Q1 2003 Laptop - Banias Anyone?

[Jason Dunn]

I'm looking at getting a new laptop in the spring (sometime around February) and I'm looking at a Toshiba Satellite 5200 series laptop (or perhaps a Tecra 9100). I'm considering waiting for a laptop using the forthcoming Banias processor - this processor is rumoured to be coming from Intel in Q1 2003 and will incorporate some pretty radical low-power technology (and a fat 1 MB cache). Any CPU experts out there know more? I'm curious to know what you think of it. I'm a little hesitant to put too much stock in the power-saving ability of a new CPU considering how heavily Intel discounted the power-savings of the Crusoe processor when it first came out. Screens consume most of the power on a laptop, but perhaps the Banias will be different. Opinions anyone?

[st63z]

Should be good hopefully, along w/ new Intel chipset for Banias w/ integrated USB2 (and 1000BT gigabit NIC?) if I recall... I don't suppose SATA either?

Anyways my hope is that more mainstream laptop manufacturers in the US market (besides those esoteric Japanese top-of-the-lines) can squeeze a dual-spindle model (i.e. w/ built-in modular optical bay) into about 4 lbs. Hopefully still w/ a 14" screen, but probably 12" is a necessity... Bottom line though battery life shouldn't suffer (ThinkPad X30 battery life is what I'm shooting for for future Banias laptops?) -- even when coupled with ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 and built-in Wi-Fi + BT :)

Alternatively a single-spindle ultra-thin Tablet PC convertible notebook at about 2.5 lbs w/ a 12" screen (and perhaps 1.8" HDD) would be awesome too. Ditto long batt life even w/ Wi-Fi + BT...

[Gator5000e]

Jason, check out this link - http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,640294,00.asp - it is a nice piece on Banias - sounds worth waiting for.

[Sslixtis]

Jason DunnI'm a little hesitant to put too much stock in the power-saving ability of a new CPU considering how heavily Intel discounted the power-savings of the Crusoe processor when it first came out

My understanding of Banias vs. Crusoe, is that where Transmeta went with a software approach to low power chips (taking a processing power hit), Intel is going with a hardware approach, ala scalable CPU. It sort of idles down when not needed and boosts to full power when necessary. Kind of like an x86 version of Xscale :wink: The Huge cache helps with power cunsumption as well. Bit of Trivia, it was designed by Intel Isreal. Also this is the 1st every ground up mobile chip Intel has done, they have always taken a desktop CPU and made a "mobile" version out of it in the past, usually by taking it to a smaller manufacturing process.

I'm holding off for a Banias Tablet PC, hopefully I wont have to sell my soul to afford it!! :angel:

[Stone]

My brother-in-law works for Intel and his prediction is that the chip will be very late Q1 and possibly even a Q2 release time. :(

It is also supposed to have built-in wi-fi :)

[mar2k]

I'm holding off on a notebook purchase for Banias, too.

Hopefully a convertible Tablet PC. The good thing is this time frame for Banias will coincide with Office 11, which will be much more Tablet friendly (OneNote).

[Mr. Anonymous]

<sarcasm>I hope Banias is as much of a speed and power improvement for laptops as the Xscale chip has been for Pocket PCs!</sarcasm>

[Jason Dunn]

<sarcasm>I hope Banias is as much of a speed and power improvement for laptops as the Xscale chip has been for Pocket PCs!</sarcasm>

Augh 8O ....way to bring me back to reality! :lol: You're right, I hope Intel does a better job of Banias than their other 1st generation chip attempts.

Now I'm scared. :?

[Sslixtis]

Well, I have greater hopes for Banias, it is based on x86 which they have alot of experience with and Intel Isreal has some brilliant people working there :wink: I also think MS will support Banias more than they have Xscale as well, since they won't have to worry about "spliting the OS market" and all the other Xscale-isms. Please don't yell at me Jason, I know you agree with MS on this and think Intel did a poor job on Xscale :werenotworthy:

[Sheynk]

I have to agree that toshiba is a great choice. The Evo from compaq is also a very stable and powerful notebook. My advice: if your not in a hurry wait for the next technology, but dont get caught up in "waiting for the next best thing"

[yada88]

Now, I haven't heard anything in a few months, but I do remember hearing some things. The biggest rumor/detail I heard was that for banias, they have figured out how to do what they called "radio on a chip". This was from the lead developer at intel, so it's pretty reliable. Here's where it gets murky though: number 1; i remember hearing that something like 50% would have both 802.11b and 802.11a built in and number 2; I don't remember if all would have the built in radio, or even if that feature would be part of it's launch, or a little farther down in the product cycle. I hope this helps.

Jeff

[st63z]

I'm just spouting from fuzzy memory, but isn't the Wi-Fi supposed to be in the Banias chipset, not the CPU itself?

Then again I thought I'd read something about 90nm silicon-germanium CPU processes integrating analog, so what do I know...

[Sslixtis]

Yeah, "radio on a chip" is where Intel is headed for all of their chips. They are expecting to have it packaged in '03, but it will not be completely "on the chip" until '04 at which point it will be on a corner of the die, instead of a package deal. They are actually ahead of schedule right now, Craig Barret just used a working prototype to recieve a phone call, so who knows it might arrive early!

"Radio on a Chip" sounds really exciting. The goal is to have everyone with native networking on their chip so there will be the ability to have one huge network :wink: There will of course be an option to disable this if one does not wish to use it.

The Banias is going to be produced on the 130nm process, atleast to start out, while the next Gen P4 named the Prescott is going to be on the 90nm process, which is also an exciting chip that's going to have a HUGE Cache!

Some days I love being a Geek!

[Jonathan1]

This is why I haven't dropped the dime on the Tablet PC yet. I want to see what spring brings. Hopefully Banias will bring, literally, cooler tablets from the likes of Toshiba and HP. I was seriously looking at the HP tablet until I actually got to play with it and realized that the code morphing in the Crusoe makes opening apps a painfully SLOOOOOOOW process. So it’s Intel or bust. Also there is the lacking of pressure sensitivity in the HP tablet but hopefully they rectify that situation in the next round of tablets. Its either Toshiba or HP for me come 1st or 2nd quarter of 2003.

[jizmo]

<sarcasm>I hope Banias is as much of a speed and power improvement for laptops as the Xscale chip has been for Pocket PCs!</sarcasm>

Touché :D

/jizmo

[Anthony Caruana]

New CPUs aside (I think the other posts are right on the money with their advice) I think the Toshaiba range is great. I've used alot of different laptops over the years (from no-name clones to Dell, Gateway, IBM) and most recently Toshiba. My Toshiba (Portege 3490 at the moment) is really robust and has taken and surviced a real beating over the last 18 mnths or so (can't remember exact purchase date)

The case is scratched and I have managed to crack part of the underneath casing but the thing just keeps on going and just does not fail. Some of my colleagues have Tecra 9100s and they have had the same experience.

[jpaq]

OK.
Here's the scoop from what the people at the hardware distributors know. (Ingram, Tech Data, etc.)

Intel will make the offical announcement of the Banias product in Feb. and product will start rolling out in March.

Price drops are expected in May, but the is the possibility of a price drop on them shortly after release in March or so.

Don't know if that helps, but there you are.

:D