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1st Gen Intel Powerbooks could have instant boot-up!

nylon

nylon

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 26, 2004
1,420
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According to PC World (http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,123053,00.asp)
Intel has performed a live demonstration (on its Centrino Platform) of its "Robson" technology which uses NAND memory to allow for instant boot up of OS's as well as significantly quicker launch times of apps while at the same time conserving on battery life.

The technology is mature and it is up to PC vendors to begin a roll out. According to PC World, Pro notebook models are likely to see this first.

This is going to be one long year until Intel Powerbooks come out.
 
Oooo, that's pretty nifty.

But does that mean we won't hear the "booooooongggggg" start up noise anymore?

I love that noise... :(

and party killing thought:
Just because it exists doesn't mean Apple'll use it.
 
I think Apple's (cancelled) investment with Samsung on it's NAND memory factory could partly have had something to do with this.

Putting an entire OS on NAND memory and only using a hard drive for user files etc. would seriously conserve on the power front since most people user their machines for general day to day email and internet. It would also leed to less heat production and slimmer notebooks.

I'd love to see that kind of innovation in a new notebook.
 
Intel's new Robson cache technology ensured an almost immediate start-up of a Centrino-based notebook PC during a live demonstration at the Intel Developer Forum in here Monday. A laptop with identical hardware but without Robson took several seconds to boot up.
Click to expand...

Hmm.

Kinda makes a big deal out of nothing.. several seconds... seriously.. seconds?
 
cr2sh said:
Hmm.

Kinda makes a big deal out of nothing.. several seconds... seriously.. seconds?
Click to expand...
Yeah I don't really need this feature for boot up. It would be nice to have apps open quicker but I don't need that either.
 
I find it quite amusing....... if this was an Apple innovation, we would never hear the end of how great it is to be able to boot OSX instantly. I guess those of us who are a little more rational at evaluating tech news unrelated to Apple will have to come to terms with the fact that this is a die-hard mac-fan site. One just has to marvel at Apple's Marketing department to be able to create such a hardcore fan base. However, I think it is a little ignorant to think that booting instantly vs. taking 30 to 60 seconds is not a major improvement.
 
kkapoor said:
I find it quite amusing....... if this was an Apple innovation, we would never hear the end of how great it is to be able to boot OSX instantly. I guess those of us who are a little more rational at evaluating tech news unrelated to Apple will have to come to terms with the fact that this is a die-hard mac-fan site. One just has to marvel at Apple's Marketing department to be able to create such a hardcore fan base. However, I think it is a little ignorant to think that booting instantly vs. taking 30 to 60 seconds is not a major improvement.
Click to expand...


It's a great improvement! Hell, I'll take faster loading apps and booting, it makes sense. I wonder if this same technology would effect the way photoshop (or other pro apps) use filters and the like?

Hmmmmm.
 
ooo thats nifty. i like that. i very much like that.

good new technology like this i like, but making silly new ports with barely any speed increases is stupid. finally some progress in the computer world!
 
kkapoor said:
I find it quite amusing....... if this was an Apple innovation, we would never hear the end of how great it is to be able to boot OSX instantly. I guess those of us who are a little more rational at evaluating tech news unrelated to Apple will have to come to terms with the fact that this is a die-hard mac-fan site. One just has to marvel at Apple's Marketing department to be able to create such a hardcore fan base. However, I think it is a little ignorant to think that booting instantly vs. taking 30 to 60 seconds is not a major improvement.
Click to expand...

-kkapoor

Instead of lifting your nose at we poor 'irrational' Mac users, perhaps you should ask yourself first why there are many die-hard Mac fans?

The, marketing department as you claim, had little do do with the fanbase. However, persons using language like you've done, does conversely have a lot to do with the creation of the fan base - persons with common interests defending themselves from those with a need to ridicule them.

As for innovation, yes, it is possible that Apple doesn't innovate everything ;) - but then, that's not the point of this thread. Comparing NAND-stored OS vs. others for bootup time isn't either. Please take care in trying turn this into a topic it is not.
 
mduser63 said:
Macs sleep so well that I really don't care that they take a minute or two to boot up, as I never shut mine down.
Click to expand...

Amen. Apple laptops take 2-3 seconds to wake from sleep, with all apps running. XP laptops take at least 30 seconds to wake from sleep, and you'd better have closed the apps before you put it to sleep, because they'll crash when you wake it up-- particularly web browsers. This is a feature that will be a real move forward for windows, but no big deal for mac users.
 
kkapoor said:
those of us who are a little more rational at evaluating tech news unrelated to Apple will have to come to terms with the fact that this is a die-hard mac-fan site.
Click to expand...

"One" also has to marvel at "one" just now coming to terms that this is a die hard mac site. Are you Paul Thurott? :eek:
 
Meh, I'll definitely take it rather than leave it, but this would be much more impressive on a PC rather than the Mac. As others have said, most don't really reboot their Macs much. Frankly, even if sleep is not that much faster than shutdown in the intel PB's, at least you still have all your apps running and your work just as you had left it when you put it to sleep.
 
katie ta achoo said:
Oooo, that's pretty nifty.

But does that mean we won't hear the "booooooongggggg" start up noise anymore?

I love that noise... :(

and party killing thought:
Just because it exists doesn't mean Apple'll use it.
Click to expand...

They haven't updated that noise in a while...maybe they'll use the "Intel Inside" jingle. *shudder*
 
Whyren said:
They haven't updated that noise in a while...maybe they'll use the "Intel Inside" jingle. *shudder*
Click to expand...

Or maybe they'll just speed it up a bit.

Or they could have Steve say "Welcome to OS X" or whatever, and then speed it up instead! Think about how funny that would sound.

*cough* So, anyway...
 
Nothing new!

My old PowerBook 100 made in 1991 could boot from a RAM disk! That was the only PB that had that feature and I don't know why it was ever dropped...
 
katie ta achoo said:
Oooo, that's pretty nifty.

But does that mean we won't hear the "booooooongggggg" start up noise anymore?

I love that noise... :(

and party killing thought:
Just because it exists doesn't mean Apple'll use it.
Click to expand...

I HATE that noise. It's almost as bad as windows little startup jingle!
 
I'd like to see more technical details about this. I remember hearing about something that sounded kind of like this years ago... MRAM, Maybe? I can't remember exactly. John C. Dvorak thought it would be big, haha.
 
I think it was MRAM (Magnetic RAM) which is still slow. Too bad they can't speed it up because it requires no power to maintain it's state, ie. no more sleep mode or booting EVER.
 
Josh396 said:
You're computer takes 60 seconds to boot? :eek:
Click to expand...

My crap windows PC (2.4 ghz Pentium4) at work takes over 2 minutes. And then I have to wait a few minutes before Outlook can respond.

My G4 1.25 GHZ DP MDD takes less than a minute.
 
kkapoor said:
I find it quite amusing....... if this was an Apple innovation, we would never hear the end of how great it is to be able to boot OSX instantly. I guess those of us who are a little more rational at evaluating tech news unrelated to Apple will have to come to terms with the fact that this is a die-hard mac-fan site. One just has to marvel at Apple's Marketing department to be able to create such a hardcore fan base. However, I think it is a little ignorant to think that booting instantly vs. taking 30 to 60 seconds is not a major improvement.
Click to expand...

Did you even read the article?

The gains you speak of (30 to 60 seconds) isn't mentioned at all.

The laptop with Robson also opened Adobe Reader in 0.4 seconds, while the other notebook required 5.4 seconds. It opened Quicken in 2.9 seconds, while the laptop without Robson technology needed 8 seconds to do the job.
Click to expand...

I find it amusing that you define "innovation" in 5 second chunks.. but then you are more rational.

:rolleyes:
 
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