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The new Znote 6625WD from Zepto hides an array of highly anticipated technologies.
Most importantly, it houses Intel's new laptop platform, previously codenamed Santa Rosa.
Rather confusingly, Santa Rosa laptops will still be branded Centrino Duo for home users.
A new Centrino Pro badge will be added to corporate laptops containing Intel's vPro management software.
Santa Rosa brings a new motherboard design with Intel's new PM965 chipset and a new CPU plug called Socket P. This can hold new Core 2 Duo processors (the T7100, T7300 or T7500), all of which have an 800MHz front side bus (FSB), up from 667MHz on previous Core 2 Duo processors.
To save power, the FSB can be stepped down to 400MHz. Additionally, the socket provides each core with independent voltage control, so one core can be turned off if it's not in use or the other can be overclocked. Again, this increases battery efficiency.
The new motherboards also support a type of solid state hard disk that Intel dubs Turbo Memory. Up to 1GB in size, this is fast NAND flash-memory and acts in a similar fashion to Vista's Readyboost.
Turbo memory is only supported in Vista and helps with file caching as well as reducing power consumption since the hard disk doesn't need to be spun as frequently. According to Intel, Turbo Memory is a faster alternative to Readyboost memory sticks since data isn't slowed by USB bus and the latencies associated with it.
Intel's integrated graphics core has also been updated to coincide with the Santa Rosa launch. The new mobile chip is called the X3100 and comes with unified shaders, which is more efficient than having separate pipelines to perform vertex and pixel operations.
Intel says it is DirectX 10 compatible and promises the X3100 will be the first Intel graphics chip that can handle high-definition content from both Blu-ray and HD-DVD.
Other updated technologies Santa Rosa brings include a new Wifi PCI Express mini card from Intel supporting Draft N (although this is not compulsory for Santa Rosa notebooks) and a new type of Bios called EFI (extensible firemware interface) that updates the legacy Bios as standard on all Santa Rosa notebooks.
Our Zepto notebook came with an Intel Core 2 Duo T7100 clocked at 1.8Ghz with 2MB L2 cache, less than the other T7000 Core 2 Duos. Its 800MHz FSB should increase performance since the CPU can speak to the rest of the system with greater haste. The Znote 6625WD comes with 1GB DDR2 667MHz Ram occupying one slot, with one slot free. It's almost impossible to buy 800MHz Sodimms in retail at present, however Zepto says its laptops will ship with such modules.
See also:
Stylish, all-in-one PC with a 22in display to hang on your wall 04 May 2007
A good value notebook in an uninspiring chassis 27 Apr 2007
A truly portable tablet PC, but one that's dogged by poor battery life 23 Mar 2007All Notebooks & Tablets PCsTags: Notebook
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