45-nm Centrino 2 processors up performance of notebook systems

45-nm Centrino 2 processors up performance of notebook systems

Five processor versions feature a 1,066-MHz front side bus and a 23% performance jump

The 45-nm Centrino 2 and Centrino 2 VPro Core 2 Duo processors are said to yield industry-leading energy-efficient dual-core performance for notebook/mobile systems. The five processors (T9600, T9400, P9500, P8600, and P8400) have a 1,066-MHz FSB and an L2 cache of 3 or 6 Mbytes. The CPUs achieve a 1.66x improvement in SPECfp and SPECint benchmarks compared to a Core Duo T2700 processor with a 566-MHz FSB. They are also said to enable 802.11n wireless connectivity at up to 450 Mbits/s.

The CPUs achieve 23% higher performance, and while they take about the same power as their predecessors (25 and 35 W), they complete a task faster, so their effective power is much better. The CPUs can exploit this with the notion of HUGI — hurry up and get idle.

Also available is the companion 45 Express chipset which is said to provide 3X better 3D graphics performance, and 80% faster performance when compressing SD or HD video. (Centrino 2 processors, $209 to $530 ea/1,000 — available now.)

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