Intel's Centrino 2: The second coming
Zara Baxter
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Oct 15, 2008 12:21 PM
Is Centrino 2 the leap ahead that Centrino was? Zara Baxter investigates.
When Centrino was launched in 2003, everything about it was aimed at conserving power. The Pentium M processor it was designed to run with was powerful and power efficient of its era.
The core Centrino platform components of processor, chipset and wireless interface represented a new form of marketing for Intel, and perhaps as a result Centrino didn’t make a massive splash initially.
One of the key advantages it offered, apart from the excellent Pentium M, was standardized Wi-Fi. In the dark days of early Wi-Fi, chipset incompatibilities meant that USB dongles and PC Card wireless adapters were patchy at best, and often had to be combined with a compatible router.
It helped to have tame firmware for both. When Centrino came along, it meant that Wi-Fi worked – admittedly with a few hiccups, but suddenly the issues weren’t about getting products to connect to each other, but getting them to connect securely.
That, in turn, meant public Wi-Fi hotspots. Airports, coffee shops and internet cafes could invest in infrastructure knowing that people would be able to connect and spend money.
Before too long, Centrino not only dominated the laptop market, it became practically the only game in town.
These days, it’s practically impossible to buy a laptop without wireless networking. As a result of Centrino driving the ubiquity of Wi-Fi, and because Australia won’t get WiMAX for at least a year yet (see WiMAX 101, opposite), the central question about Centrino 2 is “is it worth it?”
The value proposition
Centrino has undergone a few updates since launch. The original ‘Carmel’ gave way to ‘Sonoma’ and then to ‘Napa’, notable for the addition of the Core 2 Duo, SSE3 instructions for multimedia support and GMA950 integrated graphics, as well as new power management features. Most recently, Santa Rosa has performed well in our labs, and it provides draft-n Wi-Fi and either GM965 or PM965 graphics.
When you look at the updates so far, Centrino seems like more of the same. The list of improvements sounds familiar, but substantial changes are implied from the version shift from Centrino to Centrino 2. Let’s look at the four core components of a Centrino Platform – CPU, chipset, graphics chipset and Wi-Fi module – to find out.
CPU
Centrino 2 laptops will all carry 45nm Penryn processors; Santa Rosa Centrino models are also compatible with 45nm Penryn processors, but the Centrino brand doesn’t imply a particular class of CPU. That confusion is now eliminated, and given the difference we’ve seen in performance and battery life from Santa Rosa 45nm laptops, that’s a good thing.
Intel is introducing five new Core Duo CPUs for Centrino 2, all with 1066MHz front side bus (FSB). Given that they’re almost identical to their Centrino equivalents in most other respects, we don’t expect any major performance improvements.
The Quad-core Core 2 Extreme X9100 model is worth mentioning because it will be unlocked – so enthusiasts can now overclock it for high-performance gaming.
Chipset
Changes to the chipset include support for additional technologies such as dual-channel DDR3 RAM and improved power management. Intel claims its Rapid Memory Power Management system will improve battery life, and DDR3 uses lower voltages which should also help.
Early feedback from vendors suggest they haven’t seen any major battery life difference for Centrino 2 models compared to Centrino models of a similar specification. Expect to see the disparity solved when the first review models arrive.
Gigabit Ethernet is supported now, as is DisplayPort – yet to make a major impact, but Intel is predicting laptop screens will move to DisplayPort in the future. Blu-ray playback is supported in hardware, and there’s also support for USB/eSATA combo ports, though we didn’t see any on models at the Centrino 2 launch.
Graphics
For starters, the new mobile graphics includes new graphics chipsets: GM45 for integrated graphics and PM45 for discrete GPUs. While we haven’t tested these chipsets, Intel has reportedly designed them to be 70-200% faster than the Santa Rosa ‘Bearlake’ graphics chipsets, incorporating faster 533MHz clockspeeds, more shader processing, SSE4 and HD video support.
GM47 and PM47 follow later this year, and will increase the graphics clockspeed to 640MHZ.
There’s also integrated graphics, which works in s similar way to Nvidia’s Hybrid SLI – the graphics can switch from discrete GPU to integrated graphics to conserve power or provide performance, as needed. We saw one switchable graphics laptop from Lenovo; a software dialogue box switches between the discrete GPU and integrated graphics on the front of the laptop.
HP, interestingly, has opted for discrete graphics across its initial Centrino 2 product range, rather than integrated graphics.
Wi-Fi
Centrino 2 adds faster Wi-Fi through a new Wi-Fi module, codenamed Shiloh, which provides 802/11 draft-n for speeds up to 300Mb/s (450MB/s after an update later this year). While this addition is great if you have a draft-n network, it’s certainly not an essential upgrade yet, especially when public Wi-Fi is mostly 802.11b/g.
Centrino 2 also brings integrated WiMAX to laptops. The WiMAX/Wi-Fi combination adapter, known as Echo Peak, won’t find its way into Australian laptops soon – of the 11 manufacturers we spoke to, only Fujitsu will include WiMAX, and even then, only on business models.
The WiMAX spectrum used here is not the same as used overseas, and dual spectrum WiMAX adapters aren’t yet available (though they will be next year). A laptop with WiMAX is only worth consideration if you frequently travel internationally.
Gradual change
As soon as Intel launched Centrino 2, there were already thirty laptops ready with the new platform.
Centrino 2 provides a good deal of flexibiity for OEMS, and given what we’ve seen already from vendors such as Acer, Asus, Sony, Optima, HP, Lenovo and NEC we expect diverse pricing and more differentiation. Centrino 2 also supports the small package size Core Duo CPU used by the MacBook Air and Lenovo X300, offering more scope for even thinner, ligher laptops.
But even at launch we heard about expected updates to the Wi-Fi module and integrated graphics, as well as quad core models, due in only a few months. It’s likely that the incremental improvements will continue, and although Centrino 2 will rapidly replace Centrino in all but the cheapest entry-level notebooks, it’s not the spectacular change we might have hoped for.
All the changes are welcome, but you don’t need to bin your current laptop for Centrino 2. It’ll be the only game in town by the time you buy your next laptop, and that’s plenty soon enough to upgrade.
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| Hp has opted for discrete GPU's on its entire Centrino 2 based laptop range |