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Intel Slashes Computer Startup Times

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the an-end-run-around-the-bsod dept.

An anonymous reader writes "At Intel's Developer Forum in Taiwan, Intel introduced a new Non-volatile caching technology called 'Robson'." The new Robson cache technology allows computers to start up almost immediately and load programs much faster. Intel declined to comment on the specifics of how the technology works only saying that 'More information will be revealed later'.

7 of 435 comments (clear)

  1. I wonder by venya · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Hmm... I hope this doesnt require big changes to computer architecture...

  2. If this kind if thing is a concern by cxreg · · Score: 5, Insightful

    you're booting too often

    --

    God Fucking Damnit
  3. Re:The big secret... by macklin01 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    While cute, that's not entirely accurate. A well-maintained WinXP installation with antivirus installed still boots in the 30 second range on a P4 with a decent amount of RAM. It's the extra stuff that can really slow it down. (OpenOffice or MS Office, taskbar goodies, etc.)

    Just like a really good Gentoo installation can boot up very quickly, but it can take awhile to go through the process if it isn't so well-optimized. Out-of-the-box on a dual boot P4, it's been my experience that WinXP boots faster than out-of-the-box Linux. (But I'm not enough of a linux guru to trim it down.) -- Paul

    --
    OpenSource.MathCancer.org: open source comp bio
  4. If they just took the crap out... by Animats · · Score: 4, Insightful
    The laptop with Robson also opened Adobe Reader in 0.4 seconds, while the other notebook required 5.4 seconds.

    This isn't a load time problem. It's a load crap problem.

    "Loading and verifying WebBuy.api" (does anyone ever use WebBuy, Adobe's DRM system for PDF documents?)
    "Checking for updates" (Adobe might have changed the format of PDF again.)
    Loading ad content for toolbar. (Sigh.)

    And then all the crap that's being downloaded has to be scanned for viruses. It's all that junk that's the problem.

    Of course, OpenOffice isn't all that great on launch time either. And no, loading it at boot time isn't the answer.

  5. Boot times by ashground · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Actually, yesterday I took a stopwatch to my computers to compare their boot times (comparing my new PowerBook G4 1670 with 1gb of RAM and my old Athlon 1700+ desktop with 768mb of RAM).

    Both computers are running a similar load of software at boot. The PC boots with Palm Desktop, Rainlender, and a web server (Abyss) while the Mac boots with Quicksilver and a web server (Apache). Other than that, everything else is pretty standard--audio drivers, video drivers, tablet drivers, and so on. Most of these things are present on both computers. The Mac is a month or two old, the PC hasn't been formatted in two years or so.

    Everything timed at home with a stopwatch.

    First up--the amount of time it takes from pushing the power button until you have a usable login screen.
    Mac--139 seconds
    PC--38 seconds

    Next--the amount of time it takes from entering your password until you have an idle workspace (on Windows, this was when things stopped loading in the system tray, on OSX this was when the Finder menu appeared completely).
    Mac--50 seconds
    PC--9 seconds

    So, complete boot time (plus whatever time it takes to enter a username and/or password)...
    Mac--189 seconds
    PC--47 seconds

    Finally--the amount of time from the time you click "shutdown" until your computer is powered off.
    Mac--53 seconds
    PC--11 seconds

    So, the time it takes to do a complete reboot...
    Mac--242 seconds
    PC--58 seconds

    Instant-on would be fantastic if it could recover from crashes. There's nothing more frustrating than waiting three minutes for my laptop to boot.

    1. Re:Boot times by TimmyDee · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm sorry, I realize this is a non-scientific comparison, but this is anything but scientific. You're comparing a laptop, which likely has a 5400 rpm drive, to a desktop, which likely has a 7200 rpm drive. One of the major limiting factors at bootup is the disk. With so much seeking and reading going on, a difference in disk speed will be a huge hit to the laptop -- any laptop.

      Also, comparing Mac OS X 10.3 to XP SP2 (as you failed to note in your original post) is also a bit bunk. Apple completely rewrote the boot sequence for 10.4 and, as a result, has dramatically decreased boot time.

      Oh, and one more thing, you PowerBook has more memory. Memory tests happen at startup. The extra 256 MB of RAM may add a few seconds to the boot sequence.

      I admit I'm an Apple fan, but we need to have a level playing field if we're going to compare these things.

      --
      Per Square Mile, a blog about density
  6. Re:The REAL reason by haraldm · · Score: 4, Insightful

    For me, this sounds like a company trying to prevent customers from going elsewhere soon. Announce early, release late if at all, keep customers. It's not that we didn't see this before. Is anybody else known to work on something like that?

    --
    open (SIG, "</dev/zero"); $sig = <SIG>; close SIG;