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Santa Rosa Laptops

It would appear that any laptop manufacturer worth their salt is preparing to release a system based on Intel's new Santa Rosa chipset.

Santa Rosa, also known as "Centrino Pro" promises to bring us:
  • Second generation Intel Core 2 Duo (code-named Merom) mobile processor. The processor is similar to and still carries the codename Merom in common with that used on the NAPA platform although the new processors connect to the motherboard with Socket P.
  • 800 MT/s front side bus with Dynamic Front Side Bus Switching to save power during low utilization
  • Intel Mobile 965 Express chipset (code named Crestline) with Intel's GMA X3000 graphics technology and ICH8M southbridge
  • Intel PRO/Wireless 4965AGN IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n mini-PCIe Wi-Fi adapter (code named Kedron)
  • NAND flash-memory caching branded as Turbo Memory (code-named Robson)
  • EFI, a successor to BIOS
  • Intel Dynamic Acceleration (IDA), better Windows Vista Aero support
Man, just when you thought it was safe to go out and buy a juicy new laptop... All of this makes it even more tempting than ever to hang on that little bit longer, especially given the fact that many of these new laptops are set to come with NVidia 8400/8600 graphics.


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