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Intel's newest Core 2 Duo processor has finally found its way into most models in the world's two largest PC makers' notebook lines.

With some exceptions. Hewlett-Packard (HP) will offer the 45-nanometer Penryn processor for the first time in its 8700 performance line in the next two weeks.

HP 8700 performance series will get Penryn chip upgrade in the coming weeks.

(Credit: Hewlett-Packard)

Intel's 45nm Core 2 Duo Penryn processor was announced back in January as a significant upgrade from the previous "Merom" 65nm processors. Penryn boasts improved power saving features and generally better (though not phenomenally) performance at the same clock speed due, among other things, to a larger cache memory. On certain multimedia tasks, there is up to a 40 percent improvement in applications using Penryn's new SSE4 instructions.

Dell's newest Penryn-based offerings include Latitude and Precision notebooks, which are business and engineering lines respectively. Dell is already offering Penryn on its consumer line of notebooks, including the Inspiron and XPS lines. Certain high-end XPS models on Dell's Web site, such as the XPS M1730, can be configured with Penryn processors only. One M1730 SKU offers Penryn T9300 (2.5GHz), T9500 (2.6GHz), and X9000 (2.8GHz) chips only.

One of the notable exceptions is the low-end Dell Vostro line which offers only the older line of Core 2 Duo processors and AMD's Turion 64 X2 chip.

While HP was very quick to bring Penryn to its consumer and business lines, there are only limited processor selections in its business line. The HP 6510, 6710, 6720, and 6820 models offer either the Penryn T8100 or T8300, according to HP spokesperson Mike Hockey. But online configuration options are not offered with faster Penryn chips.

The HP 8700 performance line, which includes mobile workstation models, does not offer the Penryn chip yet. This is expected to change in the next week or so when HP, for the first time, includes configurations with the processor, Hockey said.

Apple refreshed its MacBook and MacBook Pro product lines last week. I was hoping for more significant improvements, but the changes were minimal.

Apple's MacBook Pro

(Credit: Courtesy of Apple)

The updated models come with new Intel processors, larger hard disks, more main memory, and more graphics memory.

The new Penryn processor was expected to improve battery life, but I noticed something when I compared the specs for the old MacBook Pro to those of the new model. The new machine's stated battery life has dropped from six hours to just five. However, Apple now refers to five hours of "wireless productivity," whereas the old machine didn't use that qualifier. This suggests to me that Apple is now rating battery life with wireless networking enabled, and may have been doing the measurements with Wi-Fi off on the older machines. If that's what happened, Apple should explain it; without the explanation, the apparent drop in battery life is disappointing.

Well, these machines are just a midlife kicker. The real advance will show up later this year when Apple ships machines based on Intel's forthcoming Montevina platform, which includes the same Penryn processors but introduces a new family of chipsets code-named Cantiga.

Apple will presumably add other new features along with Montevina. I have no idea what Apple is working on, but we can look at other PC notebooks on the market today to see what technology Apple might consider adopting:

• Extreme Edition processors
• Support for more than 4GB of DRAM--Mac OS X "Leopard" is a full 64-bit OS and 4GB isn't really enough any more, especially if you use a virtualization environment such as Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion to run Windows apps within Mac OS X
• Integrated WWAN--I use an Option ExpressCard 3G adapter for the AT&T network, but I'd rather have this function built in to free up the slot
• Blu-ray optical drives--I expected to see this feature last year!
• A secondary solid-state hard disk--I suggested this feature in a blog post last June, and now Sony has it in its Vaio TZ92 notebook
• Intel HD audio
• Nvidia's GeForce 8800M GTS and GTX graphics chips
• Hybrid graphics--the ability to use a discrete graphics chip for high performance or the simpler graphics engine in the chipset for longer battery life; Sony offers this feature too
• A fingerprint reader--Apple's systems are already more secure than most Windows machines, but a fingerprint reader would be a useful complement to existing security measures
• Tablet mode--maybe not on all machines, but it'd sure be nice to see a tablet-capable MacBook

Apple has often been ahead of the competition. Earlier PowerBook and MacBook models were among the first notebooks to introduce super-thin cases, Gigabit Ethernet, motion sensors, LED backlights, DVI video outputs, FireWire, and other advanced features. Perhaps Apple is looking well beyond the features I've listed here, some of which have become almost routine in Windows notebooks.

Of course, even without these improvements, existing MacBook and MacBook Pro machines are still among the sleekest, fastest, and most capable notebook PCs on the market. But no tech company can afford to stand still, not even Apple.

And I need a reason to replace my own MacBook Pro. It's almost a year and a half old, and I'm getting itchy. C'mon, Apple, surprise me!

Now with Penryn: Alienware's Area-51 m15x

(Credit: CNET Networks Inc.)

Dell updated its XPS line of laptops earlier this month with Penryn CPU offerings, and now it's sharing Intel's latest mobile processors with its wholly owned subsidiary, Alienware. The Area-51 m15x now offers three Penryn chips, the Core 2 Duo T9300 and the T9500 and the Core 2 Extreme X9000. Pricing starts at $2,149. If you're scoring at home, Dell's 13-inch and 17-inch XPS laptops have received a Penryn update, skipping over the XPS M1530. Meanwhile, Alienware's 15-inch laptop has the Penryn and its 17-inch model does not.

Also with Penryn: Gateway P-171X FX

(Credit: CNET Networks Inc.)

Elsewhere, Gateway has made its first Penryn update. The 17-inch P-171X FX is a $2,000 fixed configuration that includes the Core 2 Duo T8300. For more on this laptop, read our recent review of the $3,000 P-171XL FX model, which includes a last-generation Core 2 Extreme X7900 and a suddenly outdated HD DVD drive. Gateway tell us it will be adding Penryn to an M-series laptop "in a few weeks."

For more on Penryn, read our coverage from CES.

If this was your Valentines gift, we're sorry.

(Credit: Sybarites)

While some sectors of tech were reliving the years 2001 through 2003, the world of laptops soldiered on, driven by the harsh master that is Moore's law. Intel's 45-nanometer Penryn chips crept into several laptops, including the Dell XPS M1730 and two Acer Aspires. Meanwhile, Best Buy is currently showing a one- to two-week delay on MacBook Pros--we'll let you connect the dots.

In other component news, Nvidia was met with yawns when it revealed the specs for two mainstream notebook video cards. A supersecret start-up called Montalvo Systems just might be on the verge of shaking up the processor market. And larger-capacity solid-state drives are reportedly on their way (for the impatient or the merely cheap, NotebookReview has published a tutorial on making your own solid-state drive).

One laptop that's going to use a solid-state drive? The Lenovo ThinkPad X300. This week saw confirmation that the 13.3-inch ultraportable does in fact exist, though the company canceled the meeting in which we were supposed to receive our review unit. We think it had something to do with the BusinessWeek cover story on the X300, but to that we say: "BusinessWeek, SchmusinessWeek. Hook us up!"

Ahem.

Review units we did get our hands on this week included the Toshiba Portege R500, the Toshiba Satellite Pro A210, and the Gateway P-6831FX.

Elsewhere in the news, Apple released the latest Leopard; we tested the performance of Windows Vista SP 1; Laptop magazine got their mitts on the small, cheap Everex Cloudbook; PC Magazine took a look at the subscription-based Everex Zonbu; and caffeine addicts will now look to AT&T instead of T-Mobile for Wi-Fi at Starbucks.

Finally, a woman in Washington, D.C. has put a price on the value of her laptop, which was lost by Best Buy after she turned it in for repairs: $54 million.

Have a great weekend!

A back order of MacBooks at Best Buy could be yet another sign that Apple has new notebooks around the corner.

Best Buy is showing a one- to two-week delay on both 15.4-inch $1,999 MacBook Pros--the exact configuration that was rumored to be on tap earlier this month--as well as 13.3-inch MacBooks. AppleInsider has also heard from a reseller who claims orders are "trickling in" in preparation for a new launch.

Signs that new MacBook Pros are around the corner continue to trickle out.

(Credit: Apple)

Rumors of new notebooks have been swirling for weeks as a confluence of different events point to the possibility of new MacBook Pros. Intel has new Penryn-class notebook chips out, which are starting to be adopted in larger numbers by PC companies. And Apple hasn't updated the basic design of the MacBook Pro in an awfully long time.

That doesn't necessarily mean that a new design is forthcoming with the next revision to the notebook lineup, but the new Penryn chips are almost a certainty to help boost the performance of the MacBook and MacBook Pro. There have also been rumors that Apple will bring the iPhone-like touchpad capabilities introduced on the MacBook Air to the rest of the MacBook lineup, which would require the inclusion of a new controller chip in the systems.

Apple tends to like Tuesdays as "new product days," a tradition that was recently upheld with the higher-capacity iPhone and iPod models introduced a few weeks back. Something is clearly brewing for the end of this month, with details on the iPhone software developers kit expected to arrive any day now, and now evidence that Best Buy is running low on MacBooks during a quarter that's almost always seasonally slower than the fourth.

Dell XPS M1730: now with Penryn.

(Credit: CNET Networks, Inc.)

Those of you hunting for the latest technology in Dell's 17-inch gaming laptop will be pleased to learn the M1730 has received its Penryn update. Since Intel announced its new 45-nanometer chips last month at CES, they've been ever so slowly making their way into systems. Dell is replacing the T7700 and the T7800 Merom CPUs with the T9300 and the T9500 Penryn chips, respectively. There will be no price differential between the older Merom chips and their Penryn replacements.

Dell's XPS M1730 laptop now lists two Penryn CPU options, the 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo T9300 and the 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo T8300 (which has half the cache, 3MB, of the T9000-series chips). The two Penryn chips cost less than the Core 2 Extreme X7900 and Core 2 Duo T7800 options. (Expect the T7800 option to soon be replaced by the T9500.)

Dell's XPS M1330, which got Penryn last week, boasts three Penryn chips, the T8300 and the T9300 plus the 2.6GHz T9500. The T8300 sells for the same price as the T7500 chip, which is a generation behind and clocked slightly slower but serves up more L2 cache. I say you sacrifice that extra 1MB of cache and get the new chip, if deciding between the two. Better yet, spend an extra $125 for the T9300, which is faster and serves up 6MB of L2 cache. The T9300 would seem to reside in the price-performance sweet spot.

Dell has told us that the Latitude line would also be getting a Penryn update this month, but there is still no sign of the new chips on Dell's business laptops.

Dell's XPS M1330 uses the Penryn chip.

(Credit: Dell Computer)

Dell is in the process of updating its notebook line with Intel's newest 45-nanometer mobile processors. As reported earlier this week, Dell indicated it would refresh its lineup with Intel "Penryn" processors.

This comes as Dell moves much of its AMD-based lineup to retail stores such as Wal-Mart and Staples.

Dell will offer the Penryn processors in its Inspiron and XPS lines, according to a Dell spokesperson. One of the first U.S. models is already available online. The XPS M1330 can be configured with a Core 2 Duo T9500 (2.6GHz, 6MB cache), 2GB of memory, Intel X3100 graphics, and a 120GB hard drive. The system is priced at $1,674. The same basic configuration with a T8300 chip (2.4GHz, 3MB cache), drops the price to $1,274.

Dell, in the coming weeks, will also offer Inspiron models with the new Intel processor.

Though announced in early January, Penryn-based mobile systems are just now starting to hit the market in volume. For example, Toshiba announced this week a 4.6-pound, 13-inch form-factor model, the U305-S2816, that uses the Penryn T8100 (2.1GHz, 3MB cache). It starts at $1,349.99. And Hewlett-Packard bulked up its consumer notebook lines with Penryn-based models last week.

The simultaneous introduction of new Penryn-based models and the repositioning of some AMD-based notebooks from Dell's online store to retailers such as Wal-Mart and Staples is coincidence and not related, said Anne Camden, a Dell spokesperson. She also said that models in the Inspiron, Vostro, and Latitude notebook lines are available currently with AMD processors.

At retail, at least, AMD has a strong presence. For instance, of the seven Dell systems and package deals listed on Wal-Mart's Web site, only one of them is Intel-based. The rest are AMD. The question is whether a retail-heavy presence--where profit margins are typically thin--bodes well for AMD or not.

Alienware's Area-51 7500 CF has Intel's new quad core chips.

(Credit: Alienware)

Our review of Intel's new Core 2 Extreme quad-core chip went up last week, and our findings, along with the general consensus around the Web, were that the Core 2 Extreme QX9650 is the new king of the CPU hill. Today you'll find these new chips available from various system vendors in their high-end gaming rigs, although it's interesting to see who has the chips and who doesn't. Here's a rundown of the big names:

The haves:
• Alienware's Area-51 ALX CF
• Falcon Northwest's Mach V
• Maingear's F131 SLI
• Velocity Micro's Gamer's Edge PCX

The have-nots:
• Dell's XPS 720 H2C
• HP's Blackbird 002
• Voodoo PC's Omen

As of now, HP's Blackbird 002 only offers Intel's older quad core CPUs.

(Credit: CNET)

We expect the have-nots will get onboard sooner or later, likely by January at the latest in time for a CES announcement. Dell has a history of latching onto one chipset per model, in its XPS 700-series systems, so it might require a line refresh before we see an Intel X38-based system. As HP and Voodoo, we're surprised that neither has the new chips yet. As a smaller vendor, Voodoo can usually be more nimble with its parts offerings. We were also told by HP that the Blackbird would be similarly quick to adopt new technologies (and ironically, the Blackbird's configurator went live this afternoon, already out of date compared with the rest of the high-end gaming PC market).

All of these vendors could certainly update their sites soon, and we've sent them e-mails asking for time tables. We'll let you know if we hear anything concrete. Just be sure to look at each vendor's offerings carefully if you're shopping for a high-end gaming rig this holiday season. Otherwise, you could end up plunking down more than $5,000 for a gaming rig that's a generation behind.

The planned launch of Intel's Penryn processors on Monday is the first blow in a one-two punch that might stagger AMD heading into 2008.

Just a few months after the launch of AMD's quad-core Barcelona chips, Intel is hitting back with Penryn, now known as the Xeon 5400 family of processors. A total of 15 server chips are set to launch Monday as well as a new Core 2 Extreme desktop processor, with Penryn chips for mainstream desktops and notebooks scheduled to launch in the first quarter of next year.

Penryn is essentially a shrink of the Core architecture that brought Intel out of the woods in 2006. But these are also the company's first chips to use Intel's 45-nanometer manufacturing technology, and they will usher in the first change to the basic properties of the transistor since the 1960s.

For the first time, Intel plans to use a metal gate and a new material for the oxide layer around the gate in its transistor designs. This fundamental part of the transistor provides the foundation for computing as the part that determines whether a transistor is off or on, a "0" or a "1."

"We needed the scaling and power/performance, and it would be very hard to do it on the previous technology," said Dadi Perlmutter, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Mobility Group.

Intel and other chipmakers were running into problems making the gates smaller and smaller. The gates were getting down to the point where the gate dielectric--an insulating layer that sits between the gate and the rest of the transistor--was only a few atoms thick. The chipmaking industry has figured out lots of amazing things, but it hasn't figured out how to split an atom without causing a bit of an energy problem.

The new materials allowed Intel to build thicker gates with the same switching properties as the older ones, which helps control current leakage and also buys the industry a few more generations of scaling. IBM and AMD plan to release chips based on similar technology in 2008.

And the combination of the new transistors and some design tweaks appears to have been enough to give Intel a performance lead with the Penryn generation of chips. The company said some of its partners set world records for scores on well-known benchmarks such as TPC-C and SPECint_rate2006 with the basic Xeon chips. When paired with the 1600MHz front-side bus available on some chips, Intel said it also set records on SPECfp_2006rate, long a stronghold of AMD's. SPECint_rate is a general measure of transactional performance that's important to business customers, while SPECfp_rate measures floating-point performance and is important to high-performance computing customers.

Intel avoided making direct comparisons to AMD's chips in briefing materials distributed ahead of the announcement. It plans to have a Web site up and running on Monday with more detailed performance information.

Intel did say that the new Xeons will be about 28 percent faster than their older brothers on SPECint_rate2006, and 30 percent faster on SPECfp_rate2006. Barcelona barely edged out the older generation of Xeon chips on SPECint_rate2006, so it looks like Intel will have an edge in that area.

If you make a server-buying decision based solely on these numbers, however, you're making a mistake. There are some truths to benchmarks, but companies like Intel and AMD spend millions of dollars trying to get an edge on benchmark results, which don't always mirror real-world performance. Still, they're the best comparison vehicles we've got, though those who are contemplating a serious server purchase test their applications on a system before making the leap.

Penryn marks the second generation of Intel's quad-core designs. Around this time last year, Intel packaged its dual-core Core generation processors into quad-core chips that enjoyed several months free from competition from AMD.

That free ride ended with the Barcelona launch. AMD gained back some market share in the third quarter, as Barcelona systems trickled into the market. Still, going into the launch the company didn't expect Barcelona to contribute meaningful revenue until the fourth quarter.

And it seems that AMD is having a little trouble getting Barcelona into the market. Reports surfaced last week in the run-up to the Penryn launch that some server vendors are quoting 2008 as the time frame for Barcelona's availability, even though AMD executives said they plan to ship "hundreds of thousands" of Barcelona chips this quarter.

That, of course, is exactly when Intel will fire back with the Penryn chips. The new Xeons will arrive in the same pricing bands that Intel's current lineup of Xeon chips occupy, and Intel plans to have systems available right away from the usual suspects in the server market.

And next year, it will get even tougher for AMD. The company has two new designs for desktops and notebooks (known as Spider and Puma) that are set to arrive over the next few months. But Intel isn't sitting still, either: the first quarter of next year will see Penryn chips arriving for desktops and notebooks, as well as an extremely low-power chip called Silverthorne that could open new markets for Intel that AMD can't touch until 2009.

To top it all off, Intel's main plan for 2008 is to release chips called Nehalem that borrow many of the same design techniques, such as an integrated memory controller and point-to-point connections, that made AMD's Opteron chips a winner for several years. AMD would say it's a sign that it was right all along, but it doesn't really matter: Intel has managed to stay very competitive without those techniques, and when it adopts them, AMD could be in more trouble next year.

The smaller chip company is clearly pinning its hopes on 2009, when it aims to release "Fusion" chips that integrate a high-powered GPU with a PC and server processor. The "Bulldozer" chips will also be assembled from smaller building blocks, which could let the chipmaker target specific customers with designs tailored for their needs.

For now, though, Intel is in excellent shape--assuming it doesn't run into any problems during the first few months of the Penryn launch. In just two years, Intel has managed to get beyond the embarrassment of its abrupt change in course at the hands of AMD to get its server group back on track.

Few of us will ever buy a server based on these chips, but this market is extremely important to both Intel and AMD because it's so much more profitable than cranking out chips for your desktop or notebook. That helps fund the development of other technologies that do have an impact on the rest of us, meaning that the competitive balance between the two companies in this segment has far-reaching implications.

For now, advantage Intel.