Advantages of Santa Rosa Platform???

Hi .....

I have just ordered a new Sager NP5790....It has Santa Rosa Intel Crestline PM965......what exactly is this new platform???

Does it have any significant advantages...cause I have heard many ppl say that the sager stands out cause of this .......

 

800Mhz FSB!

 

Well, since most notebooks out now support Santa Rosa I can't really say that Sager stands out amonst the competition...

Anyway, the biggest deals really aren't too big. The integrated graphics option is more powerful, and the top CPUs are available. That is about it.

The biggest upgrade was when we moved to Pentium Ms and Turions to dual core machines like the Core (1/2) Duo and Turion X2s...but that is old news.

 

yup, probably the biggest adavantage is that 800mhz FSB.

 

Ok..thanks....earlier it was 667MHz......got it...

 

The Santa Rosa compatible CPUs can also support a couple of other useful tweaks:

(i) One core can be speeded up (by one step?) when the other core is idle (which is why the T7300 normally gives better results in SuperPi (which is single threaded) than the T7200).

(ii) Under low load conditions the FSB speed is halved and the CPU voltage reduced to give a lower power operating mode of 800MHz @ 0.85V ~ 0.90V.

These enhancements need to have the corresponding BIOS support.

John

 

Hi John...

well I didnt understand much.....but what did u mean by speeding up only one core???? Like you can control each one indiviually?????

err...what exactly is SuperPi.....(u must be laughin ur head out )...what to do...I am just learnin.....haha

Are there any specific advantages (othr than lower power consumption if the operating voltages are like 0.85 ~ 0.9 ???

 

The core speed up (I think by one step, eg 2GHz becomes 2.2GHz) happens aotomatically, but only if the other core is idle. There's no user control for this feature.

Super Pi is used as a crude benchmark of CPU performance. Look in most of the reviews and you will see a Super Pi result.

The lower voltages use a little less power (so slightly longer battery time) with corresponding less heat and fan activity. Most of the Santa Rosa compatible CPUs will also run at maximum speed at a voltage lower than pre-set by Intel with corresponding drop in temperature (typically 10C) when under full load. [You will need undervolting software to do that.]

John

 

Here's Trusted-Review's take on Intel's Santa Rosa: http://www.trustedreviews.com/notebooks/review/2007/04/17/Intel-Santa-Rosa-Revealed/p1

It should detail out the advantages/benefits within the 8 page read.

 

John is quite right however it doesn't actually do it by one step. What it does is increase the FSB by 15%. So if you have a 2ghz which is (200mhz x 10) it speeds up to 2.3ghz (230mhz x 10). This is a bigger improvement than simply changing the multiplier up one step as the increase in FSB provides greater bandwidth to the CPU aswell.

So basically a 800mhz FSB CPU can make one core go to 920mhz FSB but only when one core is idol.

 

Hi guyz.....thanks for that....real enlightening....

I read a lot on the Santa Rosa.....seems pretty cool to me.....

Ok so a single core will be overclocked by increasing the multiplier to 13 instead of normal 12 when a single core is used.....that is very good feature...
So it saves a lot of power also....

The Socket P that the Santa Rosa uses is a great advancement....So we can be sure that the Santa Rosa platform will be compatible with the next generation Penryn processor........

All in all...It sure sems to be hot !!!!!!!!

 

Not according to BenArcher. It does not increase the multiplier it increases the FSB. Will it be compatible with Pynryn? I don't know. But I do know Intel will go towards on board memory controller like everyone else.

 

The multiplier will increase from standard 12 to 13.

This is because when applications that only require one core are used then the other core goes into a Deep Sleep state called C3 .At the same time the core being used will activate a special Turbo Bin feature (which is an overclocking feature...an additional multiplier level ) and overclock the single core above the rated 12x to 13x.

This is made possible through a new feature incorporated into the Santa Rosa called the Dynamic Acceleration .


=> The Santa Rosa Platform uses a Socket P connnection.This socket is not backward compatible wit the previous Napa platform.But it is compatible with the 45nm Penryn processor..........

 

So in practical use, when will you notice the difference between the new Santa Rosa 1,83Mhz and the "old" C2D and for how much is the battery life prolongued?

 

Now my Zepto 6024W has got an updated BIOS which properly uses the Santa Rosa features, RMClock is detecting an 11x stepping on my T7300 CPU. I think this support my previous supposition that the acceleration is one step (ie to 2.2GHz).

SuperPi has shown a drop from 61 to 56 seconds, ie about 8% faster, which is consistent with some background processes also wanting CPU time.

I can also clearly see an 800MHz 8x 0.90V operating state. Previously the lowest was 1200MHz, 1.0V.

John