in Roman numerals, like OS X.

  28. Well, If It's AMD by Myriad · · Score: 1
    just in time for Valentines day

    because nothing says 'you're hot!' like a new processor

    Well, if the processor is from AMD it does...

    --
    "They do not preach that their god will rouse them, a little before the Nuts work loose." Kipling, 'The Sons of Martha'
  29. It�s not slower� by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...you insensitive clod.

    'Computationally challenged' or 'differently-abled in the clock speed dept' would be more appropriate.

  30. Fluff by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What a load of fluff. Is there even anything new here? A slower chip which uses less power - shocking! Bundled technology that's already being bundled by every single vendor - wow! I can't even tell from either link whether there is one single thing that's new about the chip other than its slowed core - the retained bandwidth could just be because the FSB is still the same speed.

    Beyond that, who writes these ridiculous press releases? "Intel Corporation said today" - yeah, to ITSELF. "CES Virtual Press Kit" really is descriptive of the press these days.

    The Business Week writer tries, but can't help the fact that it's a non-story. "Intel's carrot is a new logo" - huh? In what possible way is this a carrot? You could at least argue that the existing Intel logo is recognised, though widely mocked. What possible benefit is there in the new one to a vendor? Another damn sticker on every device? And for this they have to buy a bundle of three things they otherwise could have sourced separately.

    It all seems a pathetic smokescreen way of saying "our competitors were right all along - everything we've said against them was bullshit". Also "we're having trouble moving some of this stuff, so you can't buy this less-useless CPU without it - oops well that would be monopolistic, so you CAN buy it separately, you just can't have the logo! By the way, AMD sucks!".

    1. Re:Fluff by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You obviously have no grasp of the fundamentals of mass product development. Of course all the parts could be source, independently, and then the OEM would have to spend millions making sure that all of those independently sourced parts are compatible with each other. In addition, all three componenents work together to reduce overall platform power consumption, which you would not get from independently sourced parts.

    2. Re:Fluff by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And if OEMs don't have tools or expertise to make that assessment from the choices available to them, what are they there for? What do you think they're doing the other 99% of the time, and why have competition at all?

      Sorry, the naive "Intel knows best" line doesn't fly. This bundling is a cheap ploy. There is no advantage here that couldn't have been independently achieved (indeed already has been many times over, by Intel's competitors).

    3. Re:Fluff by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Point a finger toward any single low power chip in the GHz range. Yeah.

  31. Am I missing something? Sounds like marketing by taerogue · · Score: 1

    Ok, I admit that I didn't pour through all of intel's docs for the complete specs, but it sounds like they're just "packaging":

    -The Pentium-M processor (already in most laptops)
    -The 855 chipset (is that new? My poor memory tells me the 855 is already in use too... )
    -And a wireless board (the 'new' part of the equation)Whoopie!!!

    Not to troll or anything ( I like intel ), I'm sure there are some minor goodies or better features with this package, but to me it sounds like 99% marketing (for now) and nothing really special. ...Just wanting to see more true advances, less hype

  32. Nice transition for Intel by deadsaijinx* · · Score: 1

    Intel has slowly, noticed it or not, started to improve efficiency as well as increase there clockspeeds with ease. The whole intel HT was just a way to squeeze more bang for the cycle, and that's good for the end user. Unless of course they run more office apps than other things, but those people dont usually buy 3Ghz comps anywho, so thats kinda beside the point. Either way, Intel should increase their efficiency as it benefits us, the user. I really wish my athlon had the clock cycles of an intel, or an intel had the efficiency of my AMD, and intel is at least trying to become more effecient. Who knows, my next comp might be a Pentium V (or whatever it will be called, i really dont care).
    So, yeah, in a way, Intel is kinda being a little hypocritical as its down what it has so often mocked. But then again, so many companies take the very path they have openly rejected, and this time, we benefit. YAY! PS: im sick of waiting for the Athlon64!

    oh, yeah, and macs suxor ^_^ -- not so much the hardware, but the operating system (pre-X i meanz)

    --
    YOU SUCK BALLS!
  33. Strange figures and dominant position abuse? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    While only 5.7% of all notebooks in exitence in 2002

    had wireless support is certainly ignoring Apple. I have a 3 years old Apple laptop with Airport, maybe they mean Wintel Notebooks.

    Besides that, Intel is playing nasty, they want to sell all three chips (processor, wifi and whatnot) while some competitors have better parts, especially for the Wifi. Should competitors sue Intel?

    IMO bundling any product with one for which you have almost a monopoly should be prohibited. I'd want Intel to be fined in the billions of dollars for this (anything less they won't notice).

  34. The question is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Will it run NINNLE?

    1. Re:The question is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


      NINNLE doesn't run on any Intel chips to date, as everyone knows. That's not its purpose.

  35. Re:New marketing, just wait (commercial) by $$$$$exyGal · · Score: 5, Funny
    New Commercial from Intel:
    *Man takes off his pants and forlornly looks down at his crotch.* "Don't worry!", says the hot naked chick, "Size doesn't matter!". *The man happily jumps in the bed and starts pumping his hips faster than a llama can spit.* "HEY!", yells the hot mama, "SLOW DOWN! It's not the speed, it's how you use it." *Commercial cuts to Intel CEO wearing a suit, sitting in a leather chair*

    --sex

    --
    Very popular slashdot journal for adul
  36. reaction to transmeta ? by rhyd · · Score: 1

    all looking good for intels business just now yes? but i think they are probably spreading themselves too thin.

    historically intel have focussed on getting more MHz out of the 386 arch'. but these days they want it all :-

    enterprise server (itanium)
    desktop (p4)
    laptop (banial [sic])
    tablet (Centrino)
    handheld (strong-arm)
    digital watch (???)

    the industry is fragmenting and one thing is for sure: intel are gonna be fighting a war on 4 fronts now; not 1

    companies that can't keep up with intel R&D just now (AMD,Sun,transmeta,motorolla...IBM?) will (by specialising on a single market) eventually be back making intel look slow&ineficient once more.

    IHNIKOOSIBAIW sell shares in intel and buy up AMD and SUN (frickin bargain - but bit risky) stock

    --
    'Be the change you want to see in the world' - Al Gore
    1. Re:reaction to transmeta ? by GnoMoreGnuPuns · · Score: 1

      Sun stock is either a really good or really bad idea. I think it comes down to them canning the Solaris mumbojumbo. It costs you 10 times to do on a Solaris server what you can do with Intel/AMD + Linux/*BSD. The coupling of their OS (which performs worse than the Open OS's) with their hardware (which, as they claim, is their intended market) will keep those things on the shelf more and more. It looks like they're moving away from Solaris, which would be a good turn.

    2. Re:reaction to transmeta ? by woobieman29 · · Score: 1

      It gets even better (worse?) as I can think of a few other markets that Intel is going after...

      1) Optical components, such as Transponders and AWG's. Sure they bought most of this technology through acquisition of other companies, but if I remember correctly they fully expect optical to be at least as big as their microprocessor biz within a few years.

      2) DSL equipment, through their acquisition of Level One.

      3) Software. They make a desktop management product called LanDesk. Really helps in a Windows environment as you can push patches out to all of your nodes automatically. Unfortunately, since it's Windows we're talking about, you still have to load patches on the thing every 15 minutes or so... :-)

      I'm not so sure about your statement that everybody else is going to catch-up and pass Intel because they are spread too thin. I personally am typing this on an AMD equipped machine, but looking around me, there are 3 other processors in this room, all Intel. Also, I know from experience that their optical division is working on some really nicely designed products. The optical market will be back at some point, and Intel will be well positioned.

      Finally, I don't know about Sun being a great bet for a stock purchase right now.... for my money it seems like all of their products are 'me too' items with no really compelling reasons to choose them. Sparc is a cool architecture, but it's getting hard to justify the cost of Sparc+Solaris as opposed to Linux on X86 or other processors.

      Just my opinion...I could be wrong.

      --
      \/\/oobie
    3. Re:reaction to transmeta ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Um, 'sic' is used when quoting someone to show that you have not corrected their spelling or grammar mistakes. It's not something you should use on yourself. FYI

  37. Re:from the because-you-don't-need-3ghz-HT-laptops by deadsaijinx* · · Score: 1

    i dont know about most of the world (well actually i do, but thats aside the point) i really do need (well, really, really, really want) a 3Ghz laptop. Wouldnt this be a wonderful world if i would run Maya 4.5 from my couch.... well, then again, the graphics card still couldnt handle well, but my video editors would run extra-super--lucky-fast!!!

    --
    YOU SUCK BALLS!
  38. Centrino 'Mobile Technology' by statikuz · · Score: 5, Informative
    The article claims that "Intel is marketing the Centrino, a 1.6 Ghz chip". However... as I understood from the information on Intel's site, the Centrino ISN'T the actual chip, but a set of components:

    * Intel® Pentium® M Processor
    * Intel® 855 chipset family
    * Intel® PRO/Wireless network connection

    Further explaining:
    Intel Corporation said today Intel® Centrino(TM) mobile technology is the new brand name for its upcoming wireless mobile computing technology.
    1. Re:Centrino 'Mobile Technology' by DASHSL0T · · Score: 1
      From Intel's site: The Intel Centrino brand marks the first time Intel has branded a combination of technologies under one name.

      Pretty darn clear.

      --
      Freedom Is Universal
      Linux-Universe
  39. What's Ninnle? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Does anybody have a link to more information about Ninnle Linux? I heard it's a distro for M68K.

  40. Re:New marketing, just wait (commercial) by Pharmboy · · Score: 2, Funny
    *Man takes off his pants and forlornly looks down at his crotch.* "Don't worry!", says the hot naked chick, "Size doesn't matter!". *The man happily jumps in the bed and starts pumping his hips faster than a llama can spit.* "HEY!", yells the hot mama, "SLOW DOWN! It's not the speed, it's how you use it." *Commercial cuts to Intel CEO wearing a suit, sitting in a leather chair*

    Ok, someone OBVIOUSLY is spending entirely too much time downloading pr0n. :-)
    --
    Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
  41. This is Apple's chance! by Once&FutureRocketman · · Score: 0
    One of the big reasons given for not porting OS X to the x86 platform is the variety of hardware configurations that it would be required to work with. Over the years, Apple has stacked the deck in their favor (in terms of OS stability and reliability) by maintaining control over the hardware specifications of its systems.

    According to this PR piece, it sounds like Intel is trying to do a similar thing: The Centrino name refers not just to the new processor, but to an integrated package including chipset and WLAN capabilities.

    If Apple wants to crack the X86 market for OS X, this would be a good place for them to drive the wedge in. Because Intel is maintaining tighter-than-usual control over the hardware specification, Apple could port to X86 without spending the next decade writing hardware drivers. And Centrino could be (at least for awhile) the only platform available with OS X as an option. And finally, it would be possible to buy an OS X laptop with a built-in two-button bloody mouse!

    --

    "Research is what I am doing when I don't know what I am doing." -- Wernher von Braun

    1. Re:This is Apple's chance! by punkmanandy · · Score: 1

      Apple really succeeds with their laptops. That is not the problem. Desktop performance is where the porting to x86 would be (arguably) usefull. Apple would still make the hardware, it just would have a different processor. They are not about to allow clones again. The machine still would need an Apple ROM to boot. And Apple will never release a two button mouse, as for the uninitiated, they are too confusing.

    2. Re:This is Apple's chance! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yup, first thing I look for when buying a compter... does it come with a two-button mouse or not, hmm?

    3. Re:This is Apple's chance! by khb · · Score: 1

      OS X recognizes 2 button USB mice out of the box. Is your issue that Apple doesn't *ship* the mouse?

    4. Re:This is Apple's chance! by La+Temperanza · · Score: 1

      Two buttons are for weenies. Real mice have three buttons, four more programmable ones, a 3D scroll wheel and a built-in keypad.

      --

      --
      est modus in rebus
    5. Re:This is Apple's chance! by tim_bissell · · Score: 1

      >OS X recognizes 2 button USB mice out of the box. Is your
      > issue that Apple doesn't *ship* the mouse?

      Too 'king right - I can stick a logitech two button/scroller mouse on my cube, but it is a pain having to plug in a two button mouse on my Apple laptop when I am using it on the train, when they could just split hte current button in two.

    6. Re:This is Apple's chance! by drsmithy · · Score: 1
      One of the big reasons given for not porting OS X to the x86 platform is the variety of hardware configurations that it would be required to work with.

      Rubbish. That's the _least_ of their concerns. Not only is OS X fairly portable, but if it ever were available on x86, it would only be available on x86 machines *produced by Apple*. You would not buy it off the shelf to run on a Frankenstein clone. and hence, driver support would be no more of an issue than it is with current Macs.

    7. Re:This is Apple's chance! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Man, that wheel must have caused thousands of Mac users to phone in UFO reports...

  42. in Q3 2003.. by grub · · Score: 5, Funny


    Intel will announce "Centrino with Wings, for those heavy flow days."

    --
    Trolling is a art,
    1. Re:in Q3 2003.. by wikthemighty · · Score: 1

      Aha!

      So that sheds new light on what the M stands for...

      --
      "There are people who do not love their fellow human being, and I _hate_ people like that!" - Tom Lehrer
  43. OK, it's finally started by theCat · · Score: 4, Interesting

    AMD said several months ago they are getting out of the megahertz race and focusing on application of technology, meaning doing more with the die space instead of doing faster. Intel is now taking back leadership by...being sure to have a slower chip than AMD that does still MORE with the die space.

    The speed race is over. You will continue to hear about who has the fastest, but it will be more "gee whiz" stuff than "I need that" because you just won't need it. Before long you won't be able to even FIND a retail desktop computer that runs over 2Ghz, and when you open the hood it will have ONE chip in it, right in the center of the logic board. In the end probably everything sold as a desktop system will have power consumption below that of today's laptop computers, power supplies the size of a deck of cards, no fan, 1.8 inch HDD, wireless input on all I/O (including the monitor) and the whole thing will fit in a pocket and run for an hour on a built-in backup UPS battery, thus finally bluring the distinction between what is a portable computer and what is not.

    Think iPod on steroids, and yes you will use your "portable desktop Pee Cee" to listen to MP3s most of the time, using a wireless headset.

    That's just the way it is going folk, because with all the price pressure that is where the profit will be. Besides, all that sounds tre kewl to me!

    Give it...what? Two years? Now that the race has turned to "less is more" it might not even take that long. And to the winner go the spoils.

    --
    =^..^= all your rodent are belong to us
    1. Re:OK, it's finally started by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow, that 'system of the future' sounds an awful lot like those barebones systems Shuttle is making. :)

    2. Re:OK, it's finally started by spdycml · · Score: 1

      And I am sure that intel will use some type of numbering scheme like AMD did, but by some magical power, everyone will understand it because it is, behold, "Intel". Soon the buzz will be around intel and "how do they make such a slow chip do so much". No one understood AMD's XP chips and their numbering scheme because they are AMD. Now that the almighty Intel is doing the same thing, it is going to be big news! (btw, I am tired of people asking me about the XP 1.8 ghz chip and I have to spend 20 min explaining that it is not 1.8 ghz and then they ask the difference between amd and intel)

  44. Marketing to people by zurab · · Score: 1

    Instead of simply running more rapidly, says Intel, its new laptop chip will result in better overall performance in real-world applications.

    Joe: But this laptop runs faster and is cheaper!
    Salesguy: Yeah, but this one performs better.
    Joe: So faster is not better?
    Salesguy: No... I mean yes! Ahh, screw you... next customer!

    I think Joe Sixpacks will be very wary of shelling out more money for a lower clocked processors even if the latter ones perform better; and Intel has no one to blame for this but themselves.

    1. Re:Marketing to people by minard · · Score: 1

      yeah, but this stuff isn't targeted at Joe sixpack. It's squarely targeted at the corporate market. JS typically buys a "desktop replacement" (aka luggable) laptop which weighs as much as a pile of bricks and has a processor that was intended for desktops.

    2. Re:Marketing to people by Joe+Sixpacks · · Score: 1

      Jow Sixpacks finds it offensive that you imply Joe Sixpacks won't understand the difference. Your scenerio is accurate, however the problem is not with me, it is with then sales guy.

      --

      Joe Sixpacks, defender of the common man.

  45. Isn't being unwired up to the OS+nic, not CPU? by linuxbaby · · Score: 1
    Whether at work, at home, at an airport or a café, Centrino mobile technology will bring the freedom and flexibility of being unwired.

    Anyone know how can they say that a CPU chip will help wireless technology?

    Isn't that up to the operating system and wireless ethernet card?

    1. Re:Isn't being unwired up to the OS+nic, not CPU? by in_ur_face · · Score: 1

      i think to be classified as a "Centrino mobile technology" system, it HAS to have onboard 802.11[ab] wireless??

    2. Re:Isn't being unwired up to the OS+nic, not CPU? by NineNine · · Score: 1

      Anyone know how can they say that a CPU chip will help wireless technology?



      The same way they say that a faster Pentium will help you surf the "Internet" faster.

  46. oh what short memories /.ers have by minard · · Score: 2, Interesting

    stunning. If AMD had released something that performs as well as their top end desktop processor but at half the clock speed, would it have been billed here as a "slower" processor? I don't think so.

  47. WTF? by BiOFH · · Score: 2, Informative

    What the hell are you talking about "Genius"?
    Nearly everything you said is wrong or mis-informed.

    MMX? Ya mean SSE/iSSE? Well it's AltiVec in PPC and it produces higher Blast numbers than Intel's.
    Cost to clock cycle? PPC do more instructions pcc. How is this more $?
    Embedded? Go open up a Mac and look. The CPUs are not embedded.
    Servers? Have you looked at Xserve?

    Christ on a moped! I used to work for Intel and I can't even defend anything you've said.

    --
    - I am made of meat.
  48. Re:from the because-you-don't-need-3ghz-HT-laptops by Osty · · Score: 1

    i dont know about most of the world (well actually i do, but thats aside the point) i really do need (well, really, really, really want) a 3Ghz laptop. Wouldnt this be a wonderful world if i would run Maya 4.5 from my couch.... well, then again, the graphics card still couldnt handle well, but my video editors would run extra-super--lucky-fast!!!

    Can't you already do that? I have a nice 2.5GHz laptop (desktop chip, not mobile) with a GeForce4 Go video chipset. That should be more than enough to run Maya in comfort, or any of your video editors. The only problem I would have with it is doing graphical manipulation using a trackpad. Not fun. But a wireless mouse or a tablet would be perfect.


    Now if only I didn't suck at art ...

  49. Re:Am I missing something? Sounds like marketing by zeno_2 · · Score: 1
    The 855 chipset

    Here is some better info about the 855 chipset and the rest of it.. Im not sure why this wasn't linked instead of a press release..

    Toms Hardware

  50. StrongArm by On+Lawn · · Score: 1

    I always thought that those three priorities is why Intel bought the StrongArm technology. I've never been excited about a Transmeta laptop, or Athlon laptop. I'm just sitting back patiently waiting for a long lasting, no heat StrongArm based laptop. Not a PalmPC, a Laptop.

    The LART people have even made headway towards an open hardware motherboard for it. Perhaps that will be my only hope. Give me Linux and a LART, and I'd love to make a truely cool tunable ECU w/onboard diagnosis for my car. I read recently where someone did that with a Apple Laptop.

    Anyway, thats enough for my sigh/rant on the topic.

    ------------------

    OnRoad: The social ramifications of racing games. Praise GPL!

    1. Re:StrongArm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I honestly think they bought ARM to put the StrongARM into "maintenance mode" and kill further development, because it competed with a direction they thought they were going to go. Only they never got there, so the StrongARM has basically been stagnant. They are a very predatory company - didn't they do something patent-related in court around that time that also basically ruined future of the Alpha (back when DEC till existed).

      I was very disappointed when Intel bought ARM, and unfortunately it seems my fears have been realised. However, nothing good goes away for long, and I do believe another ARM-like upstart will come out with something even more cool. The worry then is that Intel will use their huge, bought-up patent portfolio to squelch it.

    2. Re:StrongArm by dan+the+person · · Score: 2, Informative

      "I was very disappointed when Intel bought ARM"

      Intel did not buy ARM. Intel obtained DECs StrongARM unit to settle a lawsuit. ARM is an independant company that makes chip designs. ARM based chips are made by many different companies. StrongARM is a particular ARM based chip made by Digital/Intel.

      "Only they never got there, so the StrongARM has basically been stagnant"

      StrongARM is not stagnant, it simply received a new marketing name for the latest version. They call them XScales now, and they are very popular in networking equipement and PDAs. I've got a 400Mhz Xscale based Sharp Zaurus SL-C700 in front of me right now and it doesn't feel stagnent at all.

  51. Re:New marketing, just wait (commercial) by deadsaijinx* · · Score: 2, Funny

    lol, excellent commercial, it would be banned from american air waves, but then again, galileo was excommunicated, so genuis is never appreciated.

    on a non-related note, the game on your journal rules - but it might be time for you to stop dling pr0n... just a thought.

    --
    YOU SUCK BALLS!
  52. cetrino == banias by asv108 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Just in case anyone was confused by the name, this is the processor that was codenamed Banias. Depending on when this product is publicly available, this could be the final straw for transmeta. Transmeta's Astro looks like a great product, but if the stronger Intel has the first mover advantage, Transmeta may be SOL.

  53. Laugh all you like... by Corvaith · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...but I can't be the only girl who'd rather get hardware than flowers or chocolate.

    Can I?

    1. Re:Laugh all you like... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, but I bet a lot more of ya would dump a guy for such an offense :)

    2. Re:Laugh all you like... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Will you marry me?

    3. Re:Laugh all you like... by marko123 · · Score: 1

      Just wondering, but when slashdotters announce they are women, and say something a geek would like to hear, do they get lots of messages? I should try...

      *Ahem*...

      As a girl and a gamer, I want a hot Radeon rather than a processor for Valentine's Day, cos then I wouldn't have to upgrade my mobo, too.

      OMFG!AWP!WTF!Camping Lesbian!

      --
      http://pcblues.com - Digits and Wood
    4. Re:Laugh all you like... by quarter · · Score: 1

      I'm planning on getting my wife some hardware for valentine's....a stripper pole for the bedroom.

    5. Re:Laugh all you like... by CoolQ · · Score: 1
      You could get both...
      Check out the song "Log into you" by the Arrogant Worms.
      http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/86/the_arr ogant_wo rms.html

      You double-clicked my heart

      You've upgraded my life

      You booted up my hard drive

      Please be my cyber-wife

      You've logged into my soul

      You've downloaded my dreams

      Let's go to my chat-room

      And I'll show you what I mean
      ....

      Now, what's your phone number?
    6. Re:Laugh all you like... by Exantrius · · Score: 1

      actually, personal empirical data states that, yes, you probably are the only girl that would rather get hardware than flowers... ...Well, except maybe alex, but she was butch. /Bob

    7. Re:Laugh all you like... by Wouter+Van+Hemel · · Score: 1
      ...and say something a geek would like to hear... *nagging for expensive stuff*

      Yeah. Just what I always wanted to hear from a girl.

      ...I want a hot Radeon...

      No selfrespecting geek would give his girlfriend better hardware than his own box has.

    8. Re:Laugh all you like... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      must... resist... horrible... "hard"... pun...

      15...16...17...18...19...20!

    9. Re:Laugh all you like... by MsGeek · · Score: 1

      Give me flowers, I will smile.

      Give me candy, I will pelt you with it.

      Give me an nVidia Ti4600 or a Radeon 9700Pro, and I am putty in your hands. ;-)

      (Subtle hint to my hubby)

      --
      Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
    10. Re:Laugh all you like... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      well...

      hate to break it to you but being on /. would indicate that you probably won't be receiving anything for valentines day...

      the truth hurts and I won't be receiving anything either so don't feel bad.

    11. Re:Laugh all you like... by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      Will you marry me?
      I think you must be the first person to propose mariage anonymously...

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    12. Re:Laugh all you like... by FroMan · · Score: 1

      I think my wife would prefer hardware to flowers.

      However, you see, one of our cats eats flowers whenever I get them for my wife. And putting flowers in the cuppard or on top of one of the bookshelves just isn't a very nice place to put flowers. I guess what she would really like is something to keep our cat from eating flowers.

      --
      Norris/Palin 2012
      Fact: We deserve leaders who can kick your ass and field dress your carcass.
    13. Re:Laugh all you like... by Lemmeoutada+Collecti · · Score: 1

      Nope, my fiancee asked me for 512mb 333 DDR Ram and a new sound card... must be a new trend...

      Tonight on Slashdot: Girls who want bigger, better hardware for Valentines, and the Geeks who would love to get em!

      --

      You can have it fast, accurate, or pretty. Pick any 2.
    14. Re:Laugh all you like... by blackwidowb · · Score: 1

      Can I have both? With a nice helping of chocolate on the side? Just make sure it's good hardware. Maybe a laptop or something..... :P

    15. Re:Laugh all you like... by FroMan · · Score: 1

      LOL, well, I guess my wife would like both, go figure. :-)

      tick tock tick tock... minutes waste way until I can post again.

      --
      Norris/Palin 2012
      Fact: We deserve leaders who can kick your ass and field dress your carcass.
    16. Re:Laugh all you like... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I guess what she would really like is something to keep our cat from eating flowers.

      How bout a stun gun?
      Or a Pit Bull

    17. Re:Laugh all you like... by tvsjr · · Score: 1
      Don't forget Eiffel 65's chart-topper (yeah, right) called Deep Down...

      I wanna click
      A click to your heart
      A hyperlink into you
      A sexual browser from here to the end
      A newsgroup one on one


      Don't need a modem to connect to your mind
      No search engine to find you
      I wanna click
      A click to your heart
      A hyperlink to go inside you
  54. Re:first post! by Ponty · · Score: 3, Funny

    If you had the newer, slower chip, you wouldn't have gotten the first post. Because, as we all know, Intel chips make the Internet go faster.

  55. Mutant and Mobile by l33t-gu3lph1t3 · · Score: 5, Informative

    The "Centrino" which was previously known by the codename "Banias" is the first ever CPU Intel has designed specifically for mobile computing.

    It's the combination of the a mutant P3 with the quad-pumped P4 bus, SSE2, lots of power-saving tricks, and an assload of L2 cache (1MB!).

    From the limited previews I have seen of it, these things are quite nice, especially with Intel combining the new CPU with mainboard built-in wireless networking adapter. They perform well, and do consume significantly less power than any other mobile chip (excluding the Transmeta CPU, as I have come to the conclusion that they never really existed outside of Japan. Have you seen one in North America?).

    "Centrino" is now officially branded Pentium-M...a rather obvious naming strategy IMHO, but a good one. Look out next year, once Intel has its 90nm fabrication process up and running, we should see "Dothan" code-named CPUs...with 2MB L2 cache...mmm

    Btw, this news story is old, Slashdot admins, pick up the slack!

    --
    ------- "From bored to fanboy in 3.8 asian girls" ----------
    1. Re:Mutant and Mobile by jbischof · · Score: 2, Informative
      >"Centrino" is now officially branded Pentium-M...a rather obvious naming strategy IMHO

      The *processor* is called Pentium-M, the chipset, processor, mainboard combo from Intel is called Centrino.

      I agree with you though, they look really cool, and this is really old news.

    2. Re:Mutant and Mobile by user32.ExitWindowsEx · · Score: 1

      I own a Vaio PCG-C1VN Picturebook with a Transmeta TM5600 600 MHz CPU. I live in North America. I bought it at my local CompUSA as a "PDAs don't have HDDs or keyboards, so this is the smallest thing that does" device.

      --
      "Evil will always triumph because good is dumb." -- Dark Helmet
    3. Re:Mutant and Mobile by sean23007 · · Score: 1

      Yes, I have seen Transmeta-based systems in North America. I have a tablet pc with one in there right now. I could have been more impressed...

      --

      Lack of eloquence does not denote lack of intelligence, though they often coincide.
    4. Re:Mutant and Mobile by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "with the quad-pumped P4 bus, SSE2, .. and an assload of L2 cache (1MB!)"

      These things lead me to believe that its main strength will be in media related applications. Now, what exactly would you be doing on a laptop where that would be important? Who encodes their XviDs or MP3s on their laptops? It makes no sense to me why they'd spring for something like a quad-pumped FSB when for 99.999% of the intended uses of a laptop, it'll be superfluos. Could someone educate me why Intel decided to sink money into those features?

    5. Re:Mutant and Mobile by Durindana · · Score: 1

      "They perform well, and do consume significantly less power than any other mobile chip (excluding the Transmeta CPU, as I have come to the conclusion that they never really existed outside of Japan. Have you seen one in North America?)."

      Umm... Any other mobile chip? Actually, yeah, I used to have a G3 PowerBook, and now I could run out and grab an equivalent iBook or a badass TiBook and have a processor just as (if not more) powerful that eats about a tenth the wattage of anything Intel's ever put out.

      Come on - realize x86 is not the limit of the set.

    6. Re:Mutant and Mobile by Mac+Degger · · Score: 1

      Heh...I wish they could put these out as desktop chips too...I've been meaning to upgrade my PIII550 for a while now :)

      --
      -- Waht? Tehr's a preveiw buottn?
  56. Is that chip gay? by n1ywb · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I can't tell if the Centrino logo looks like a pink triangle or a broken heart.

    There is a huge market for slower chips. Slower == less power. Less power is great for mobile computing where the foremost concern is battery life. The XScale is a good example of where slower is better. Why don't they just shrink 400mhz Pentiums and cram them into pocket pc's? Because the XScale uses a tiny fraction of the power that any Pentium uses.

    Don't forget also that cooling is becoming a limiting factor in CPU design. Not everybody wants their computer to sound like a jet turbine or have water running through it. As "embedded" CPUs like the ARM and XScale get faster, you may start to see them in more traditionally "desktop" applications. Electricity is expensive and low power computers can save money.

    And I still don't understand why everyone equates CLOCK RATE with SPEED. Do people think high frequency EM waves travel faster than slower ones, or something? There are have been MANY examples over the last 10 years of CPUs that get more done at a lower clock rate.

    --
    -73, de n1ywb
    www.n1ywb.com
    1. Re:Is that chip gay? by evilWurst · · Score: 1

      Clock rate != frequency, not in the way you think. It's the timer signal that tells the CPU to calculate the next step in its instructions. If you have two CPUs of the same style, the higher clocked one really IS faster.

    2. Re:Is that chip gay? by slummerx86 · · Score: 1
      There are have been MANY examples over the last 10 years of CPUs that get more done at a lower clock rate.

      yeah, like my PC being heaps more productive than my bosses!! :)

  57. Re:from the because-you-don't-need-3ghz-HT-laptops by deadsaijinx* · · Score: 1

    you would think that would be plenty, but it really isn't, at least not for the complex and intricate parts of maya. You need a fully decked pc with at least a gf4 (preferably a quadro4) 3d studio max on the other hand should run well on a laptop with said specs.

    as for the video editors, yeah, 2.5 is plenty of raw power, but then again, 2.5Ghz is far more than the average user needs. Though i am envious of your laptop.

    --
    YOU SUCK BALLS!
  58. NOOOOO by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    shutupshutupshutupshutup

  59. Re:Niiiiiice logo.... If you are blind by SHiFTY1000 · · Score: 1

    That is the worst pile of cr*p I have seen... Who the hell wants a pink and blue loveheart on their business laptop? Unless you are some kind of wireless pimp...

  60. AT LAST! by sryx · · Score: 2, Funny

    I knew Moore's Law would break eventurally, I guess I always hoped it would be by releasing a faster chip and not a slower one :P
    -Jason

  61. Business Week == Marketing by lukme · · Score: 1

    Everything I have read from Business Week sounds like marketing. This article is equivlant to the new blub I read there about a car company proving that its pickup trucks were rugged because some actor drove one in a movie. Of course this is marketing -- look at where the article appears.

  62. Centrino 2000+ by u19925 · · Score: 2, Funny

    I bet the new chip running at 1.6 GHz, will be marketed as Centrino 2000+.

    1. Re:Centrino 2000+ by RzUpAnmsCwrds · · Score: 1

      Nope, it would have to be 1.67 GHZ, otherwise it would be Centrino XP 1900+.

  63. really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I just bought a PowerBook (15", 1ghz, 1gb ddr, 64mb Radeon 9000, dvd burner) and it averages a couple hours on a full battery. I think a battery should last *at least* six hours. Otherwise it's not worth bothering.. but oh well...

    1. Re:really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree. That's why you should have bought an iBook 14", instead of a PBG4 15". You can't have it both ways, at least in this universe.

      There is always a sweet spot in any product category and the iBook is it. But most geeks buy way more than they need. Complaining about battery life is complaining about something you chose to do for all the wrong reasons.

  64. Actually, its a combination brand. by jbischof · · Score: 5, Informative
    Actually Centrino, which has been posted about in slashdot already, is not a new chip.

    The Centrino Brand is a combination of three main things.

    1. The new Banias processor
    2. The Montara 852/855 Chipset
    3. Integrated 802.11b
    This means that mobile computer makers can make new lighter, faster, cheaper, and colder laptops.

    Centrino computers are designed for Mobile features, which doesn't always neccesarily mean speed. Banias runs colder than comparable processors from Intel, it has a host of new features to support all the crazy things laptops want to do (Better power management, bus control, hotkey support, more feature rich graphics etc...)

    Intel is trying to jump on the new Mobile computing pattern. There is less and less of a focus on the absolute fastest processor and more of a focus on different ways (espeically easier ways) of using your computer. I mean who really uses all of their cpu cycles on a 3Ghz P4 with HT anyway (some people but not most)?

    When wireless really picks up and people have reliable, quick, super lightweight laptops that can easily fit in a backpack or briefcase sales might pickup like Intel hopes.

    1. Re:Actually, its a combination brand. by Vaughn+Anderson · · Score: 1

      The Centrifigal Band is a comb nation of tree mainthians.

      1. The new Bananas predecessor
      2. The Montana 852/855 Freeway (no speed limit)
      3. Incarcerated BOYZ.IIb

    2. Re:Actually, its a combination brand. by diggitzz · · Score: 1

      Well, what would truly make it a "better" processor would be 128-bit processing, hell then it could be 4 times as slow and still get more done. ;)

      --
      -=[You cannot consistently judge this statement to be true.]=-
    3. Re:Actually, its a combination brand. by Tokerat · · Score: 1


      Something about the names of the Intel chips sounding like crappy soccer-mom cars sketches me out about all this.

      <daydream> "The new Intel Montara. For a chipset that'll take you anywhere, anytime." </daydream>

      ...well, I suppose it's fitting, since they crash so much they should come with standard airbags. <rimshot>

      --
      CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
  65. Re:New acronym by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Cool, what will we get in 40 years? Do we get the ENIAC back? Now _that_ is what I call a computer. Woohoo!

    Except this time it will stand for Experimental Nanotechnical Ion-Antimatter Chip.

    Eventually, we'll get quantum computers. They'll only run at 1 Hz or less, but you'll be surprised what they can do.

  66. Re:from the because-you-don't-need-3ghz-HT-laptops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Heck, it's not like anyone needs more than 640k of RAM either.

  67. Re:from the because-you-don't-need-3ghz-HT-laptops by Osty · · Score: 1

    you would think that would be plenty, but it really isn't, at least not for the complex and intricate parts of maya. You need a fully decked pc with at least a gf4 (preferably a quadro4) 3d studio max on the other hand should run well on a laptop with said specs.

    So the bottleneck is the video card, rather than the CPU? I don't really see how .5GHz could make that much of a difference these days (man, and I'm still running a p200mmx and a celeryonion 433MHz).


    as for the video editors, yeah, 2.5 is plenty of raw power, but then again, 2.5Ghz is far more than the average user needs. Though i am envious of your laptop.

    Don't be :) It cost me an arm and a leg, and I only get about 2 hours of battery time out of it. I probably would've been wiser to go with a 2.0GHz mobile P4 and spend the extra money on a UXGA screen (though the 16" 1280x1024 LCD on my laptop is pretty damned sweet, if not very portable). However, for that arm and leg I did get "built-in" (mini-PCI card) wireless, removeable wireless keyboard and mouse (I've since lost the mouse, though the laptop is less than three months old :), 16" screen, fast processor, etc. I'm happy, but could've gotten by with much less.

  68. because-you-don't-need-3ghz-HT-laptops... by miketang16 · · Score: 1, Funny

    change that to "the although-you-don't-need-3ghz-HT-laptops...it'd-sti ll-be-nice-especially-with-a-small-carry-along-car -battery dept.."

    --
    -------
    "In times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."
    -- George Orwell
  69. Now I See by DarwinDan · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ...they're trying to be more like Apple! What a GENIUS plan!

    No, seriously...where is this going to get them? They've been flaunting the MHz myth like mad for at least 5 years now. Is the fact that the processor is "more efficient" going to get those who make purchasing decisions based solely upon processor "speed" (in MHz) to buy this new chip?

    Somehow, I think this will ultimately lead to the downfall of the MHz myth. With CISC and RISC being so neck-and-neck (at different MHz though) in terms of relative speed, there will be a "revolution" of sorts. Bare with me here...

    This revolution I speak of is simply that of measuring the actual real-world processor speed -- not just clock speed. People will soon realize that the MHz measurement isn't all it's talked-up to be. Apple, IBM, and Motorola have known this since 1994 with the introduction of the RISC-based PowerPC processor architecture. No wonder Intel (in all of it's wisdom) is finally catching up.

    The future brings savvier PC purchasers who see MHz as just that -- clock speed. It will be interesting to see what happens if this trend continues...

    --
    $DEITY bless $NATION
    1. Re:Now I See by asreal · · Score: 1

      And about time too... the Moore's Law article yesterday pretty much said if they keep using sheer muscle, miniturization, and power to develop faster CPUs, they'd be crushed under steadily rising R&D costs. Maybe someone listened.

  70. Centrino logo by Meowing · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    It looks like the impression that would be left if someone pressed their nekkid butt against a glass door. Does that kind of thing happen a lot in Oregon or something?

  71. Why legacy and marketing makes your chip suck. by GnoMoreGnuPuns · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Intel's big problem is the binary compatibility they've stuck with since the 80x86 (more or less). Binary compatibility was important because so much programming was necessary at the assembler level that changing the chipset was prohibitive. This has kept a bad chipset in commission long, long after it should have died.

    But then, if you can successfully market clock speed as the sole measure of performance, why bother offering something better?

    1. Re:Why legacy and marketing makes your chip suck. by JCholewa · · Score: 2, Interesting

      > Intel's big problem is the binary compatibility they've stuck with since the
      > 80x86 (more or less). Binary compatibility was important because so much
      > programming was necessary at the assembler level that changing the chipset
      > was prohibitive. This has kept a bad chipset in commission long, long
      > after it should have died.

      I think you mean "instruction set". Intel changes their chipset like they do their underwear (that is, frequently, though perhaps not as frequently as the analogy implies).

      > But then, if you can successfully market clock speed as the sole
      > measure of performance, why bother offering something better?

      Yeah, that's annoying. I always hated how the clock frequency is always called the clock "speed". I mean, it's not in physical motion. You don't call the cycling of your car engine its "piston speed", or whatever. That is perhaps a trivial sore point for me. :)

      Still, the current version of the P4 is not bad at all. It is arguably an equal or superior microarchitecture to AMD's K7 family, though it's difficult to really make that determination solidly, since Intel has a six to eight month process technology advantage over AMD, and that gives them a frequency advantage somewhat independent of the base microarchitecture.

      The Windows user in me is torn between getting an SMT P4 or a K8 ("Athlon 64", I think they're thinking of calling it) at the end of this year. The K8's on-die memory controller should give a boost to some of my operations, but the P4's SMT functionality would likely benefit me, as I have a tendency to run lots of apps at once (I make most power users look like AOL newbies in some respects, heh). Certain cpu intensive programs (like SmartPAR) that eat up all my time might run better on the AMD setup, while other programs (like WinRAR) will likely enjoy the benefit of the Intel box's higher raw memory bandwidth and cpu frequency. I guess that's a "wait-and-see" type of thing.

      The Linux user in me is a steadfast AMD supporter. This has nothing to do with any "WinTel Conspiracy(TM)" or whatever; it simply appears to be the case that any AMD chip is substantially faster than an equivalently rated Intel chip in most Linux-based benchmarks. I am a little interested in seeing how much of a benefit the SMT gives to gcc, but it would take a lot to convince my Linux side to move over. The Athlon XP 2700+ seems faster in Linux than the 2.8GHz Pentium 4, and that's without the added benefits that the Barton brings to AMD's K7 core. Heck, that little Linux daemon (hrm, or maybe it's the FreeBSD dude) inside my head keeps telling me to drool about how much faster than Barton the K8 will be given its advantage of far lower memory latency (due to that on-die memory controller), 64-bit registers, doubled GP register space and those HyperTransport connections. I keep telling myself that only the memory latency and extra registers would make a difference, and even with that compiling probably won't be that much better per clock than with the K7, but even with minimal improvements, K8 should be faster than K7 in compiling, and since K7 is much faster than the Northwood/P4 in compiling, the K8 should be substantially faster at the task. Except for that unknown variable of SMT. I'm going to have too look and see how much it can add to the fray. In addition, it is not unlikely that the P4 will simply scale in frequency by a greater degree than AMD in the next ten months.

      Oh, new data:
      www.uwsg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0212 .2/0107 .html
      Allegedly, you get something like a 15-20% increase. Not bad.

      www.uwsg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0212.2/01 98 .html
      But this guy is getting some sort of substantial decrease in performance due cache problems between threads (I guess that there's more cache misses since twice as many threads needs twice as much data).

      Interesting.

      Damnit. Why can't companies give me this stuff for free so that I can test it all for myself? I'm a coder, and I have to know what hardware can render my code AFAP!

      But it's all fun, anyway, this talking about microprocessor technology. :)

      -JC

    2. Re:Why legacy and marketing makes your chip suck. by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      Isn't /. wonderful. I said this last week and got moderated / flamed to oblivion. Oh well. Also why is everything insightful I say modded to funny, and every time I troll it gets moderated to insightful?

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  72. Um, slower? by symbolic · · Score: 1


    I guess now we know what happens when you exceed Moore's law - you wrap around to the opposite side of the continuum.

  73. OT - ad for next Dune mini series by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    WOOHOO! Bring it on.

    However, I sure am disgusted that with all the talking they did they mentioned only ONE name... Susan Sarandon. She is one of the most disgusting, hypocritical, elitists around. I am curious now if the mini series will be full of small children having sex and posing in obviously sexual poses. Disgusting monster.

  74. On the subject of Apple... by 42+(Forty+Two) · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It seems that now, Intel is attempting to drive into Apple's and others main selling point, that is a slower, more efficient computer. So why can't Apple do the opposite?

    Take their new powermac line, the one with the dual 1.43 Ghz processors, and up the numbers in comparison with Intel's chips

    Figuring a 20:7 ratio for operations per cycle between Intel and Apple, that comes out to about 2.85. Knock off .85 for Intel's hyperthreading.

    (1.43*2=[2.86])

    Multiply that by about 1.5 due to the dual processors

    (2.86*1.5=[4.29])

    Hey Presto, if Apple advertised like that i'm pretty sure that they could sell more units, comprable to intel.

    1. Re:On the subject of Apple... by rudy_wayne · · Score: 1

      Check out some benchmarks -- a cheap piece of crap Dell PC (1.8ghz Pentium 4 and 512 meg ram) outperforms a Mac G4 with DUAL 1.25 ghz CPUS and 1 Gig ram.

      Apple -- half the performance for twice the price.

    2. Re:On the subject of Apple... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      (2.86*1.5=[4.29])
      You forgot to divide by 3 for the price-to-performance markup. Result=1.43. Ohh wait a second... isn't that where we started? Sounds like Mac needs a 2nd cpu just to compete with one of those $400 cheap-o-delux pc models that you find at frys.
    3. Re:On the subject of Apple... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Which benchmarks?? You make it sound like Intel will beat the pants off of apple any day all day with anything, you're smoking crack.

    4. Re:On the subject of Apple... by toddhisattva · · Score: 1
      You must be kidding! Your math is way too difficult. "Is a billion more than a million?" is a tough word problem for the drooling innumerate mouthbreathers who buy computers.

      Slightly more seriously, how did you come up with your numbers? "20:7" sounds like you might be comparing pipeline stages to determine instructions per cycle, but it don't work that way (go read Hannibal at ArsTechnica).

      I cannot figure out what you're doing with HT. Insufficient caffiene and you don't have units on your numbers ;-)

      I'm sure Apple would rather you multiply by 2x for 2 processors rather than your 1.5 ;-) but that number so much depends on what you're doing a few years ago I remember seeing an odd case where you could get >2 but that's impossible in everyday experience.

      While we're talking multiple processors, remember that Quartz Extreme offloads the GUI to your fancy GPU. How much that helps depends on how many dock icons you set a-bouncing -- actually how much compositing you do is a better measure.

      So maybe Apple should just guesstimate to round numbers like AMD. Or drop gigahertz entirely for gigaflops.

  75. Thank you!! by 0z0*!a · · Score: 0

    This is the new mobil technology I was waiting for.

  76. If that works out well for them by automag_6 · · Score: 1

    remind me to put my old 486 processors on Ebay.

    1. Re:If that works out well for them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      486 GHz??

  77. Better Lover: Slower, but Does More by handy_vandal · · Score: 2, Funny

    Isn't this what women want? A lover who is slower, but does more ....

    --
    -kgj
  78. Paranoia vs. built-in Wifi by phr2 · · Score: 1
    Is it just the tinfoil hat wearer in me that really doesn't want Wifi built into my laptop? I'll take it as a plug-in card (mini-PCI or PCMCIA or whatever) just fine, thank you. Or at least as something I can turn off with a mechanical switch. But the latest thing I want is for John Ashcroft to have complete access to the internal state of my PC from the comfort of his black helicopter hundreds of meters away, courtesy of a non-removable wireless broadcasting device whose tentacles reach into the lowest levels of the hardware on the laptop motherboard. Even just broadcasting the keyboard interrupt data would compromise any email or passwords that I typed into the machine.

    So, thanks, but no thanks.

    1. Re:Paranoia vs. built-in Wifi by jumpingfred · · Score: 1

      My wife's new sony with built in WiFi has just such a switch on it.

    2. Re:Paranoia vs. built-in Wifi by smart.id · · Score: 1

      Let me ask you something. Why the hell would John Ashcroft be in a helicopter trying to spy on your fucking computer? Honestly, joke or not, this is just stupid. You're complaining about paranoia? You think a government official is worrying about some loser with crusty pants downloading, dare I say it, illegally copied movies? Give me a break. This is a positive feature, not some governement conspiracy.

      --
      blog & fiction: jd87
  79. Integrated chipsets by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The system has three chips-CPU, Chipset, and wireless that are optimized to work together. This allows them to use power management at the hardware level with better results than just throwing something together. You can buy them seperately, but they really want you to get the whole package!

  80. Obligatory Simpsons Quote by kUnGf00m45t3r · · Score: 1

    Nelson: Oh, man, that horse don't take no guff from nobody. Jimbo: Guff?! Nelson: I mean sh-- *he is beaten up by Jimbo & Keaney*

  81. What about? by swordboy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    When are we going to get that blasted 'turbo' button back? You know - the one that reduces processor speed so we can play Space War at sane speeds.

    Oh... wait...

    --

    Life is the leading cause of death in America.
  82. Is this at all related to the moore's law article? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    which states that moore's law may not be accurate? I would link to it but I have the new better slower chip... I just dont have the processing power. Its not a dupe story is it?

  83. Marketing by Whitecloud · · Score: 1

    So Intel introduce a new chip that underperforms the best Celeron, I mean we all know its the Mhz that count right? Well that was the reason NOT to buy AMD, so it will be really interesting to see how Intel markets this chip.

    --

    Do you need a website upgrade?

  84. Why Wi-Fi? by tacocat · · Score: 2, Insightful

    All I've heard over the last several years is that WiFi is inherently insecure, even with 128-bit encryption. From all of this it seems trivial to conclude that 802.11 wireless technology is inappropriate for secure networking.

    And yet, Intel is rolling out notebooks which are, by default, insecure at the core of it's Architecture.

    It seems very clear that there is really no interest by the Industries of America to support Computer Security in any inherently secure system. They will sell us crappy hardware that can't be made secure and then attempt to sell us extensive and expensive quantities of software to ensure that our inherently insecure computers pretend to be secure on the surface.

    I would have hoped that someone in the industry would have not only figured it out, but embraced the idea of making something secure by design besides the *BSD's and Linux. But it seems that this concept is still the exclusive property of the Open Source movement and is not yet embraced by Corporate America.

    When will the Open Source people start making, or specing out, their own hardware?

    1. Re:Why Wi-Fi? by Junta · · Score: 1

      Wi-Fi is insecure, but I'm hard pressed to think of a secure 'Physical Layer' implementation. The difference here being that Wi-Fi takes the hub of ethernet and instead dangles it out for the world to see, as opposed to having some physical control of who plugs in. In environments larger than a home or VERY small business, the physical control over copper ethernet isn't that great either. The other difference is that in Wi-Fi world, they added the piece of crap that is WEP to at least deter would be attackers, and that is probably the most security I have seen integrated at the physical layer.

      The solution I use is to implement security at the network layer. My wireless router is a linux box with FreeS/WAN running. Forward is denyed to eth2 (wireless interface), and input only for ESP and UDP port 500. Authenticate and encrpyt with IPSec and they get access to the world. Windows 2k/XP, Linux, OSX/*BSD, all of them include or have freely available the tools to connect. Of course this works because there isn't much interesting laptop to laptop traffic, and each laptop that uses the network has a configured firewall configuration, but it works well to protect against piggy-backers and sniffers.

      --
      XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
  85. Not faster. Not more productive. Lower power? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    There is no new pipelining. There are no new instructions. The CPU is tightly coupled with a video chip, but that's usually not a productivity bottleneck. The CPU is also tightly coupled with a WiFi chip, but that's usually not a productivity bottleneck either. So I guess I'm missing the point. Are we talking ANY performance/productivity gains or simply battery life improvements?

  86. Didn't they try this before? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    With the celeron?

  87. How about these chips on the desktop / server?? by -tji · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I would really like to see this aggressive power management available for non-laptop boards.

    I currently use a VIA C3 running at 800MHz for my Linux server doing a bunch of tasks ( firewall, VPN, WWW, SMTP, FTP, NTP, Samba, NFS, MySQL/PHP, Answering Machine, etc.). The C3 is about as fast as a Celeron 500MHz. But, it uses very little power and runs cool enough to use only a passive heat sink. With a quiet Seagate Barracuda hard drive, and a quiet power supply fan, the system is nearly silent - which is great in my small apartment.

    I would like to be able to use a processor that idled down 90% of the time when it was doing very little. For those few tasks that need CPU horsepower, it could go up to it's 1.6GHz potential, and turn on cooling fans if needed.

    Power / Heat / Noise savings apply to the desktop too!

  88. Re:New marketing, just wait (commercial) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The man is no other than BillG who really the nickname of Micro-Soft in the bedroom.

  89. finally!! it is about time... by AssFace · · Score: 1

    ... lately I've just been finding it incredibly hard to keep up with my fast processor.

    thank you intel for finally giving me something slower.

    --

    There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
  90. re: your sig by Planesdragon · · Score: 1

    Odd, but hasn't the world of alcoholic beverages undergone a lot more upheaval than the world's major world religions?

    Beer seems all but unheard of two thousand years ago, and I wager that "wine" from the time before that bore little resemblance to what we have today...

    but don't get me wrong. "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." (Ben Franklin)

  91. Re:AMD+WIN2K ROCKS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ive never run win2k on anything but amd and it r0x0rs

  92. Re:athlon64 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    unless you are running servers, what is the athlon64 gonna get ya ?

  93. Re:Am I missing something? Sounds like marketing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    no the pentium 4M is in most laptops not the pentium M. They are two totally differant arcitectures.

  94. You can have all three... by jo_ham · · Score: 1

    They're on sale here.

    Mobile: hell yeah. You could pick up one of these, then pick your nose and you'd weigh less.

    Powerful: Well, being able to digitise full frame, broadcast quality DV and render some effects in realtime (more effects as you up the cpu speed).

    Efficient with batteries: 5 hours on one battery, if you're careful (ie, not burning dvds all the time, or playing Quake 3, or Warcraft or something).

  95. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  96. And then ... by diggitzz · · Score: 1

    ... I could do *real* work from my laptop rather than have to be at home or in the lab (yawn).

    --
    -=[You cannot consistently judge this statement to be true.]=-
  97. In the laptop form factor? by yerricde · · Score: 1

    [Intel calls StrongARM processors] XScales now, and they are very popular in networking equipement and PDAs.

    But when will we see an XScale processor based computer in a laptop form factor?

    --
    Will I retire or break 10K?
    1. Re:In the laptop form factor? by dan+the+person · · Score: 1

      But when will we see an XScale processor based computer in a laptop form factor?

      When you can run WindowsXP on an XScale :P

  98. You can... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    play with my tool if you want ;-)

  99. If the NIC and the CPU are on one die... by yerricde · · Score: 1

    Anyone know how can they say that a CPU chip will help wireless technology?

    What about putting the CPU and NIC on one die, as Intel seems to plan to do in a future version of Centrino technology?

    --
    Will I retire or break 10K?
  100. Smart move on Intel's part. by MtViewGuy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Let's consider the market for lighter laptops in general.

    Most users will use these smaller form factor laptops with programs like Microsoft Office and for lighter-duty Internet access. The thing is that with this market in mind it's not neccessary to run the fastest CPU available, since business applications and Internet access doesn't require the latest and fastest computer hardware out there. A 1.6 GHz CPU laptop with Centrino technology with 512 MB of system RAM running even Windows XP Professional is far more than fast enough for the general smaller form factor laptop user.

    With Centrino technology, laptop manufacturers can build extremely light (yet fully functional) laptops that are pretty much guaranteed to run with most software out there, yet have quite long battery life. Centrino technology is going to be bad news for Transmeta, that's to be sure.

  101. ARM architecture on the desktop by yerricde · · Score: 1

    As "embedded" CPUs like the ARM and XScale get faster, you may start to see them in more traditionally "desktop" applications.

    Hasn't ARM architecture on the desktop already happened?

    But unless a new non-x86 architecture can run the latest PC games, and run them at full speed (i.e. not through Bochs), the public probably won't flock to it.

    --
    Will I retire or break 10K?
  102. To speed or not to speed by dhartman · · Score: 3, Informative
    Speed may be relative, but you speed freaks need to take a step back and look at what you're trying to accomplish. A chip which requires a helicopter on top to cool it is not in the same class as a cool to the touch Transmeta Crusoe or VIA (Cyrix) Eden processor.

    If my application doesn't use more than 60% of the power of one of the low power chips yet has a requirement of long battery life, I'm idiotic to use an Intel anything! Off-loading mpeg decoding or other processor intensive tasks to a task specific chip and reduce cpu load and cpu requirements.

    Kinda like using a sledgehammer to pound in a finishing nail. Both will do the job but which one is less likely to cause unwanted side effects? (ie smashed fingers)

  103. Re: your sig by Gordonjcp · · Score: 1

    I wager that "wine" from the time before that bore little resemblance to what we have today...


    Uh-huh. So how, exactly, have the principles of fermentation changed over the past few thousand years? Oh, and incidentally, go and look up "zythum" somewhere. Roman beer (well ale, technically, but I don't expect a USian to be able to tell the difference).

  104. A laptop Pocket PC by yerricde · · Score: 1

    When you can run WindowsXP on an XScale

    Don't Pocket PC applications already look enough like Windows XP applications? And doesn't Pocket PC OS already run on XScale processors? (Or was this your point?)

    I think what On Lawn wanted was a laptop computer that runs either RISC OS or Pocket PC OS or both.

    --
    Will I retire or break 10K?
    1. Re:A laptop Pocket PC by dan+the+person · · Score: 1

      I thought he wanted a laptop that used an XScale chip. To me, as opposed to a PDA, that means big keyboard, big screen, big disk.

      And i don't think any manufactures are going to bring such a device to market until there is broad demand. eg until it runs WindowsXP (or perhaps in 5 or so years if linux has made strong inroads on corporate desktops).

    2. Re:A laptop Pocket PC by On+Lawn · · Score: 1

      Yes, and big battery. And I think your right, its Windows thats keeping me from having it. Its enough to rekindle the old 1990's hatred against MS ;)

      -------------
      OnRoad: The social ramifications of racing games. Why can't your game be GPL?

    3. Re:A laptop Pocket PC by dan+the+person · · Score: 1

      how about a sharp zaurus, with a CF VGA adapter plugged into a bigger LCD screen, a big IR keyboard, an externall NiMH battery pack, and an IBM Microdrive.

      Only downside is you can't use the microdrive and the vga adapter at the same time, if only there were a large storage solution for the MMC/SD slot. Oh and the drivers for the VGA card haven't been released yet.

    4. Re:A laptop Pocket PC by On+Lawn · · Score: 1

      how about a sharp zaurus?

      I like them. Perhaps a laptop docking bay for a fast enough pocketPC would be good enough. So far the closest thing I've seen to what I want is a Vadem Clio.

      -----------
      OnRoad: The social ramifications of racing games. Why can't your game be GPL?

  105. Re:from the because-you-don't-need-3ghz-HT-laptops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Curiosu to know what brand the laptop is?

  106. More like a tampon logo by spoco2 · · Score: 1
    It really looks like a tampon logo, and what the hell are they on about with: "The logo, featuring a striking magenta color and a completely new shape, suggests flight, mobility, and forward movement."

    I would have said: "The logo, featuring a colour chosen at random from the MS Word colour picker, and a shape designed by our women's razor departmen, suggests absorbancy, cleanliness and ads featuring men in white jackets."

    1. Re:More like a tampon logo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      exactly my thinking. but you beat me to it. bugger. cue the "ooooooooooooh bodyfooooorm" music. And get some women on roller-skates.

  107. Re: your sig by Planesdragon · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Uh-huh. So how, exactly, have the principles of fermentation changed over the past few thousand years?

    Fermentation has changed as much--well, more, actually--as politics, language, or religion has changed.

    Sure, the fundamentals are same--we all speak using groups of phenomes, we all have some of us making decisions for the rest of us, and we all wonder about what's out there--but there's a heck of a difference between Romulus and Remus and George W. Bush.

    Oh, and incidentally, go and look up "zythum" somewhere. Roman beer (well ale, technically, but I don't expect a USian to be able to tell the difference).

    It's American, Eurotrash. (Hey, you get to malign my country, I get to malign your free market.)

    You respond to my posting of "wine and beer have changed" with a quip about the difference between Beer and Ale? Do I even need to respond to that?

    Interchangeable parts, thermometers, and refrigeration have changed beer and wine as much as any other aspect of society.

    Oddly enough, all the grand Age of Reason did to my religion was slap it back to where it was just after The Man died. "Beer and Wine don't change" indeed.

  108. Next up... by RedCard · · Score: 1

    ...The 'Quadrino', followed closely by the 'PowerPeecino'.

    Man, I remember that old PowerPc 601 - That thing ROCKED back in its day! Now, mine's got a 240MHz G3 card inside, and an external 2GB SCSI drive.

    I want to migrate all my stuff to an ebook laptop, but can find no good way to do it. :(

    Anyone know where I can find the 10-base-T adaptor for the old 6100? It's got a built-in AAUI-15 port (I THINK, not totally sure about the '15' bit). Any way to hook the old SCSI drive to the ebook would also be a good way of moving files. Any success stories?

    Thanks in advance,

    1. Re:Next up... by Ponty · · Score: 1

      Here.

  109. HA! by xeeno · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I can just see the next generation of game requirements.
    OS: No later than 3.1 windows
    Internet Connection Speed: 2400 bps or lower
    CPU: 486 or lower
    etc.
    Brilliant move. Now we know what they are gonna do with all that surplus outdated hardware :D

    1. Re:HA! by jandrese · · Score: 1
      CPU: 486 or lower

      Believe it or not, there are plenty of (old) games out there with pretty much this exact requirement. Many of them run too fast on a modern (say Pentium-66) processors. Even the processor slowdown programs can't handle the severely overpowered Pentium and Athlon processors. There's nothing like pulling out your old copy of Cresent Hawks Inception and have your character run faster than the refresh rate of your montor will allow.
      --

      I read the internet for the articles.
  110. Centrino...Celeron....Hmmmmmm by Newer+Guy · · Score: 1

    Coincidence?

  111. ultralight, fast laptop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well, I hope this gets me a better laptop. I've got a PIII 700 MHz laptop - but it weighs less than 3 pounds. There are no other laptops in this weight range with a much faster processor.

    I want a faster laptop, but I *LOVE* the weight, and don't want to give it up. If this chip/chipset/form factor can squeeze into a laptop under 3 pounds, I'll buy it.

  112. Macs = slow by citanon · · Score: 1

    How apple can dope people into thinking that Macs are just as fast as PCs in terms for performance is beyond me.

    Buy a Mac because it has OS X, buy it because you like the low power consumption, the overall design and the unique style. Don't buy it because you think that it's faster.

    Application benchmarks.

    How Macs are faster than PCs and other lies.

    Benchmarks.

    1. Re:Macs = slow by DarwinDan · · Score: 1

      WHAT A LIE!!

      Not only are Macs proven to be faster at LOWER clock speeds, they are also significantly much easier to use (and require less maintenance) than any other OS.

      Just look at how much work it took Micro$oft to get "Windows" to look as good as the Mac! Nearly every release since 3.1 has been a DIRECT infringement of Apple's IP rights. Even UNIX/Linux X-Window managers have stolen some of Apple's unique ideas -- including Drag-and-Drop, WindowShade, and even the idea of double-click!

      FYI, Mr./Ms. citanon, if you want to insult my platform, at least get the facts straight!

      --
      $DEITY bless $NATION
  113. All those people who laughed by KnightStalker · · Score: 1

    Where were they, later, when the hired goons were beating on your kidneys? :-)

    --
    * And remember, it's spelled N-e-t-s-c-a-p-e, but it's pronounced "Mozilla."
  114. "Centrino" in Italian... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    ...actually means "doily", usually made with the crochet.

    Here's the
    Translation and two examples.

  115. Quote from the article... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    "The Intel Centrino brand signifies a new generation of mobile PCs that will change where and how people compute,"

    Wow! What an insight! I've _NEVER_ heard that at the release of a new technological product! Incredible!

    sarcasm == 0
  116. And in tomorrow's news: by eforhan · · Score: 1

    _Nvidia unveils new chip with lower resolution_

    "It works blindingly fast.", says the company spokesman.

  117. WiFi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Have any of you nerd wannabes read enough of the article to figure out that the whole point of this device isn't performance, but including WiFi on the same chip, using special processes.

    What a bunch of dorks.

    1. Re:WiFi by stevel · · Score: 1

      I guess you didn't read the article either.

      The WiFi support is on a separate chip from the processor, but "Centrino Technology" is for a combination of the Pentium-M and the support chips.

  118. Re: your sig by kraksmoka · · Score: 1
    not to start a religious war of the dirty kind (non-technical zealotry) but just to bring up a point that comes first to mind due to my jewish upbringing. if they were drinking wine 5000 years ago, and in religious ceremonies wine often symolizes happiness (fact, see passover and the 10 plagues recital), could wine be altogether different in its intoxicating nature??

    btw, those egyptians invented beer, ya dig.

    but don't get me wrong, i used to do LARPG gaming, there's no shame in it, and i admit it freely.

    --
    "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." - Rahm Emanuel
  119. Obligatory Simpsons... by Cyno01 · · Score: 1

    Ahh, a girl, whadda we do?

    --
    "Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
  120. Yay, a Pentium-M dup! by Heretic2 · · Score: 1
  121. Re:from the because-you-don't-need-3ghz-HT-laptops by Osty · · Score: 1

    Curiosu to know what brand the laptop is?

    Toshiba Satellite 1955-S803. For this one, "laptop" is a bit of a misnomer -- it's really more like a portable desktop replacement. Though, I have sat it on my lap while using it before, and it works well enough. It was a bitch finding a decent case that would fit the thing. The one I found is still just a bit too small, but I can cram it in there and it works well enough for now.

  122. Re: your sig by Gordonjcp · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    You've not answered my question. In what way has the basic idea of letting grape juicy go foosty and ferment changed? Have grapes changed? Has yeast changed? Is either fructose or ethanol different?

  123. Not Necessarily So by thedbp · · Score: 1

    check out the specs on iBooks and Powerbooks:

    www.apple.com/ibook
    www.apple.com/powerbook

    VERY powerful, VERY portable, and the best battery life in the industry.

  124. I have no idea by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 1

    Why people seem to say that Intel markets mhz. They don't. Look at their ads! It's silly aliens, the blue man group, and so on. None of it talks about mhz at all. They continue to push their chips to higher and higher mhz (like every one else) because, supprise, the same chip core at higher mhz will be faster.

    Now, many consumers have the perception that higher mhz = faster chip, but I've certianly never seen Intel market that. I think the perception comes form the Old Days(tm) of PCs where Intel chips were the fastest. Also, mhz upgrades didn't come that often and were usually pretty major. Let me tell you, my friend's 66mhz blew my 33mhz away. That perception remains to a large degree today, even though it is no longer as valid as it once was.

    However blaming Intel for marketing it is silly. AMD, Cyrix, and the like are the ones that do mhz marketing in the form of their PR numbers. It is an artifical system designed to increase the perception of the speed of the chip. MHz is not a marketing trick, it's a fact. It is the speed at which a given chip cycles, or a given radio carrier wave is, or an osillicope samples, and so on. It's a simple statement of fact about the chip, nothing more nothing less.

    I've never seen Intel market mhz, at least not in receant memory, and it's certinly not like they are lying about them. Consumer perception is a whole different matter.

    1. Re:I have no idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But, a different chip core at a lower clock rate would give better performance.

      The PIII and 800 mhz Outperforms a P4 at 1.6ghz.
      So why did Intel build a P4?
      To sucker the public.

      They could have added Hyperthreading and a Double Pumped Integer processor to the PIII.

      It appears the ONLY excuse for the P4 was Fool the Public.

  125. Explain to me how... by pigeon768 · · Score: 1
    Explain to me how using an 'aggressively clocked' CPU will result in smashed fingers?

    If you're like most gamers, and all you care about is having the best framerate possible, you're going to want the fastest possibly CPU. Or to use your analagy, a hammer that not only pounds in a finishing nail but crushes coal into diamonds as well. If you can afford the extra $30 for a quality powersupply and the extra $20 for a quality heatsink/fan, why not overclock your CPU into the realm of boiling water and frying eggs? Why get a beowulf cluster of Crusoe's when you can just get a P4 with a jet engine on top of it for half the price and complexity?

    1. Re:Explain to me how... by You're+All+Wrong · · Score: 1

      Correct - you don't end up with smashed fingers, you end up with a burnt cock.
      http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/282 45.html

      YAW.

      --
      Your head of state is a corrupt weasel, I hope you're happy.
    2. Re:Explain to me how... by Toraz+Chryx · · Score: 1

      When did you last overclock a laptop exactly?

    3. Re:Explain to me how... by Alan+Partridge · · Score: 1

      erm...

      we ARE actually talking about LAPTOP computers here, dingus

      --
      That was classic intercourse!
  126. Re:from the because-you-don't-need-3ghz-HT-laptops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't. Everyone I knows doesn't. What I want is a smooth experience that does what I wan't.

    There really aren't many uses for 3.0GHz laptops for day to day browsing. Even game playing with a half decent graphics chip doesn't need it. Games consoles will replace desktops for gaming in the next couple of years anyway.

    A 1.6Ghz that was smoother and quieter in terms of end user experience would be an great improvement. Any added instruction sets the make is smoother and quieter would be great as long as they don't over do it - I've not read the spec so I can't comment on Intels take on this.

    Myself, I'll be keeping an eye on laptops coming using this technology.

  127. slower chip by coderwolf · · Score: 1

    I wonder if TCPA will be included.

  128. Clock cycle speed != performance by $criptah · · Score: 1

    Books say that it is not how fast your cycle is, it is how much you can do per cycle (and how well you do it). But this is NOT the case with Wintel. For all I care, they can put girls jumping on tramplins on every goddamn CPU that they make and it will still suck. Intel seems to work on thier CPUs the same way a couple of guys next door work on their civics; both of them want to make something slow to go fast. You do not have to go very far to see that x86 has inherit bugs that one can fix only by a complete redesign that has not been done since the first x86 was realease. All they do is patch their chips and mark them differently. If Intel and really wanted to get a better chip they would do what Apple has done to its old chips: throw the design away and start from scratch. But then again, its all about marketing and a box that says "includes a videochip on CPU for better game experiences" reads much better than "now with a CPU that includes vector processing" to an average joe.

  129. eek! the new logo! by Astrorunner · · Score: 1
    I refuse to buy anything with a logo that could be drawn on an old CGA monitor.


    To this day, the combination of white/cyan/magenta make me want to puke.

  130. Re: your sig by crawling_chaos · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    Ummmm... small problem. The oldest piece of human writing we have is a cuineiform tablet... with a recipe for beer on it. The Egyptian hieroglyph for "food" is a representation of two loaves of bread, and a pot of beer.

    Beer was "heard of" way more than 2000 years ago. The recipe has changed quite a bit (hops were unheard of back then) but a fermented malt beverage has been a staple through most of human history.

    --
    You can only drink 30 or 40 glasses of beer a day, no matter how rich you are.
    -- Colonel Adolphus Busch
  131. NOT "slow" -- more performance than P4-M 2.2GHz !! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Hmmm, although some people recognized this as old news, nobody seems to have read the Tom's Hardware's Guide article comparing 1.6GHz Pentium-M with a Pentium 4-M 2.2GHz

    http://www.tomshardware.com/mobile/20030205/index. html

    I'll only say that under most applications P-M beats P4-M, maybe because of it's 1Mb cache and design changes ... VERY interesting article, read it, and it should leave you drooling for one of those laptops ...

  132. Scared of Transmeta by glenrm · · Score: 1

    This is in reaction to Transmeta. Intel is basically saying that the chip designers and the Linus guy who works on Linux are on the right track with the low power, code morphing, and long battery life stuff. The speed race was very important for almost ALL application up to about 1 GHz (don't fault Intel or AMD for the speed race of the last decade it was needed). Now more factors come into play, while speed will still be important for many apps, it will come in different forms such as blades, dual procs, etc. I own shares in Transmeta, I think they have a bright future.
    God Bless America and our Troops!

  133. Re: your sig by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The idea of ethanol changing is just laughable. I mean a clearly defined molecular structure which can be identified will remain the same as long as the identification procedure remains the same..

    Unfortunately, for your argument, that is about all that made sense in your post. Grapes and pretty much any fruit/vegetable/animal that has been cultivated by mankind has changed quite a bit in a thousand years, and even more if you are going back to the creation of the first alcoholic beverage. All of the better vineyards will actually have several different specific strains of grapes for each "wine." These grapes have been manipulated for quite awhile, and on top of that there have even been advances on such things as fertilizer and pesticides that have changed the consistancy/flavor/color of wines.

    You could also follow this argument with "yeast." The production of which has become quite a large market. And believe it or not there are several different varieties of those little yeasty beasties each of which will produce a different flavor/color/alcoholic content. Even the storage production of yeast has changed immensely.

    Now if you want to discuss the finer points of beer well then yes, that has changed also. We no longer "cook" most varieties of "beer," pressure is closely regulated, stored in different containers etc. etc etc...

    Shockingly enough our world has changed over time. And if you compare different fermented beverages overtime you can tell the difference. But i am sure that this post was redundant especially with your cultivated european pallet.

    sincerly,
    a humble citzen of the country that made sure
    you didnt have to learn to speak german

  134. Re: your sig by Gordonjcp · · Score: 1

    a humble citzen of the country that made sure
    you didnt have to learn to speak german


    See, comments like that are why people are flying planes into your buildings. America did very little to help Europe in WW2, until it was far too late to do any good. Now, you wonder why France and Germany don't want to go to war with Iraq? Incidentally, Tony Blair is the only UKian who wants a war with Iraq. The rest of us want to point *our* missiles at the US. Not that we don't trust you, but, y'know... Just - because.

  135. Re: your sig by Alan+Partridge · · Score: 1

    you're wrong about wine - the yeast used to ferment the grape must is naturally present on the skin of the grape, and most fine wines DO NOT ALLOW the use of pesticides in their production.

    I expect that the Romans had access to some very good and fairly familiar wines. ...and German should always be capitalised, citzen.

    --
    That was classic intercourse!
  136. lower power/more efficient? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well, it may be lower power, and more efficient at processing instructions, however, I won't believe it until I see some independent 3rd party benchmarks with actual machines. After all the itanic was supposed to emulate x86 in hard at virtually the same speed as an actual x86 chip of the same clock rating as the emulating itanic, plus the itanic instruction set/design showed some promise until it was taken over by a design-by-committee, hence I have my doubts re Centrino.

    IMHO Intel is only surviving on inertia right now, otherwise they'd have produced an actually good new architecture to replace the hacked/kludged up POS x86 architecture by now. (Or at least dropped more of the backward compatibility in the interests of better designs.)

  137. AAUI by j-beda · · Score: 1
    Do an ebay search for AAUI - there are a lot available for the $5 range.

  138. We'd all be driving motorcycles... by shking · · Score: 1

    ...if people compared vehicles the same way they compare computers (using RPMs instead of using horsepower).

    --
    -- "At Microsoft, quality is job 1.1" -- PC Magazine, Nov. 1994
  139. When will prople understand...?? by leeet · · Score: 1

    Clock speed != performance

    --
    -- Leeeter than leet
  140. Re: your sig by pianophile · · Score: 1

    America did very little to help Europe in WW2, until it was far too late to do any good.

    Lend/lease, anyone? Your UK probably would have fallen without our help, buddy. The US sent a few supplies to the Soviets, too, when they were running short. And then helped out a little with that whole D-Day thing....

    --

    'Your brain is God.' -- Dr. Timothy Leary
  141. AMD's official response by Rui+del-Negro · · Score: 1

    AMD's answer to the Centrino is... the Lehmon XP.

    Ok, it's a bad joke, but someone had to do it.

    RMN
    ~~~

  142. we make some gas guzzling SUV's. about it. by zymano · · Score: 0

    no real cars.

  143. Re:Santa Clara? by homer_ca · · Score: 1

    Maybe you're thinking of Colma, CA. Its main business is cemetaries. I've heard the dead residents outnumber the living by 750 to 1.

  144. Re: your sig by Gordonjcp · · Score: 1

    That's as may be. But had America got its lazy arse going about six months earlier, and helped *before* Rommel's mob trundled all over the French like learner drivers over traffic cones - when you were asked - it could possibly have made things a bit easier. But oh, no... Sit with your thumbs up your arses until the Japanese get involved.

  145. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  146. Re: your sig by Ozymandias_KoK · · Score: 1

    Make up your mind -- is it your suggestion that America should or should not be quick to go to war? You've supported both theories so far. (This is part where I am not sure if you are a moron unable to recognize this fact, or simply a hypocrite if your own interests are at stake.)

  147. You are an idiot by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 1

    The P3 800 does NOT outperform a P4 1.6, As I happens, I own both those processors. The P3 800 was what I used to use, the P4 1.6 is what I use now. The 1.6 is much, MUCH faster. Even with worst-case scenario, unoptimised software, it still is faster than the P3 800. With new software that is SSE2 optimised like games or more espically audio processors it just smokes. There are some audio plugins that it runs at over 4 times the speed with.

    Get a clue.

  148. Re: 1MB L2 Cache... Not your Dad's PIII.... by Glasswire · · Score: 1

    Read the specs...

  149. I've seen it! by craenor · · Score: 1

    Because of where I work and what I do...I've already gotten a chance to play around with these some.

    Let's just say, this isn't your father's pentium. These things smoke...and I don't mean like an AMD with a bad fan.

    The 1mb L2 cache and the architecture make this the fastest, most efficient portable computer CPU in the world.

  150. Re: your sig by Gordonjcp · · Score: 1

    OK, let's go back to around 1940. Erwin Rommel has just sent the Panzers through the the north of France, and it's all looking a bit messy. There are indications that they're heading towards Holland. Meanwhile, Mussolini is making overtures to the Germans - doesn't want invaded at all, but he certainly doesn't want invaded by force.

    Now at this point, Roosevelt was asked if the US would perhaps help out. He declined. In 1941, when the German invaded the Soviet Union, it was pointed out that if they took the whole country they'd be in a great position to attack the west coast of the US. Still no dice.

    It took until the Japanese got upset, and destroyed the naval base at Pearl Harbour before the US jumped up screaming for vengeance. Sound familiar? Up until this point, the US was neutral, and was supplying kit to Allies and Axis alike. Still sounding familiar?

    The thing is, these problems were pointed out well in advance. Your government (let's not fall into the trap of saying "you" meaning the American people, because then it sounds like an ad-hominem attack) never seems to shut the stable until the horse is long gone, and by then someone has stolen the door.