Different mobile processors???

OK. I'm looking for a laptop computer and I'm totally confused as to the
different mobile processors. In laptops, I have seen Pentium 4, Mobile
Pentium, Pentium M, and Centrino. The Pentium M and Centrino cpu's seem to
be fairly slow, starting at 1.3 Ghz. How do the Centrino cpu's compare to
the other CPU's? ie. Is a Centrino 1.3 equivelant in speed to a 1.3
Pentium 4? Does anyone have any web sites that compare performance of these
different CPU's.

Thanks,

Henry

Henry wrote:

OK. I'm looking for a laptop computer and I'm totally confused as to the
different mobile processors. In laptops, I have seen Pentium 4, Mobile
Pentium, Pentium M, and Centrino. The Pentium M and Centrino cpu's seem to
be fairly slow, starting at 1.3 Ghz. How do the Centrino cpu's compare to
the other CPU's? ie. Is a Centrino 1.3 equivelant in speed to a 1.3
Pentium 4? Does anyone have any web sites that compare performance of these
different CPU's.

"Centrino" is not a CPU per se, it is Intel's name for a constellation
of mobile computing parts that includes the Pentium M CPU. The Pentium
M (not to be confused with the Pentium 4-M) has a higher IPC than the
Pentium 4, so a 1.3 GHz Pentium M will be faster than a 1.3 GHz Pentium 4.

--
Mike Smith

"Henry" wrote in message
.rogers.com...
OK. I'm looking for a laptop computer and I'm totally confused as to the
different mobile processors. In laptops, I have seen Pentium 4, Mobile
Pentium, Pentium M, and Centrino. The Pentium M and Centrino cpu's seem
to
be fairly slow, starting at 1.3 Ghz. How do the Centrino cpu's compare to
the other CPU's? ie. Is a Centrino 1.3 equivelant in speed to a 1.3
Pentium 4? Does anyone have any web sites that compare performance of
these
different CPU's.

The Pentium-M and the Centrino are really the same thing. The Centrino
refers to a whole family of chips that surround a Pentium-M processor; if
you have a Pentium-M chip surrounded by this family of Intel chips, then you
have a Centrino laptop. You can also have a Pentium-M chip surrounded by
third party chips not made by Intel, and in that case you don't have a
Centrino laptop, just a laptop with a Pentium-M and other chips.

Now, the Pentium-M runs at slower speed than a Pentium 4-M processor, but it
runs more instructions at once, so it tends to have even overall
performance. A 1.3Ghz Pentium-M or Centrino system would be the equivalent
of a 2.0Ghz Pentium 4-M system.

Yousuf Khan

"Mike Smith" wrote in message
...
Henry wrote:

OK. I'm looking for a laptop computer and I'm totally confused as to
the
different mobile processors. In laptops, I have seen Pentium 4, Mobile
Pentium, Pentium M, and Centrino. The Pentium M and Centrino cpu's seem
to
be fairly slow, starting at 1.3 Ghz. How do the Centrino cpu's compare
to
the other CPU's? ie. Is a Centrino 1.3 equivelant in speed to a 1.3
Pentium 4? Does anyone have any web sites that compare performance of
these
different CPU's.

"Centrino" is not a CPU per se, it is Intel's name for a constellation
of mobile computing parts that includes the Pentium M CPU. The Pentium
M (not to be confused with the Pentium 4-M) has a higher IPC than the
Pentium 4, so a 1.3 GHz Pentium M will be faster than a 1.3 GHz Pentium 4.

--
Mike Smith


Thank you, I think I'm starting to understand this. The centrino
incorporates several pieces of hardware to become a centrino...including a
Pentium-M cpu.

"Yousuf Khan" wrote in message
ogers.com...
"Henry" wrote in message
.rogers.com...
OK. I'm looking for a laptop computer and I'm totally confused as to
the
different mobile processors. In laptops, I have seen Pentium 4, Mobile
Pentium, Pentium M, and Centrino. The Pentium M and Centrino cpu's seem
to
be fairly slow, starting at 1.3 Ghz. How do the Centrino cpu's compare
to
the other CPU's? ie. Is a Centrino 1.3 equivelant in speed to a 1.3
Pentium 4? Does anyone have any web sites that compare performance of
these
different CPU's.

The Pentium-M and the Centrino are really the same thing. The Centrino
refers to a whole family of chips that surround a Pentium-M processor; if
you have a Pentium-M chip surrounded by this family of Intel chips, then
you
have a Centrino laptop. You can also have a Pentium-M chip surrounded by
third party chips not made by Intel, and in that case you don't have a
Centrino laptop, just a laptop with a Pentium-M and other chips.

Now, the Pentium-M runs at slower speed than a Pentium 4-M processor, but
it
runs more instructions at once, so it tends to have even overall
performance. A 1.3Ghz Pentium-M or Centrino system would be the equivalent
of a 2.0Ghz Pentium 4-M system.

Yousuf Khan



Thank you Yousuf. Does the pentium-m do a better job at conserving power
that the pentium 4-m, because it runs at a lower Ghz? I am looking for a
notebook with long battery life. I'm guessing the pentium-m is what I want.

Henry

"Henry" wrote in message
e.rogers.com...
Thank you Yousuf. Does the pentium-m do a better job at conserving power
that the pentium 4-m, because it runs at a lower Ghz? I am looking for a
notebook with long battery life. I'm guessing the pentium-m is what I
want.

Yes, that's part of the theory behind the Pentium-M in a simplistic way. The
fact that the P-M runs at lower Mhz than the P4-M allows it to run cooler
and use up less electrical wattage. There's more to it than that. There's
actually circuitry inside the P-M that switches unused parts of the CPU off
while it's not needed; the Pentium 4-M can't match that capability.

It's also the theory behind Intel's competitors offerings, such as the AMD
Athlon XP-M which also runs at lower Mhz than the P4-M, and also has
electricity saving circuitry inside the processor itself. Transmeta's Crusoe
processor sports similar technology.

The basic gist you get out of all of this is: that a laptop processor should
usually run at lower Mhz, and sport some form of electricity saving
circuitry, in order to get you good battery life.

Yousuf Khan

"Henry" wrote in message
le.rogers.com...
Thank you, I think I'm starting to understand this. The centrino
incorporates several pieces of hardware to become a centrino...including a
Pentium-M cpu.

And actually recently SiS introduced a Pentium-M companion chipset that does
the same sort of thing as the overall Centrino chipset.

http://www.ebnonline.com/showArticle...cleID=14700133

http://tinyurl.com/mohz

So you're not required to have a Centrino in order to get Centrino features,
you can just as well do with a Pentium-M with a SiS chipset.

Yousuf Khan

In article . rogers.com,
Yousuf Khan wrote:
| "Henry" wrote in message
| le.rogers.com...
| Thank you, I think I'm starting to understand this. The centrino
| incorporates several pieces of hardware to become a centrino...including a
| Pentium-M cpu.
|
| And actually recently SiS introduced a Pentium-M companion chipset that does
| the same sort of thing as the overall Centrino chipset.
|
| http://www.ebnonline.com/showArticle...cleID=14700133
|
| http://tinyurl.com/mohz
|
| So you're not required to have a Centrino in order to get Centrino features,
| you can just as well do with a Pentium-M with a SiS chipset.

I wouldn't give two cents for WiFi, but the battery life of Centrino
(reported by people who don't sell it) seems much better than just
Pentium-M (yes I know there are two versions of that).

The whole reason I would buy Centrino is to get the battery life, WiFi
is just another security risk to disable :-(
--
Bill Davidsen CTO, TMR Associates
As we enjoy great advantages from inventions of others, we should be
glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and
this we should do freely and generously.
-Benjamin Franklin (who would have liked open source)