IDF Fall 2006: From Core 2 Quadro to 80 Cores

Notebooks With NAND Memory And Faster Wireless

Intel's next mobile platform Santa Rosa will include 802.11n wireless, the 965GM chipset and NAND memory.

The beginning of a year has been Intel's period to introduce its latest mobile platform generation. In early 2007 we will see the 965GM Northbridge together with the ICH8M Southbridge (code-named Crestline), 802.11n wireless for up to 600 Mbit/s gross bandwidth and NAND Flash memory instead of NOR, which is considerably smaller. Intel also promises further increased performance of the integrated graphics engine, which it expects to be at the level of entry-level discrete graphics. This will be a very important topic since Intel has to react to AMD's recent acquisition of ATI.

802.11n is expected to deliver 12 times more gross bandwidth than 802.11g - so far this is still in theory.

Intel Networks A PC With A Volkswagen Passat

Intel drove a VW Passat onto the stage to show off the communication between a car and a PC.

Cars on the stage are pretty common nowadays. We've seen muscle cars at IDF and a Mini Cooper at CeBIT. This time, it's a rather normal car, which more people might be able to identify with: A Volkswagen Passat. It looks like the partnership with BMW is over now.

Power Supplies To Reach 90% Efficiency?

New power supply designs will allow for efficiencies of up to 90% soon.

Being a silicon products company does not mean to limit the business to processors and core logic products. Intel presented voltage regulators that are expected to enable power supplies at an efficiency of 90%. Today, most power supplies work in the area of 70-80%, with only few models exceeding 80% efficiency. The remaining 20-30% are energy that is converted into heat and thus is wasted.

IDF Highlights Video

The wmv version can be played back easily on most Windows PCs.

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