3 Laptops Powered By Intel's Core I7 Processor
Intel Corp.'s new Core i7 family of processors includes the company's most advanced mobile chips. First introduced in September 2009, the design was revamped this January. The latest version of the mobile Core i7, called Arrandale during its development, is built on a 32-nanometer fabrication process and offers base speeds that range from 1.06 GHz to 2.66 GHz.
Thu, March 18, 2010
Computerworld — Intel Corp.'s new Core i7 family of processors includes the company's most advanced mobile chips. First introduced in September 2009, the design was revamped this January. The latest version of the mobile Core i7, called Arrandale during its development, is built on a 32-nanometer fabrication process and offers base speeds that range from 1.06 GHz to 2.66 GHz.
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Systems equipped with the new Core i7 can deliver between two and three times the performance of a Core 2 Duo notebook. In other words, these processors and the systems built around them are meant for users who demand high performance -- and are willing to pay for it. For example, the Core i7 Extreme Edition lists for a bulk price of $1,054, whereas the Core 2 Duo processors can cost up to $619 but tend to hover more in the $300 range.
To see if the Core i7 family lives up to its billing, I gathered three new notebooks for a high-performance shootout: Fujitsu's LifeBook E780, Hewlett-Packard's EliteBook 8540w and Lenovo's ThinkPad W510.
Inside the Core i7
Intel's new processors contain 774 million transistors shuttling data back and forth on a sliver of silicon the size of a pinky nail. (In contrast, the Mobile Core 2 Duo and Atom processors found in mainstream notebooks and netbooks have up to 291 million and 47 million transistors, respectively.)
Core i7 processors come with either two or four processing cores, depending on the model (the Core 2 Duo comes with two while the Atom comes with one). Equipped with Intel's Hyper-Threading technology, each core can handle two streams of calculations. This lets the processor do four -- or eight -- tasks at once, a capability that is particularly useful when running repetitive calculations, such as in a complex spreadsheet.
Most processors stay at their set clock speed while working, but Core i7 processors can speed up for brief periods to handle particularly intense work. Called TurboBoost by Intel, this process helps the processor act like a marathoner and sprinter in one. For example, the 620M model runs at 2.66 GHz, but will speed up to 3.33 GHz if the operating system senses it needs more processing power and the chip is not overheating. As soon as it gets too hot or the computing load decreases, the chip drops back to its normal speed. It's all automatic and invisible to the user, but it means higher performance when necessary.
