The AMD Palermo Core was released on February 2005.  It was fabricated at 90nm Silicon on Insulator (SOI) process.  Early models are labeled as Oakville mobile Athlon64.  The chips is clocked from 1.4-2GHz with 800MHz HyperTransport bus on a 754-pin Socket.  It carries 64KB data & 64KB instruction L1 Cache and 128/256KB full-speed L2 Cache.  This CPU features MMX, 3DNow!, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, AMD64, Cool’n'Quiet and the NX bit Enhanced Virus Protection.  It has integrated 72-bit single channel and ECC capable DDR RAM controller. 

The Multi-Core Era: Ending the Gigahertz War

The microprocessor reached the 1GHz-mark on 2000, 2GHz on 2001 and 3GHz on 2002.  But the chip makers can no longer push the limit of CPU frequency because of physical barriers.  In 2005, the multi-core processor era officially ended the Gigahertz War.  The instead of pumping the CPU speed, the miniaturization technology allowed chip makers to pack more than 1 processing cores into a single physical processor.  Operating Systems can now execute 2 threads simultaneously.  

The New Core Wars

Because of this multi-core revolution, the Centrino brand drafted the dual-core CPU in its product line.  The Napa platform entered the arena on 2006 which featured an Intel Core or Core 2 processor, Intel 945 chipset on 667MHz FSB and a 54-108MBps Wi-Fi draft-N adaptor. 

AMD Turion 64 is previously known as Mobile Athlon 64.  It is a 64-bit mobile processor for low-power consumption.  The Turion 64 and Turion 64 X2 processors raced with Intel’s Pentium M, Core and Core 2 mobile processors. 

The new Richmond core Turion 64 CPUs will mount on AMD’s S1 Socket. These processors have a 512/1024KB L2 cache, an 800MHz HyperTransport bus and a 64-bit single channel on-die memory controller.  The PowerNow! battery saving feature emphasized its mobile role.

Intel Inside Apple

During the Apple-Intel Transition in 2006, the MacBook Family of laptops were redesigned to incorporate Intel Core and Core 2 Duo microprocessors.  The main reason for this was IBM’s inability to deliver on Apple’s processor requirements.  This transition covered all Macintosh product lines whether nettops, desktops or laptops.  The notebook segment included the consumer-targeted MacBook, the high-end MacBook Pro and the slim-type MacBook Air. 

Centrino 2: Judgment Day

The Centrino brand launched the Santa Rosa platform in 2007 which had a Core 2 Duo chip with SSE4.1, Intel 965 chipset and a Wi-Fi draft-N adaptor with better coverage.  Montevina platform arrived on 2008 with a 2-3GHz Core 2 Duo CPU with SSE4.1, Intel 4 series chipset and an Intel WiMax/Wi-Fi N combination adaptor.  The Montevina platform is also known as Centrino 2.

Core Yonah: Intel’s 1^st Mobile Dual-Core CPU

Yonah is Intel’s first generation of 65nm process mobile CPUs from 2006. It packed 151 million transistors with 12 stage pipeline and run from 2.33-2.5GHz with a 533-667MHz FSB and 2MB L2 cache.  It is based on the Banias/Dothan-core Pentium M microarchitecture. SIMD performance was improved through the addition of SSE3 instructions.  The SSE and SSE2 implementations were also improved.  But integer performance slightly decreased because of higher latency cache. 

Core 2 Merom: Intel’s 2^nd Mobile Dual-Core CPU

Intel Merom cores are sold as Pentium Dual-Core, Core 2 Solo, Core 2 Duo and Celeron. It operates from 1.6-2.6GHz with a 533-800MHz FSB and 2-4MB L2 cache.  It was the first mobile processor based on the Intel Core microarchitecture.  It replaces the Pentium M-based Yonah processor.  Merom XE core behind the Core 2 Extreme Mobile processor.  It was clocked at 2.6-2.8GHz and was used in top-end iMacs.

Penryn: Merom Derivative

Intel Penryn core are also sold as Pentium, Core 2 Solo, Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad and Celeron.  It is basically a shrunk Merom by 45nm process.  From here evolved your first quad core laptop. It introduces new fabrication materials of a hafnium-based high-k dielectric.  It is rated at 1.2-3.06GHz core frequency with a 800-1066MHz FSB and 3-6MB L2 cache.  It was mainly designed for mobile applications

The Tiny Atom

The ultra-low voltage Intel Atom processor incarnated in 2008 from the 45nm CMOS process.  This entry-level performance CPU is specifically designed to power the small and lightweight Netbooks or Nettops.  These miniature laptops and desktops are intended for low performance computing and web-based applications.  Netbooks typically weigh less than 1kg (2.2lbs.) and are commonly used for web browsing.  While office-use Nettops are small desktop cases where full-sized monitors, keyboards and mouse are attached. 

The 32-bit Atom CPU delivers core speeds of 800MHz-2GHz with a 400-667MHz FSB.  It comes with in single or dual core versions processor.  The capacity of a single core Atom is about half of the Celeron with the same speed but only has about 2.5W of TDP. 

Centrino’s a-Calpella

The Centrino brand released the Calpella platform on 2009 with the new 45/32 nanometer Intel Core i5 or i7 microprocessor, Intel 5 series chipset with up to DDR3-1600 RAM support and Centrino Wi-Fi N + WiMax combo adapter.

Rise of Nehalem

Nehalem is the successor to the Core microarchitecture. The first processor with this architecture is the desktop Core i7 released on November 2008.  The quad-core variant houses 731 million transistors.  Initial Nehalem processors use the same 45nm process of Penryn.  The CPU line is natively monolithic for quad- and octal-core processors, all processor cores fit on a single die.  

Nehalem-based microprocessors utilize higher clock speeds and are more energy-efficient than Penryn microprocessors. Hyper-Threading is reintroduced along with an L3 Cache missing from most Core-based microprocessors.  In the chip resides a 32KB L1 (instruction) and a 32KB L1 (data) cache per core, 256KB L2 cache per core and 4–8MB L3 cache shared by all cores. 

The Intel QuickPath Interconnect manages point-to-point processor communication and replaced the aging Front Side Bus.  The memory controller is integrated to support 2-3 channels of DDR3 SDRAM.  The Integrated Graphics Processor (IGP) is located off-die but in the same CPU package.   In mid-range models, the PCI Express and Direct Media Interface are integrated into the processor eliminating the northbridge. 

Clarksfield Mobile: Core i5 & i7

Clarksfield is an Intel processor sold as Intel Core i7 mobile.  It’s core speed is rated at 1.6-2GHz and up to 3.2GHz on Turbo.  It has 4x 256KB L1 cache for each core and an 8MB L2 cache.  Like the desktop Lynnfield processor, Clarksfield also uses the 45nm Nehalem quad-core dies.  They both have integrated PCI Express and DMI links.  Clarksfield CPUs were significantly faster than any other laptop processor on September 2009.

Arrandale Mobile: Core i3, i5 & i7

Arrandale is an Intel processor sold as mobile Intel Core i3, i5 and i7.  It was released last January during CES 2010.  Similar to the desktop Clarkdale processor, Arrandale also uses the 32nm Westmere dual-core dies.  Both have integrated Graphics as well as PCI Express and DMI links.  Westmere was derived from the Nehalem microarchitecture.  Arrandale contains two dies: the actual 32 nm processor with the I/O bus and the 45 nm graphics controller with memory interface. 

Arrandale succeeds the Penryn core that is used in many mobile Intel Core 2, Celeron and Pentium Dual-Core CPUs.  Unlike Penryn, this new CPU already contains the major north bridge components.  This includes: the memory controller, PCI Express (external graphics), integrated graphics and the DMI connector.  This makes it possible to build more compact systems without using a separate northbridge or discrete graphics like the desktop Lynnfield.  

Intel’s Core i3, i5 & i7 Branding

Intel introduced a new naming scheme for its Core processors based on the Nehalem microarchitecture.  The names no longer correspond to specific technical features three variants.   The brand is instead divided from the low-level Core i3, to the mid-range Core i5 and up to the high-end Core i7.

The Core i3

The Intel Core i3 brand is marketed at the new entry-level processor that will retire the Core 2 brand.  The first batch of these CPUs were released last January 7, 2010.  The first Nehalem based Core i3 was based on Clarkdale.  It come with an integrated GPU and two cores.  The same chip can configured differently and be labeled as Core i5 or Pentium.  

Arrandale is the mobile version of the Clarkdale desktop processor.  Derived from it is the Core i3-3xxM processor. This will be similar to the Core i5-4xx series except for the lower clock speeds and no Turbo Boost.

Core i5

The first Intel Core i5 was introduced on September 2009.  It is positioned between the mid-level Core i3/Core 2 and the high-end Core i7/Xeon brands.  Core i5 is a mainstream variant of Core i7.  Core i5 notebooks are from the Lynnfield-based quad-core desktop processors.  It could also be from the dual-core Arrandale (mobile) and Clarkdale (desktop) processors scheduled in 2010. 

The Core i5 750 is a 2.66GHz quad-core Lynnfield-based CPU without Hyper-threading. This Core i5 processor boasts an 8MB L3 cache, a DMI bus running at 2.5GT/s.  It natively supports 800/1,066/1,333MHz dual-channel DDR3 SDRAM.

The Core i5-5xx mobile CPUs named Arrandale are derived from the 32nm Westmere shrink of Nehalem.  Arrandale chips only have two processor cores but integrated graphics is enabled.  The L3 cache in Core i5-5xx processors is limited to only 3MB.  These edition was released on January 2010.

Core i7

Intel Core i7 covers several 64-bit desktop and laptop processors families under Nehalem technology.  It is the successor of the Intel Core 2 brand.  The Core i7 label was first used on the earlier batch of Bloomfield processors introduced in 2008.  The name was applied to some Lynnfield and all Clarksfield models in 2009.  All Core i7 models were quad-core before 2010.  The label was later applied to dual-core Arrandale models.  The forthcoming Gulftown desktop Core i7-9×0x Extreme chip will have 6 Hyper-Threaded cores. 

Clarksfield is the mobile version of Lynnfield.  It will be placed under the Core i7 Mobile name of the Centrino 2 Calpella platform. It debuted at the Intel Developer Forum last September 2009. 

Arrandale will be the second mobile Core i7 processor.  It will be designated as Core i7-6xx and feature an integrated graphics processing unit with only 2 processor cores, half of Clarksfield.

CES 2010: The Minority Report

The 2010 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas presented the Intel Infoscape that was powered by an Intel Core i7 processor.  A laptop displayed two 7-foot screens and showed 576 cubes.  These cubes are streamed by 20,000 sources and 20 live video feeds.  Spectators can tap a cube and an information box showing the content will appear.  A participant exclaimed that the giant screens were extremely smooth and responsive in rendering the display.  It was compared to the holographic interface in the futuristic movie Minority Report. 

Multi-Core on your Lap

Our society is now thriving in the Information Age.  With the help of these multi-core processor platforms, we will soon experience computing power that we can only dream of.  The laptop with its modern mobile processor will take us into greater heights.  We are living in exciting times.

Best Places to Buy The Evolution of Laptop CPU’s – Part 2

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Back in the pioneering years, a computer would mean an a huge room of mechanical and electrical components.  These machines were custom designed to perform only a limited number of tasks.  They can only be operated by a dedicated team of specially trained technicians.  A single unit would cost an entire company department.  Back then, computers were not meant for individuals or home use.  Only large corporations need and own them.

Rise of the Machine: Desktop Computers

In November 1971, the world’s first commercial microprocessor, the Intel 4004, was released.  It’s general purpose architecture opened the possibilities for multiple applications from a single chip design.  Combined with Intel’s RAM chip, a new era of personal desktop computers was ushered.  Altair 8800, IMSAI 8080 and other models immediately made their way for personal use.  Microsoft and Apple Computers emerged from this revolution.  They made personal computers useful and available for the general public. 

Attack of the Clones: IBM PC Compatibles

The arrival of the IBM PC finally set the standard for general purpose, low cost and practical computing.  Small businesses, professionals and hobbyists can now afford desktop computer hardware and software.  The high availability of the IBM PC further encouraged the development of related technologies that eventually created its own industry – the PC.  Students, hobbyists and programmers can now create simple and robust games or applications which were easily distributed through floppy disks.  The industry flourished to the extent that IBM eventually lost control of the PC standard while it slowly took life from Microsoft and Intel.

Portable Heavyweights

The idea of having a portable computer is not a recent concept as you might think.  Even 4 decades ago, Xerox PARC already wanted to produce a self-contained personal computer.  This means a self-enclosed design where most components are attached for a quick pack-up and easy deployment.  These “luggable” personal computers typically weighed from 10-30 kilograms (22-66 pounds) and folded into a size of a portable sewing machine.  The monitors are about 6-9 inches is diameters while the keyboard are revealed when unfolded.  A mouse may be included.

NoteTaker: The First Portable Computer

The Xerox NoteTaker was developed in 1976.  It came with an 8-bit 1MHz CPU and 128KB of RAM which were advanced during its time.  The NoteTaker came with a monochrome display, a floppy disk drive, and a mouse.  It ran on SmartTalk a graphical operating system weighed 22kg (48lbs.).  While it was very promising, only 10 prototypes were made and it never entered production. 

The Osborne Effect – Revisited

The first commercially successful portable personal computer was the Osborne 1.  This portable computer was released in 1981.  It featured a 4MHz Z80 CPU, 64KB RAM, detachable keyboard, parallel/serial ports and ran on the CP/M operating system.  It was mainly based on the Xerox NoteTaker. 

Compaq vs. Hyperion

The Compaq Portable was released in January 1983 and came with a larger 9-inch green screen.  Hyperion rivaled Compaq because it was the first portable IBM PC compatible computer.  It was also shipped in January 1983 with 256KB RAM, 360KB 5.25” floppy drive, 7-inch CGA monitor and a 300bps modem.  Office software were bundled.  In February 1984, IBM finally released their first luggable machine, the Portable PC 5155 model 68. 

The Convertibles

The IBM PC Convertible model 5140 truly resembled a clam-shaped design of a modern laptop.  It was introduced in April 1986.  I was powered by an 4.77MHz Intel 80c88 CPU, 256+KB RAM, dual 720KB floppy drives and an monochrome CGA LCD screen.  It weighed 5.8kg (13 pounds) and includes a carrying handle.  The MinisPORT by Zenith Data Systems debuted in 1989.  This modern-looking laptop came with 640KB of RAM, 3.5” 1.44MB floppy drive, 20MB hard drive, 2.4K baud modem and a color LCD display. 

Toshiba vs. Mac

The Toshiba’s laptop series culminated with the T1200 in 1987.  It was ticking at 9.54MHz, 1MB RAM, a 720Kb 3.5” floppy drive and a 20MB hard drive.  Macintosh Portable arrived in 1989 with a 16MHz Motorola 68000 CPU at 16MHz bus, 1MB RAM that’s upgradeable to 5MB and a 3.5” 1.44MB floppy drive.  It weighed at 7.2kg (15.8lbs) because of its lead-acid batteries. 

The Laptop De Facto Standard

The Macintosh PowerBook series emerged in 1991 and eventually set the standards for the modern laptop form factor.  It introduced the first serious offering for the Laptop genre of personal computers.  Three versions were released to satisfy consumer budgets.  PowerBook 170 is the fastest of the Series.  It is driven by the 25MHz Motorola 68030 CPU, 4-8MB RAM, 40-80MB hard drive, 1.44MB floppy Superdrive, active matrix display, a trackball and Mac OS 7.6.

Mobile Intel

The laptop PCs in 1991 are limited to Intel 286 CPUs because 386 processors consume huge amounts of power. But the arrival of the power-optimized Intel 386SL processors included laptops in future CPU design considerations.  The 25MHz 386SL is a 386SX core integrated with a memory controller paired with an I/O chip to produce the SL chipset.  A System Management Mode (SMM) function is embedded.  It is packed with 855,000 transistors using 1 micrometer process.  This was widely implemented in the notebook market in its time.

486 Extinction

The Intel 486SL, a power saving and complete 486DX CPU, followed this path.  It was released on November 1992 and was clocked at 20, 25 and 33MHz.  This chip packed 1.4 million transistors, has SMM included and manufactured at 0.8 microns.  This model was later abandoned in favor for the arrival of the Pentium and mobile Pentium microprocessors.

Heated Confrontation: 030 vs. 486

The 32-bit Motorola 68030 CPU has an integrated Floating Point Unit and Memory Management Unit.  It has six stages of full-pipeline architecture.  The 030 is basically a shrunk 68020 core with added data cache.  This process allowed Motorola to pack more hardware on the CPU die.  However, the Intel 80486 used in 1994 laptops can be overclocked better without the overheating problems of the 030.  Because of this, Apple was unable to recover their lead in this period.  

The First Touchdown

The PowerBook 500 series is the first laptop to use a touchpad as pointing device.  The 500 series is powered by a 40MHz Motorola 5068LC040 CPU and can be upgraded to a 68040 that has an FPU.  It sports a 9.5-inch passive color display, 16-bit stereo sound and expansion options.

Multimedia Laptop 95

Microsoft Windows 95 implemented the Advanced Power Management specification.   This  simplified notebook power management in the OS.  Rebooting and entering the BIOS was no longer needed to set power management policies.  Windows 95’s multi-media features justified the need for CD-ROM drives and Intel Pentium CPUs for the laptop computers. 

Spinning Laptops

The Gateway Solo was the first 3-spindle (hard disk, optical & floppy) notebook computer.  At the same time, the IBM ThinkPad, Toshiba Satellite and the Dell Latitude were gaining reach  using Pentium-based 2-spindle (hard disk & floppy) systems in the corporate market.

Aim High PowerPC!

The PowerBook 5300 series was the first generation of PowerBook laptops to use the PowerPC processor in August 1995.  They are attributed as the first to feature hot-swappable expansion modules.  PowerPC is a RISC-based architecture (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) A CPU design strategy which uses simplified instructions.  It was designed by Apple, IBM and Motorola (AIM). 

Celeron’s Mission

During these periods, most Intel-base laptop computers are either using desktop processors or their scaled-down versions to prolong battery life.  The Pentium II CPU touched down on May 1997 running at 233-450MHz clock frequencies with 7.5 million transistors using 0.35 or 0.25 micron processes.  The first Intel Celeron microprocessor was based on the Pentium II chip.  It is similar in most ways including the clock speed and fabrication process.  The only difference are that they have little or no L2 caches, have slower bus speeds and have disabled multimedia features.   Mobile versions were developed for both PII and its Celeron counterpart.

PowerBook G3

The first PowerBook G3 shipped in 1997 with a 250MHz G3 processor and a 12.1″ TFT SVGA LCD.  The PowerPC G3 is not microprocessor, but in fact, a set of microprocessors from different vendors.  It is a 32-bit system designed and manufactured by IBM and Motorola.  The PowerPC 740 and 750 CPUs were introduced in late 1997 to power the PowerBook G3 laptop.  The CPU can reach speeds of up to 366MHz while only consuming 7.3W. 

K6 Redux

The AMD K6-2+ is an enhanced K6-2 with 570MHz core frequency and 128KB L2 cache using a 0.18 micron process.  It’s essentially a K6-III+ with only half the L2 cache. The K6-2+ was intended as a low-power mobile CPU.  It was released when mainstream desktop CPUs were quickly migrating on to newer platforms like the Athlon.  It sold in modest numbers to its target market.  The AMD K6-2+ chip were sometimes used on desktops.  

The PowerPC G3

The PowerPC G3 came with a 66MHz 60x system bus, 32KB instruction and 32KB data L1 caches, a second integer unit, an enhanced floating point unit, higher core frequency and on-die cache controller/tags. It supports the optional 256, 512 or 1,024KB external unified L2 cache.  Both caches are accessed by a dedicated 64-bit bus.  The 740/750 models contains 6.35 million transistors.  It was initially produced by IBM and Motorola using an aluminum-based 0.26 micron fabrication process.  

Pentium III: 3 Variants

The Pentium III was inaugurated on February 1999.  It housed 9.5 million transistors through a 0.25 micron process.  The Katmai version is clocked at 450-600MHz, 100-133MHz bus speed with Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE) and  512KB off-die L2 cache.  The Coppermine CPUs ran from 500MHz–1.1GHz frequencies with 100-133MHz system bus and was made by a 0.18 micron process.  The Tualatin chip formalized the Gigahertz Era by starting at 1,133MHz and reaching 1.4GHz with a 133MHz bus.  The die has 32KB L1 cache and 256-512KB integrated L2 through a 0.13 micron process.  Mobile editions are available for Coppermine and Tualatin.

Mobile Celerons

The Coppermine (PIII) –based Celeron hit the market on March 2000 and featured 28.1 million transistors processed at 0.18 microns.  They operated from 533-850MHz with 66-100MHz system bus, 32KB L1 cache and 128KB L2.  The Tualatin (PIII) –based Celeron ran from 1-1.4GHz at 100-133MHz bus speed with 32KB L1 and 256KB L2 caches.  They were manufactured using the 0.13 micron technology process.  These 2 Celeron derivatives also have low-voltage versions specifically meant for the Mobile computing market. 

The Laptop Generation

The year 2000 is the time when the mobile computing market started to flourish because of the growing demands for multi-media notebooks and decreasing hardware costs.  A TFT LCD SVGA display became the minimum standard.  CD writers and floppy drives were included.  Multiple expansion ports are available around the laptop.  A Fax/Data modem and a 100-Base Ethernet adapter became the norm.  Hard drives were large enough and batteries gain longer hours.

The Mobile Athlon

The AMD Palomino Core was first released as a mobile version.  It was called the Mobile Athlon 4 or Corvette.  This stock has 64KB data & 64KB instruction L1 Cache and 256KB full-speed L2 Cache.  It ran with 133MHz FSB and has MMX, 3DNow! and SSE technologies. 

G4: The Last PowerBook

The PowerBook G4 laptop was announced at MacWorld Expo in January 2001.  On November 2002, the last version of PowerPC G4 featured a 867MHz or 1GHz clock speed with 256KB backside L2 cache and 1MB backside L3 cache. 

Pentium 4 Unleashed

The much awaited Pentium 4 desktop processor reached the public on November 2000.  It introduced the NetBurst Architecture which features very deep instruction pipelines that can reach frequencies up to 3.8GHz.  This rate is only limited by the Thermal Design Power that went as high as 115W.  The bus is only 100MHz but was Quad-Pumped to reach 400MHz.  It utilized SSE2 and later SSE3 instruction sets for better multi-media processing.  Newer Pentium 4 chips introduced the Hyper-threading (HT) Technology where a single physical CPU works as 2 virtual CPUs.

Mobile Mac for the People

The iBook, a line of Apple laptop computers between 1999 and 2005.  It initially ran on 500-900MHz PowerPC G3 CPUs with 32-576MB RAM.  The last editions used 800MHz-1.42GHz G4 processors with 256MB-1.5GB RAM.  It was targeted at the consumer and education markets with its lower specifications and prices. 

The Mobile Pentium

The Pentium 4-M processor entered the laptop market on April 2002.  It featured Intel’s SpeedStep and Deeper Sleep technologies for the laptop CPUs.  Other related laptop processors emerged like the Pentium III Mobile, Mobile Pentium 4 and Pentium M which is the fastest of the 4.  Unlike the desktop Pentium 4, Pentium 4-M has lower voltage, less heat and did not need an Integrated Heat Spreader (IHS). 

The Mobile Pentium 4 was developed to the address the self-defeating practice of using a full desktop Pentium 4 CPU in laptops.  The Mobile Pentium 4 ran on a Front-side Bus (FSB) of 533MHz and bridge the gap between Pentium 4 and Pentium 4-M. 

The Mobile Celeron

The Mobile Celeron was derived from the Mobile Pentium 4.  While the Celeron M processor is built from the Pentium M chip design and released on March 2003.  They are similarly clocked with their normal Pentium counterpart but performed better and drained more battery life.  These 2 Celerons differ from regular chips in terms of their lower FSB rating and reduced multi-media capacity. 

The Mobile Athlon XP

The mobile Athlon XP-M are identical Athlon XP.  It only worked at lower voltages, bus speeds and is not multiplier-locked. This enabled the chip to consume less power and generate less heat.  It was ideal for battery-powered laptops.  Athlon XP-M processors also have a higher heat tolerance making it suited to the tight conditions of a laptop.   Athlon XP-M is based on the newer Thoroughbred and Barton cores.  It replaced the older Mobile Athlon 4 that used the older Palomino core. 

The Intel Centrino Platform

In 2003, Intel launched the Centrino brand, a platform-marketing initiative.  A laptop with a Centrino sticker will have an Intel mobile chipset, a Pentium M CPU and a mobile Intel wireless adapter.  The Carmel platform is the first offering and included a Pentium M CPU, Intel 855 chipset and an 11MBps Wi-Fi adapter.  Sonoma platform followed on 2005 with a Pentium M CPU, Intel 915 chipset on 533MHz FSB and a 54MBps Wi-Fi adapter. 

Further reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_laptops and 

http://www.geekwithlaptop.com/laptop-revolution-where-size-does-mater-a-whole-lot

Best Places to Buy The Evolution of Laptop CPU’s – Part 1

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Competitive renumeration can be expected.

Should you be interested. Email: chinnervian@hotmail.com and comment on this post to let me know to watch out for your mail.

Looking forward to hear from you.

Vian Chinner

Best Places to Buy High End Tech writers wanted.

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I love this mouse. Aside from a few minor quirks, the Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000 has
been a comfortable, durable, and very pleasurable mouse to use on my laptop.

The MS Bluetooth Mouse 5000 is a transceiver free device, meaning you don’t need to plug anything in
or keep track of a USB adapter to use the mouse. By using Bluetooth technology the 5000 can be
used without an adapter, but the PC or laptop must be bluetooth enabled. Most new laptops already
have bluetooth built-in. If you don’t have bluetooth support on your PC you should consider
a bluetooth adapter, since it can be used for many other devices such as your mobile phone.

Specifications for Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000

The 850nm Microsoft Laser Technology means a clean, steady mousing experience.

Installing Bluetooth Mouse 5000

The Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000 does not include its own transceiver. Instead, the mouse
relies on the desktop, notebook, or portable computer to have a transceiver built into the computer.
How the mouse will connect to the computer by Bluetooth varies depending on how Bluetooth is
implemented on the computer. You may have to contact the computer manufacturer to find out how to
turn on Bluetooth on the computer and how to add a device to it.

connecting the 5000 to a notebook or portable computer.

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I only recently decided that the Detonator 41.09 drivers from NVidia
were worth taking a look at on my system. After some initial problems with the drivers,
I eventually traced down the conflict to my old audio drivers. The C-Media on-board audio
chipset on my Soyo SY-K7V Dragon+ gave me more problems than they were worth. After
installing a new Soundblaster Live! 5.1 card, many of the mysterios conflicts in my system
went away. To make a long story short, the Detonator 41.09 do seem to be stable on
my Win98 box and actually proved to be pretty fast, too.

I tested five separate versions of the NVidia Detonator drivers and ran both 3DMark2001 SE
and GLExcess as my benchmarking tools. On each driver revision I ran the benchmarks at least
three times apiece and took the best score. Without further ado, here are the comparison
graphs for all of our scores:

3DMark2001 SE

GLExcess

Evaluation

These scores raise an interesting issue. In 3DMark, our Direct3D benchmark, the 40.72 drivers shined above the rest,
although the 40.71’s weren’t far behind, with the 41.09 landing in third place. Revisions
28.32 and 30.82 of the Detonators hardly compare to the newer drivers in 3DMark.

But the story changes a little in GLExcess, where OpenGL performance becomes important.
The newest Detonator 41.09’s easily take the top position with 9224 points, a
notable 105 points higher than the 40.72’s. Also in the GLExcess tests we can see
the older 30.82 revision taking second place over the newer 40.71 drivers by 45 points.
The 28.32’s still come in last with 8979 points.

All these numbers might appear a little more significant than they really are, though.
When you take into account the relative gains between revisions the performance benefits
aren’t really that huge:

3DMark2001 SE

GLExcess

Conclusion

Only because of the poor performance of the 40.71’s in GLExcess do the 40.72 and 41.09
drivers come out as the top performers. It’s really a matter of necessity which revision
you choose to use. The 41.09’s display better OpenGL performance but after multiple
tests the 40.72 still consistently displayed better 3DMark performance.

It would probably be worth running a wider range of tests on these two drivers sets,
to really gauge their differences. I will probably do this in the near future but for now,
I noticed no difference in stability or ‘working’ speed on my pc. I would recommend
you stick with the newest WHQL certified drivers that work smoothly on your system, unless
you are really looking for that extra few 3DMarks or FPS.

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With the release of the new VIA 4in1 Hyperion v4.45 Drivers,
there has been some question as to the usefulness of VIA’s new drivers on the
older KT266A chipset. Since I own this particular chipset of course I am one of those
people who are wondering. VIA has their own charts,
but they don’t tell us much we need to know.

As such I ran a series of tests against four version of VIA’s 4in1 drivers: the
newest Hyperion 4.45’s, the 4.43, 4.42, and 4.35’s. If you’re familiar with
installing and uninstalling the 4in1’s you probably know it isn’t always an easy
task. In fact, it can be extremely difficult, especially when going back to an older
driver. The installation may appear to run perfectly, but upon closer inspection the
drivers are never actually updated. I noticed this after getting very similar results
on three different drivers.

The best tactic is to attempt removal by running the driver installation again,
and leaving everything selected. Click next and select the “Uninstall…” radio
button at each step. This should uninstall the drivers from your system, but I stress
the word should. Most of the time the .inf files remaining in the system
directory are detected upon reboot and the old drivers are loaded again before you
can help it. If this is the case you might need to remove them manually. I won’t
go into the details here, but if you can’t figure it you are welcome to ask me.

The Tools

Since the focus of my testing was on the VIA IDE Controller and the CPU to AGP Controller,
I selected 3DMark2001 SE and SiSoft Sandra 2001 Drive Bench as my benchmarking tools.
These tests alone are by no means a conclusive analysis, but they are still a worthy
indicator of some of the differences between driver versions.

The test setup is running an MSI GeForce4 Ti 4600
and two Maxtor 40GB drives in RAID 0 at 7200RPMs. Everything is at stock speeds, I didn’t
bother overclocking anything so as not to invalidate the tests. The newest VIA RAID Patch v1.02
is used in all the tests. The NVidia Detonator 41.09 WHQL drivers are used as well
as RivaTuner to ensure that all tests are run at 1024×768, no AA, no Antisotropic and
Mips at 0. All other system configurations and driver version are consistent and
identical throughout all of the tests.

The Numbers

I’m not going to linger on the details any more, so I’ll just jump in and show
you the results from each of these tests across all driver versions.

3DMark2001 SE

SiSoft Sandra 2001 Drive Bench

For the sake of being thorough, you can also find all of the individual benchmarks
below:

4in1 v4.35 @ 11109 3DMarks		4in1 v4.42 @ 11086 3DMarks		4in1 v4.43 @ 10976 3DMarks		4in1 Hyperion v4.45 @ 10909 3DMarks
4in1 v4.35 w/ 49596 Drive Index		4in1 v4.42 w/ 42438 Drive Index		4in1 v4.43 w/ 39825 Drive Index		4in1 Hyperion v4.45 w/ 41909 Drive Index

Conclusion

After running all of these tests, it’s pretty obvious that all of the VIA 4in1
releases after version 4.35 are hurting performance compared to their younger brethren.
My guess is that revisions after 4.35 are unrelated to the KT266A chipset and
are probably adding more useless code (useless for older chipsets, anyway).

Your experience may differ, I can’t predict how your hardware will react to all
of the revisions. I’ve seen a lot of people commenting on the 4.35 drivers as the
‘best overall’ driver for the KT266A chipset, but now I can see a real difference
on my system. As for the Hyperion 4.45’s? Unless you have a new chipset such as
KT400 or P4X400 the Hyperions might not be for you.

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Luckily, my computer desk is directly in front of a window. All it took was a length of
dryer hose, some old blankets to stuff the window opening, some electrical tape and
cardboard. YES, it’s ghetto-fabulous, but it works… WELL.

My primary concern is moisture; the last thing I need is a puddle in my case. To test
the level of moisture this thing was sucking into my case, I put paper towel over the
fan intake. After running the computer like this for an entire night, no moisture built
up on the paper towel at all. Although weather conditions vary and it could be a
problem down the road, I will be taking precautions to make sure it doesn’t make it
inside my case.

Anyway, I know you aren’t here to hear me ramble on, you’re here for the pics…

I expect temps to drop even more once it starts getting colder. I don’t know what the temp
was outside when testing, altough it was most likely ~1-2c. For the time being, I still
saw a very nice drop in case and CPU temps:

Before

After

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A: You can set the gravity level on your server by going to the
Battlefield 1942\Mods\bf1942\Settings directory and editing the file
ServerSettings.con. Add the following line to the end of this file:
"Physics.gravity <#>". <#> is the level of gravity; -9.81 is
the default, and -1 is low gravity.

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