First Intel Yonah Laptop Announced

Lam1969 writes "IDG News Service reports NEC will release its first laptop based on Intel's Yonah dual-core processor in the first quarter of 2006, for just under $2,000. According to AnandTech, Yonah performance is comparable to AMD Athlon 64 X2, and is more efficient than the AMD chip in terms of power consumption."

Great

Where can I get this without Windows preinstalled?

Re:Great

From Apple after MacWorld San Francisco

More on that

"Reliable sources have further confirmed recently to Think Secret that new iBooks and Mac minis--as well as iPod shuffles--will debut at Macworld Expo San Francisco next month. Apple's new Mac mini and iBook are expected to be among the first--if not the first--systems to feature Intel's new mobile processor, code-named Yonah. [thinksecret.com]"

Re:Great

Although I am really bummed that the Mac is going to hobbled by a legacy processor with legacy hacks, I think we will have fun playing the game of who has the computer with more value. As has often been suggested, when comparing major vendor to major vendor, Apple has never really been overpriced.

Take this for instance. The NEC machine is 2000, with 512Mb, 100 Gig, 14 inch screen, and the other bells a whistles n would expect. The only real weakness is that it priced with XP toy, so it will cost $150 to get the pro version. Why anyone would sell a $2000 machine with XP home is beyond me.

OTOH, a current mac with similar specs is also $2000. When Apple moves to intel, we can assume that they will stay with these similar specs and similar price. Therefore we can expect to get a Mac, possible with a bigger screen, but smaller hard disk, not to mention built in Airport, for the same money. To make matters better, the extra $150 goes a long way to putting 1 gig RAM in slot A, which leaves the other slot free for an additional gig. And of course lets not forget that XCode and WebObjects are now free.

I am sure we will see Dell undercut the price with tricks such as rebates and the XP Home maneuver, but in the end list prices for the MS Window machines are sure to continue to be higher.

Yonah?

Oh yeah ebonics. As in "Yonah need alot a dough to buy one."

Yawn

What is clear is that even when AMD had the superior product, it didn't gain massive market share. So same shit different day. At the end all the oems flock to the company that can mass manufacture.

Re:The company that can mass spin

But 64 bit is TWICE as many bits. Therefore is is TWICE as good, and TWICE the speed.

You must have a 32 bit brain or something...

Re:Yawn

"and AMD isn't exactly innovative, it's just the underdog"

    While other companies put the memory controller on the CPU and gave the CPUs low-latency, high-bandwidth interconnects, you *do* have to hand it to AMD for actually bringing that to commodity-level hardware. And you have to shake your head at the fact that Intel, who traditionally has enjoyed smaller, better manufacturing capabilities, *could* have done it significantly earlier than AMD, but just didn't care to try anything new. I can't fathom why they would sink billions into R&D on the Itanium, when there were plenty of options of real, proven advances that would have been much easier, faster, and cheaper.

steve

As for the laptop itself

Other than the newfangled dual core processor everything else is kinda marginal. XP Home? 512 mb? Not for 2000 USD.

As a serious question though, who's going to be doing renders and such where dual cores really shine, on a laptop? Can anyone tell me applications of dual core for a on-the-go computer?

applications of dual core for a on-the-go

personal heating device?

Re:As for the laptop itself

NEC said the LR900 will be based on Windows XP Home Edition, come with 512MB of main memory and a 100GB hard-disk drive. It will have a 14.1-in. LCD, DVD Super Multi drive (DVD-R/+R, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW/+RW), 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The machine will weigh about 2 kilograms, and the battery will provide enough power to last about four hours.

NEC intends to put the machine on sale sometime in 2006 for around $1,945 in its basic configuration

This isn't a laptop, it's a desktop replacement.

I wonder about the small monitor, RAM and XP Home though. I guess you have to make some compromises to keep the $$$$ down.

Re:As for the laptop itself

As a serious question though, who's going to be doing renders and such where dual cores really shine, on a laptop? Can anyone tell me applications of dual core for a on-the-go computer?

Many people don't want PC Towers of any size anymore, they'd rather have a notebook. Just like they don't want CRT montiors vs. LCD. Or normal CRT TVs vs. Plasma. Etcetera. For many reasons - aesthetics. It's easier to move (Americans move an average of every 7 years). It takes up less space, for a cramped apartment or just to dispose of (something Europeans think a lot about in both cases).

Thus, the notebook isn't a on-the-go computer anymore (Why pay for 2 computer systems anyway if you aren't a gamer, etcetera.) It's the main computer. This is reinforced by the fact that notebook sales exceeded PC sales for the first time this year.

BTW, dual-cores aren't only handy for rendering. They are handy for responsiveness, it's most obvious when a process hogs the CPU and makes everything else slow to a crawl - including but not only when trying to kill said process if it turns into a zombie. On a dual-core, that's not a problem.

Where's the battery backpack ?

What about the memory controller, are they adding the power consumption of that to the CPU - to be properly compared to the integrated system that AMD X2 uses ?.

A dual-core laptop processor sounds overkill. For me a laptop is merely a shell terminal to log-in to some other box.

Anyway, good to see Intel go back to the original P3 designs with all this. P4 really sucks totally - hyperthreading or no hyperthreading.

desktop, anyone?

So when are these available on desktop machines? It's gonna be hard to pitch buying a laptop instead of a workstation to the IT manager.

Less Power Consumption then AMD X2 a desktop CPU

Come one guys. I sure wouldn't be flaunting the it consumes less power then the AMD X2 spec too much. You are compairing a "MOBILE" CPU core against a "DESKTOP" CPU core. The only reason Anandtech used the AMD X2 as the benchmark and not the mobile Turion CPU is because the dual core Turion CPU's are not out yet, so comparing the performance of the Yonah dual core system against a single core just didn't make sense. Its like saying that a cellphone CPU uses less power then a laptop CPU.

Re:Less Power Consumption then AMD X2 a desktop CP

Not to mention that Yonah is a 65 nanonmeter part and doesn't offer 64 bit extensions. If you are looking at a laptop in the 2006 timeframe I'd strongly consider waiting for either the 2nd gen 65 nm Intel part (I forget the core name) or the 65 nm Turion dual core due later in 2006. Both will be seriously better than Yonah.

I, like, can't find the article

So like a newbie I decided to click and read the article. I saw about 10 cookies try to set themselves, and about 6 ads, but for the life of me I cannot find the article. I am sure it was somewhere around there in the flash and car ad, but where? Do I go on a treasure hunt and look for it? Or do I decide that Anandtech is just another place that is not worthwhile to visit.

Hanging 'e'

Yay Intel finally dropped the child like hanging 'e' in their logo; at least going by the one I see on that page. Thank god for that, it made them look unprofessional; to bad it won't get my custom back. After a horrid run of over priced underpowered cpu's in the 90's I've been an AMD man. (And if the pathetic performance of our two dual cpu Xeon servers here at work (the rest are AMD) is anything to go by I'll stay a loyal AMD fanboy.)

this is the notebook i'm really interested in

The notebook I'm really drooling over...and honestly wondering if there are going to be some huge power/heat issues with:

Sager NP9750 (@ powernotebooks.com)
-amd athlon64 x2 4800
-2 gig ram
-7800gtx (mobile of course)
-100gb 7200rpm sata drive
-dual layer dvd burner
-gigabit ethernet nic

http://tinyurl.com/afcqu [tinyurl.com]

This laptop is really over the top. $3330 maxed out the way i want it...yikes.

I can't wait for Macworld

I'm going to Law School this fall and will be looking to replace my G3 iBook. Dual core anything will be a little overkill, but I do a bit of hobby work in Blender 3D (www.blender.org) so that should help. You you imagine an Xgrid of these things? (no apologies to the Beowolf crowd)

In related news...

It's rumored that Intel is also including their Heat-Resistant Pants with the laptop so that while using your new Yonah your lap will not catch fire.

Question

Maybe I am wrong, but shouldn't laptop CPU use less power than a desktop CPU? Why is this comparison being made?

Not a 64-bit part, is it?

I haven't looked up any specs on the Yonah.. Can someone fill me in? Is it a 64-bit machine?

-jcr

This is NOT a 64-bit CPU!

So how does Yonah's performance compare to the AMD Athlon 64 X2 running AMD64/EM64T software? Yonah can't even run it. That doesn't sound faster to me.

Read about the benefits Intel ascribes to 64-bit software here [intel.com]. "Processors with Intel EM64T support 64-bit capable operating systems from Microsoft, Red Hat and SuSE." And you won't be able to run them.

There are some applications where a 64-bit CPU can perform FOUR TIMES more work in 64-bit mode than 32-bit mode. One of these is big integer multiplication. Check out Is 32 bits really better than 64?" [swox.com]: "If we instead would compare an Athlon XP and an Athlon 64, the latter would be almost 4 times faster. Why 4 times and not just 2 times? Because a 64x64=>128 bit integer multiplication actually performs 4 times more work than a 32x32=>64 bit integer multiplication!"

If you want a low power 64-bit CPU consider an AMD Turion based notebook. Check out this [laptoplogic.com] article and its conclusions. In particular, "A lot of people see Dothan's 27W TDP & Turion ML's 35W TDP and assume that Dothan is automatically lower power. Intel computes thermal design power as 75% of the maximum load on the chip, while AMD's TDP rating is derived from the absolute worst case power dissipation of the chip. Part of the total system power is also incorporated into AMD's TDP, as the memory controller is located on-chip. Intel's memory controller is built into the chipset and thus draws power not calculated as part of Dothan's TDP. Also while Turion 64 is at idle (800MHz clock speed), it's performance is likely to be higher due to the higher bandwidth data bus. All of these factors contribute to Turion 64 being more power efficient under low load circumstances."

And the -MT Turions have even lower power consumption: AMD Turion 64 specifications [amd.com].

My next notebook will not be constrainted to only running x86-32 software.

XP Home?

Why is this laptop using XP Home? I was under the impression (and correct me if I'm wrong) that XP Home was a strictly uniprocessor OS.

Cool if true

It'll be cool if this is true. Though "better performance" is largely subjective. People only include the benchmarks they want to support their particular claims so you don't always get the full picture.

I am an AMD fanboy but only because so far the AMD processors have been better than the Intel choices [and any other e.g. PPC or MIPS have been way lagging]. So if this core is more efficient [e.g. higher IPC or good IPC and higher clock rate] then all the power to Intel.

All I'm trying to say is take the benchmark with a grain of salt.

Tom

What interests me is...

...Does anyone know whether these laptops will be crippled with Treacherous Computing or not?

misleading...

The sample Anandtech had ran at 2.0 GHz and couldn't overclock very far. It's clock speed matches the LOW end of the Athlon 64 X2 line, and doesn't match the performance of all the X2s. From Anandtech's benchmarks, Yonah didn't beat the X2 in game benchmarks, and it's so close as far as the other benchmarks that it's not a huge win for Intel when compared to the X2 3800+.

From this, Intel has almost but not quite caught up to AMD's performance. If AMD can release 65nm versions of the X2 by July and can manufacture them decently, Intel will be back to playing catch-up. Just because AMD isn't planning a major change to the design of their chips doesn't mean they arn't going to be rolling out versions of current chips on the 65nm process which will let them compete well with the Yonah laptop they are talking about here.

So, I'll give credit to Intel, they have mostly caught up for now, but it remains to be seen if they can hold on to their current position as being CLOSE in performance to AMD's processors.

Definitions

I just wanted to point out that efficiency could be power over processing capabilities.
"More efficient in terms of power consumption" and "comparable to X" means it consumes less power but it does not necesarily beat X .

Yoni?

Shouldn't that be part of a lap DANCE instead of a lap TOP?

Yonah Running Quake

http://www.file1145y.com/ [file1145y.com]

I mean really...

Talk about offtopic.

Why do you have to be such a lingam?

Re:hmm

It is Indian for Cootch. Where do you think all of Intel's engineers are ?