Penryn goes portable
Intel's desktop CPUs have moved to a 45nm process, but what
benefits will the mobile Penryn line bring to notebooks?
Intel's position as leader of the CPU performance race doesn't necessarily mean that computer sales are skyrocketing, or even that this year's desktop is capable of
tasks that were only a pipe dream 12 months ago. Far from it. The latest
line of Penryn processors from Intel has had nothing of the impact we saw when the fi rst 65nm Core 2 chips launched, perhaps because there's been no great shift in architecture.
Since Intel reclaimed the lead in the performance battle, it could be argued that its strategy revolves mainly around rebranding the same chips; some small tweaks, a change
to the name and, hey presto, a new product. Thankfully, we have the Nehalem architecture - slated for the end of this year - to look forward to. Being a redesign rather than a refresh, with new features such as an integrated memory controller and
the promise of scaling up to eight cores, this will have a far greater impact on performance than Penryn. |
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