Press Release: Nine Embedded Computing Form Factors with Intel® Core™ 2 Duo at a Stroke

Kontron has refreshed their line of products to support the new breed of CPU from Intel. I have posted an earlier Press Release (about a year ago) about their Intel® Core™ Duo and Intel® Core™ Solo products, and this new product will be a major step forward. I believe it's an easy migration since Intel® Core™ Duo and Intel® Core™ 2 Duo are socket-compatible and voltage compatible. Check it out, it's drool-worthy products.

The Second Dual-Core Wave Arrives with Maximum Form Factor Power

Eching / Nuremberg, February 13, 2007 – Timed to launch with the Intel® Embedded Roadmap, Kontron debuted its latest wave of technology for Intel® Core™2 Duo processors. With an impressive nine different embedded platforms available between now and the end of the first quarter, Kontron will offer the latest board technology across a variety of form factors with Intel’s new multi-core architecture.

The new Intel® Core™2 Duo micro-architecture is designed to deliver increased performance and better performance-per-watt thus increasing overall energy efficiency, making it one of the most important embedded processors for 2007. The product portfolio ranges from computer-on-modules ETX® 3.0 and ETXexpress®/COM Express, four embedded motherboards including Mini-ITX, Flex-ATX and ATX in two versions, up to SBCs for PICMG 1.3, 3U CompactPCI, 6U CompactPCI and last not least AdvancedMC. Kontron is the world’s only vendor of embedded computer technology with such a complete product range of all relevant embedded form factors, so large OEMs that require different form factors for different applications within their company can get them all from a single vendor – reducing their overall cost and increasing their current and future flexibility significantly.

The Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T7x00 is one of the latest members of Intel’s “performance” product line of multi-core processors based on the new Intel® Core™ micro-architecture. Users that are already using or plan to use existing platforms from Kontron based on the Intel® Core™ Duo processor T2400/T2500 will have a seamless performance boost by moving to the Intel® Core™2 Duo processor T7400 which offers 4MB, twice as much L2 cache – which can be dynamically assigned to each of the cores, as well as a 64-bit architecture.

The power consumption of the new processors is only slightly higher than the Intel Core Duo processors due to new features like “enhanced speedstep” and “dynamic bus parking”. Customers will also have available to them system-enhancing technologies in these new processor/chipset platforms such as Intel® Virtualization Technology and Intel® Advanced Management Technology (Intel® AMT). The Intel® Core™2 Duo processor T7400, with a thermal design power of 34 watts, is ideal for communications and embedded designs requiring a low thermal envelope. Kontron’s choice of the T7x00 for future designs in a variety of form factors shows the versatility and flexibility of our latest energy-efficient processors.

Source:Nine Embedded Computing Form Factors with Intel® Core™ 2 Duo at a Stroke

Tech Link (Processor): Yonah vs Presler

Another legendary overclocker posted an amazing comparison and pit two Chipzilla processors head on. An Intel® Pentium® D 920 overclocked to 4.5GHz goes head on against the new Intel® Core™ Duo T2600 overclocked to 3.1GHz. The results is pretty amazing and astounding. The newer processor with lesser clock and bus speed won six(6) out of eight(8) benchmark tests.

coolaler, use two enthusiast combo. The Intel® Pentium® D 920 is partnered with an Asus P5WGD2-WS Motherboard, and 2x512 DDR2 Corsair RAM while the Intel® Core™ Duo T2600 is running on an AOpen i975Xa-YDG and 2x512DDR2 Corsair RAM. Below is the outcome of the battle:

1.TMPEG3:INTEL Pentium D920@4.5G Win
2.WINRAR: Intel Core Duo T2600@3.1G Win
3.PTT to PDF: Intel Core Duo T2600@3.1G Win
4.CINEBENCH2003: Intel Core Duo T2600@3.1G Win
5.PERFORMANCE TEST 6.0: Intel Core Duo T2600@3.1G Win
6.Dual SUPERPI1M: Intel Core Duo T2600@3.1G Win
7.CPUMARK99: Intel Core Duo T2600@3.1G Win
8.Mem Benchmark:INTEL Pentium D920@4.5G Win

The thread can be seen at XS.

Tech Link (Processor): Merom "confirmed" a 'drop-in' upgrade for Mac Mini

Merom is the next mobile processor from Chipzilla and will succeed Yonah, the current Dual Core processor used at Mac* Mini* and several other CE-type of equipment. Fugger of XS is able to upgrade his Mac* Mini* and fire up an amazing scores in Rosetta.

With such development, it is only interesting to speculate that currently available motherboards (or upcoming if they haven't been released yet) that supports the Intel® Core™ platform from Asus* and other OEMs/ODMs will be very much compatible with Merom. Yonah, a processor that succeeds Dothan which many hailed as king of performance surpassing many processors on a clock per clock basis, is getting lots of attention from extreme enthusiasts much like Dothan.

To see it in action, check out the source:@XS Post #22

Tech Link (Digital Home): Tango Cocktail Mini PC VIIV, prettier than the Mini?

The onslaught of small and really compact machine for the living room is rolling out ever so aggresively. A Korean company SungJu International, has built a very nice looking Digital Home* ePC which the firm labeled as Tango* Cocktail Mini PC*.

The Tango Cocktail Mini PC* is a definite screamer with its Intel® Core™ Duo T2300 (1.66GHz) processor, and Intel® 945GT with graphics motherboard combination. It's a very sleek (as opposed to small) system that has a DVI and S-Video out, 1GB of DDR2-533MHz RAM, Wireless a/b/g, a 80GB SATA HDD, a DL and RAM DVD burner, Bluetooth, 3 USB 2.0 ports, FireWire, a TV port, and Windows* Media Center Edition*. But the real kicker for this system is that it is already an Intel® Viiv™ certified platform.

Source:Akihabara News

Brag: Finally installed Intel® Core™ Duo T2500

Whew, after trying to find parts in and outside of the country, I finally got all the parts and completed installation of operating system for my MoDT (Mobile on Desktop). The engineering sample system seems to be holding up just fine, and is so quiet to run, I can't even hear any noise coming out from it.
The system has the following specs:
Intel® Core™ Duo T2500
OEM Motherboard based on Mobile i945G Chipset
2GB (2x1024MB) of SO-DIMM DDR2 (Adata)
80GB 2.5" Fujitsu SATA Mobile Hard Drive
OEM CD-ROM
OEM TV Tuner
10/100MB LAN
GMA950 Graphics

I haven't run any benchmarks yet, trying to figure out the drivers is always a challenge for ES parts. I'll try to run it as soon as I got time, but right now, I'm more concerned about functionality, usability, stability and reliability of this product. Supportability will come in next, then maybe, I can run benchmark and overclock the baby too =). Check out the CPU-Z validated link here.

Press Release: The new Intel® Core™ Duo and Core™ Solo Processors are supported by Kontron’s Embedded Mini-ITX Motherboard

You have got to click on the image to see the "fullness" of the Mini-ITX' offering. Boy, the motherboard is so packed together, you can barely see any vacant spaces around it. It just goes to prove how the new Intel® Core™ Duo Processor is going to win it all in the performance/watt arena. Mini-ITX platform are mainly used for industrial type environment, and man, I am so drooling at the I/O this motherboard offers. Look at those audio stacks, wow, I'm sure this will perform just as well in a Digital Home environment.

The new Intel® Core™ Duo and Core™ Solo Processors are supported by Kontron’s Embedded Mini-ITX Motherboard

All you need on 17cm x 17 cm / 6.7" x 6.7"

Eching/Nuremberg, Germany, February 14th - Kontron, a leading embedded computer technology company, today launched the new 986LCD-M/mITX high-end Mini-ITX embedded motherboard. Kontron’s 986LCD-M/mITX supports the latest dual core low power processors, Intel® Core™ Duo T2500 (2 GHz) / Intel Core Duo L2400 (1,6 GHz) or Intel Core Solo processor T1300 (1.6 GHz), with Intel 945GM + ICH7M Embedded Chipset. The Intel Core Duo mobile processor and on-board Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 provides extreme performance for embedded applications with low power consumption. The board is designed for processor and graphics intensive applications such as gaming, medical technology, multi media, point of information, point of sale, data communications and high-end thin clients.

Kontron’s 986LCD-M/mITX has superior graphics performance with Intel’s next generation on-board graphics controller - the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950. The board is also equipped with various video outputs, such as on-board LVDS, 16x PCI-Express slot, S-Video out and dual digital LCD drive, supported via the SDVO interface by ADD2 cards.

The various interfaces offered by Kontron’s 986LCD-M/mITX meet and exceed the latest standard offerings for embedded motherboards: 1x PCI slot, 2x ATA, 2x SATA, 8x USB2.0, 2x RS232C, 2x IEEE1394, 3x GbE LAN, LPT, 2x mini PCI connector sockets, 7.1ch sound, amplified stereo sound out and GPIOs.

Like Kontron’s other embedded motherboards, the Kontron 986LCD-M/mITX has more than five years of product availability and offers various hardware monitoring functions through Kontron’s API interface software. The Kontron 986LCD-M/mITX is the 5th model in Kontron’s embedded Mini-ITX series which covers technologies from Ultra Low Voltage Intel Celerons processors to the latest Intel Core Duo and Core Solo processors.

Kontron’s 986LCD-M/mITX sample board will be available Q2, 2006.

About Mini-ITX
Mini-ITX is a new ATX-compatible motherboard standard that has quickly gained great acceptance from professional users. At a mere 17 cm x 17 cm, Mini-ITX is the smallest ATX-compatible motherboard form factor. These small dimensions enable its use in very compact housings and systems. All Mini-ITX boards from Kontron are specially designed for use in embedded systems, and are therefore built to be robust and available in the long-term.

Source:Kontron

Tech Link (Mobile): Intel® Core™ Duo T2600@28.766s SuperPi 1M@stock speed

While browsing for any interesting topics around the web, and watching the commotion happening at the military camp at the local TV channel, I happen to stumble upon one interesting forum post from the legendary kaz-n of Team Japan.

He manage to switch his T2600 with his Sony Vaio's T2300 and ran a quick benchmark. The result is amazing, hitting a 28.766sec with just a stock speed setting. This is really making the new Intel® Core™ Duo more and more attractive to tweakers.

Source:Japanese Forum (I think)

Tech Link (Mobile): Core Duo Battery Drain Bug Demystified

A worthwile read if you have the time. They also made a more comprehensive article back at AMDTech. I never had issues with this USB 2.0 bug, most of the time, I can do my work before my battery runs out. I guess many relies on a single battery rather than bringing an extra or a power supply just in case battery runs low (it's common sense really).

Grossly incomplete reports previously stated that Intel's Core Duo was flawed; today the missing information is revealed

Several weeks ago, tech tabloid TGDaily reported that the Intel Core Duo platform was flawed by a battery draining bug. In their tests, they used a "standard technician's tool" -- which is still unidentified -- and found that battery life was reduced over 40% when using certain devices with Intel's latest mobility platform. In a conclusion, they stated that the bug they witnessed was a Core Duo issue only. However, today AnandTech has released an extensive report which indicates otherwise.

Testing with five different notebooks from various manufacturers, AnandTech discovered that the claimed Core Duo bug was not an isolated occurrence and in fact appeared on all the tested platforms including the notebooks based on Sonoma as well as those using single core CPUs. They also reported that Microsoft has a quick fix for the USB/battery drain issue but at the time the fix is only a temporary solution until something more permanent can be issued.

From the article:

[The] Napa notebook lost 17% of its battery life due to the bug, while the Sonoma based W5A lost 25.5%. Once again, implying that this is a Core Duo issue alone is simply incorrect; the problem affects Sonoma platforms just as much, if not more, than Core Duo platforms. Based on the results we've seen in our perfmon analysis we tend to believe Microsoft's assessment that the problem would exist on any system that spent any time in C3 or lower power states.

Source:DailyTech

Tech Link (Processor): Intel to launch Core Duo successor "Merom" in September

Ahh....just when you thought that all the goodies has been spilled already, comes a new breed of super heroes, err, fast CPUs.

Chicago (IL) - Intel is on track to introduce its next-generation mobile processor "Merom", which will also serve for as foundation for a range of desktop and server processors, in September of this year, TG Daily has learned. Merom will launch at 2.33 GHz and bring 64-bit capability to a refreshed mobile processor platform, code-named Napa64.

Source:TG Daily