Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

The giant penryn/santa rosa/merom/montevina misconception

W

wildwobby

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 3, 2007
67
0
I am posting this to clear everybody up on the diference between some of these terms as it seems 90% of these forums aren't clear.

There are two different things that are named here. Chipset names and Processor names.

CHIPSETS:
-CENTRINO (General name for intel's mobile chipsets)
--Carmel (2003)
--Sonoma (2005)
--Napa (2006) (Used in previous rev. MBP)
--Santa Rosa(2007) (Used in current rev. MBP)
--Montevina(2008) (will be released this summer)
--Capella(Early 2009)

PROCESSORS:
-Core Duo (General name for intel's 1st generations of dual core chips)
--Yonah (Used in first rev MBP)
-Core 2 Duo (General name for intel's 2nd generation chips (current))
--Merom (used in current rev MBP)
--Penryn (to be used in nex-gen MBP)
-Nehalem (General name for intel's next architecture)
--Nehalem/Clarksfield (Processors that will succeed Penryn - late 2008).
--Westmere (2009)
-Sandy Bridge (General name to intel's next micro architecture - 2010)

Alrighty. As you can see Processors are not the same thing as Chipsets. Therfore we are not going from 'Santa Rosa' to 'Penryn' in the next rev MBP. However, we are going from 'Merom' to 'Penryn' and staying with the same Santa Rosa chipset. The update after that, based on apple's previous history will be from 'Santa Rosa' to 'montevina' while staying with the 'Penryn' family of processors (later this year).

Out of all of the updates, Nehalem and Sandy Bridge are the two biggest things to be excited for. They are much much much more powerful than current processors.

Misconception #2:
"Montevina will be SOOOO good."

Umm, actually the only big diference between Montevina and Santarosa is the bus speed.
800 FSB/667 memory to 1066/800. Montevina also supports integrated WiMAX... but thats an internet access thing, not a speed increase.

Just because it will be branded as Centrino 2 means nothing. Santa Rosa was branded as Centrino Pro...

The upgrade to Penryn is actually a bigger step performance-wise than the upgrade to Montevina will be.
 
Except you missed the part where Montevina will use DDR3. Other than that, your speech will fall on deaf ears round here... Mac users don't like to read it seems or don't know how to grasp the Intel roadmap.
 
I already knew about this but you did provide some more information for me.

The way I looked at it was that SR was the CPU whereas the penryn is the processor.
 
Spievy said:
So can someone explain what the difference is between a CoreDuo and a Core2Duo?
Click to expand...

Core Duo is 32 bit while Core 2 Duo is 64 bit. That's all I know.
And that the fact that C2d is much faster and much better in performance.

They both have two CPu's running. And also, the core 2 duo generates much less heat than the core duo. Basically, they are the same thing but the core 2 duo is much better in performance.
 
Thanks for the info. It seems like all this can be easily misunderstood. I honestly didn't know there was a difference until I read this post, so thanks for letting us know.
 
so Montenevia with Nahalem is the best thing to wait which should be coming out later this year?

i wont be waiting that long but im just asking.
 
Shackler said:
so Montenevia with Nahalem is the best thing to wait which should be coming out later this year?

i wont be waiting that long but im just asking.
Click to expand...

That would be my guess. It's already a better upgrade than penryn. So yeah Montevina with Nehalem would be faster.

But as wildwobby said, Penryn is basically more better in performance untill the montevina+nehalem.
 
Actually, the Capella chipset is planned to come out shortly after Nehalem processors do. And at the rate Apple is going at now, the will probably skip the Nehlaems for a few months until they can include Capella to. But thats all speculation depending on what Apple will do, delays with intel, etc..
 
wildwobby said:
Actually, the Capella chipset is planned to come out shortly after Nehalem processors do. And at the rate Apple is going at now, the will probably skip the Nehlaems for a few months until they can include Capella to. But thats all speculation depending on what Apple will do, delays with intel, etc..
Click to expand...

That doesn't make sense...

I think they will because even if Intel released capella, it would take some times to get that MBp out.
Won't nehalem still be there in the capella chipset anyways? I don't see any other processors coming right after nehalem.

All I know, Westmere could be in mid 2009.
 
Watabou said:
That doesn't make sense...

I think they will because even if Intel released capella, it would take some times to get that MBp out.
Won't nehalem still be there in the capella chipset anyways? I don't see any other processors coming right after nehalem.

All I know, Westmere could be in mid 2009.
Click to expand...

Right, but Nehalem comes out in late 2008, capella in early 2009. I don't see why Apple would update macbook pros only to have to update again a few months later...

They could do another upgrade later in 2009 when Westmere is ready...
 
Based on Wikipedia info, Nehalem seems to require a new chipset from the outset as it is supposed to include memory controllers along with (possibly) the graphics processor and does away with the front side bus system. That sounds like quite a leap, but I am not sure whether that will translate into a big performance gain. Lately it is usually just 10-20% increases with every new generation of processors.

When is 10.6 coming? :)
 
Your info is a little off. Correct me if I am wrong, but Santa Rosa is the name of the current platform used in the MPB while Crestline is the actual name of the chipset. You listed current and future chipsets with the respective platform names. A platform consists a particular combination of CPU, mainboard chipset (i.e. Crestline) and wireless network interface. Your post would be more correct if you removed chipset and replaced it with platform.

Furthermore: "To qualify for a Centrino label, laptop vendors must use all three Intel qualified parts, otherwise using only the processor and chipset will carry the Intel Core 2 label instead." I believe that MPBs do not qualify as Centrino, although I could be wrong.

;)
 
theBB said:
Based on Wikipedia info, Nehalem seems to require a new chipset from the outset as it is supposed to include memory controllers along with (possibly) the graphics processor and does away with the front side bus system. That sounds like quite a leap, but I am not sure whether that will translate into a big performance gain. Lately it is usually just 10-20% increases with every new generation of processors.
Click to expand...

Right... thats why Capella comes out shortly after.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back