Updated on October 24 at 10:20 a.m. with corrected image of Intel laminar jet technology.
Intel wants a laptop to live up to its name.
A computer that sits comfortably, coolly on your lap. The world's largest chipmaker expects a crush of ultrathin laptops from PC makers in 2009 and unveiled cooling technology this week to make sure these svelte air-flow constrained designs stay cool.
To date, cooling technology has focused on keeping the internal components from getting too hot but not the outside of the computer, according to Mooly Eden, general manager of Intel's Mobile Platforms Group, speaking at the Intel Developer Forum in Taipei this week. Eden's keynote was streamed from the event.
Intel uses laminar jet technology to cool a laptop's skin (corrected image)
(Credit: Intel)"When you design a very thin system, cooling the skin is a very big challenge," said Eden. "If you put (a laptop) on your lap, it can feel very uncomfortable. Very hot." This is one of the biggest hurdles to designing an ultrathin laptop like the MacBook Air or HP Voodoo Envy 133.
If this problem isn't solved, laptops "can't be made thinner and thinner," he said.
Eden showed an animation of a jet engine to prove his point. The inside of a jet engine can get as hot as 1,000 degrees centigrade. But the jet engine's wall must be kept cool because it is connected to the wing where the fuel is. To keep the engine heat away from the wing, laminar air flow cooling is used.
A laminar flow occurs when a fluid--or air in this case--flows in parallel layers.
Intel demonstrated a system using the same laminar air flow technology to move the heat off a laptop's skin. "We are licensing it to our customers so they can keep making thinner and thinner laptops," Eden said.
Intel demonstrated laminar jet cooling at IDF.
(Credit: Intel)Intel also revisited the next-generation Calpella laptop platform (due in the second half of 2009) based on its Nehalem technology. Eden reiterated that the graphics and memory controller would be integrated onto the same piece of silicon as the processor.
He also discussed how additional transistors in Nehalem can switch cores on and off, depending on how processor-intensive the application is. This will be critical in a quad-core Calpella laptop to deliver acceptable battery life. (Eden intimated that Calpella quad-core laptops would be common.)
For instance, three of the cores can be shut down to save power when the user is doing tasks that don't require a lot of compute power. Then more cores can be turned on depending on the need.
This is done "automatically on the fly. It is transparent to the operating system," Eden said.
He also talked about "Hyperthreading" or simultaneous multithreading on Nehalem--the ability to run two program threads simultaneously per each core, doubling the number of threads and, Intel claims, obviating the need for eight cores. "We could have done eight cores. We know how to do it. But it would have been too hot," he said.
Eden showed a concept Calpella laptop on stage during his IDF keynote speech.
SAN FRANCISCO--Though a little behind schedule, it's finally here.
Despite a minor snafu that held up the launch by three weeks, Intel officially introduced its new Centrino 2 platform at a press event here Monday night.
The delay was reportedly a problem with the FCC certification for the 802.11n Wi-Fi standard used in the platform, in addition there were reports of problems with the integrated graphics feature.
More than 240 new laptops will be launched Tuesday using Intel's Centrino 2 platform.
(Credit: Erica Ogg/CNET News)But on launch day, Intel's Mooly Eden, vice president and general manager of the mobile platforms group, said the fix was a "simple procedure" and that Intel is "good to go."
As part of the introduction of Centrino 2 platform, later Monday night PC makers like Lenovo, Acer, Gateway, Fujitsu, and others will roll out their latest laptops with the updated technology.
The Centrino 2 platform comes in two flavors, one for consumers, and one with Intel's vPro technology for business customers.
This time around, Centrino 2's high-definition media capability is what Intel is trying to push. The whole platform is set up to enhance Blu-ray playback, and the company says it will help a laptop's battery last two hours, which for many films means you can see the entire HD movie without having to recharge.
There are five new processors available within the Centrino 2 family. At the event, Intel made a big show of its Core2 Extreme Mobile Processor X9100, which it says is the "highest performing mobile processor." Intel has removed overclock protection, and generally tuned it to impress gamers. To demonstrate, an Intel employee played the PC version of Assassin's Creed on a notebook with the Extreme Mobile Processor.
The new chipset is also developed with an eye toward gamers. Intel is introducing an option in which the same notebook can switch between using discrete graphics (which are battery intensive and loved by gamers) and integrated graphics (which reduces the power drain on the PC).
In all, Intel tried to demonstrate what it thinks is the most important issue for mobile PC users: balancing power efficiency and faster processing. The "secret sauce," said Intel's Eden, is a feature they are calling HUGI, which stands for "Hurry Up and Get Idle."
The company says it will enable the new 2.8GHz processor to consume 60 percent less electricity than its 2.33GHz processor on a single task, and it will get that task done 30 second faster.
Also in Centrino 2, 802.11n Wi-Fi will be standard. Intel says to expect five times faster wireless connections, and twice the range, but to get ready for WiMax coming this fall. Though not available immediately, future versions of Centrino 2 will come with built-in WiMax capability.
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