It's hard to keep a tech secret these days. Some would say impossible, thanks to the army of blogs on the Internet looking to grab eyeballs with any bit of leaked information or speculation they can find.
While the average consumer may not be as excited about the May 9 release of the first wave of laptops with Intel's Santa Rosa platform as one would be about, say, a new video game console, the torrent of leaked specs and models appearing online are interesting, even if just because it's information you're not supposed to know.
Otherwise known as Centrino Pro and Centrino Duo, we've seen leaked info online about Santa Rosa systems from Sony, HP, and Lenovo in the last few days. Sometimes the manufacturers themselves are at fault, such as when the tech blog Laptoping found info on HP's Santa Rosa lineup--including the HP Pavilion DV2500, DV6500, and DV9500, and the Compaq Presario V3000 and V6000--buried on the HP Web site.
Our colleague Michelle Thatcher has already recounted leaks from Sony, including its new TZ, SZ, and FZ Santa Rosa laptops, gleaned from a document on Sony's European Web site, as well as a comprehensive lineup from Lenovo, originally posted on NotebookReview.com.
On the plus side, not all the good stuff has leaked yet, so there may still be plenty of surprises come May 9 and the introduction (if not immediate availability) of a boatload of new systems.
(Credit:
Lenovo)
NotebookReview pointed us to spec lists for the refreshed ThinkPad T61 and ThinkPad R61, both of which will be built on the platform formerly known as Santa Rosa. The announcement is limited to new configurations for the Asia Pacific region, but we don't think it much of a stretch to assume we'll see similar Centrino Pro ThinkPads in the States.
One of the most intriguing features listed on the Lenovo page is the "Intel Turbo Memory 1GB hard drive for faster performance." We assume this is the official name for the Robson caching technology Intel demonstrated in 2005. Essentially a quantity of NAND flash memory that's incorporated into the motherboard, Robson stores a cache of commonly accessed information, such as the operating system and software, so you can boot the computer or launch applications without spinning the hard drive. Some of the other specs on the list include:
- Intel Core 2 Duo T7100, T7300, T7500, and T7700 processors up to 2.4GHz, with 800MHz front-side bus and up to 4 MB L2 cache
- Intel GM/PM 965 chipset
- Intel GMA X3100 or Nvidia Quadro NVS 140M graphics
- 802.11n WLAN and WWAN options
- Choice of Windows Vista or Windows XP Professional
- Roll cage and hard drive encryption.
Coming soon to a laptop near you.
(Credit: Intel)Marketing jargon comes and goes, but one bit of clever sticker-ware that's scored big with the public is Intel's Centrino platform. Laptops bearing the Centrino sticker (introduced in 2003) basically combine a specified combination of CPU, chipset, and wireless network interface, and promise a seamless online experience and better battery life.
The latest update, announced today by Intel, is the Centrino Pro. Previously code-named Santa Rosa, laptops bearing the Centrino Pro sticker must have, among other things, a new T7000-series dual-core CPU, 802.11n support, and a GM965 chipset.
With users demanding more and more from their laptops, Intel has built several key features into the new platform, including improved remote management of laptops for your company's IT department, faster boot times for systems, and integrated graphics that are better able to handle Windows Vista's fancy Aero effects. Or, as Mooly Eden, vice president of Intel Mobile Products Group puts it, "This is an ideal time for this product as we continue to see notebook penetration rates increasing in business."
Many of these features can already be found on desktops that use Intel's vPro technology.
Intel says Centrino Pro processor technology will be available in the second quarter of 2007, and we expect to see many major vendors releasing Centrino Pro systems in May.
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