Intel SU2700 and Intel GS40

Computex is going on strong right now in Tapei, and that of course means there’s a whole hell of a lot of announcements, product appearances, and generally, news, than I could possibly ever hope to cover. However, I’ll probably throw a note out here for the more interesting things, and it just so happens that I find the Intel SU2700, a new CULV CPU, and the Intel GS40 to be interesting. What are they? Glad you asked.

Let’s start with the Intel SU2700 first. Intel likes to muddy the waters with how they name things, so I’m bound to get this wrong, or at least someone is bound to disagree with me, and if you look around, chances are you’ll be able to find evidence that supports both sides. Anyhow, the Intel SU2700 is a CULV CPU, which means it’s a Consumer Ultra-Low Voltage processor. How does that vary from a standard ULV processor? Well, aside from the extra character and confusion, they’re apparently even more ultra than ULV CPUs.

The MacBook Air, for instance, uses an ULV CPU. The Intel Atom, which many of us know and love, is considered an MID CPU — mobile Internet device — and as such, is lower powered than an ULV or even a CULV processor. That puts the CULV square in the middle of the ULV and MID CPU (the acronyms are getting annoying, I know) which means it should perform better than an Atom, but worse than the MacBook Air’s (no longer custom) Core 2 Duo. With a TDP only a few watts more than the Atom at 10w, and rated at 1.3 ghz, I’m curious how long it’ll be until we start seeing the Intel SU2700 in netbooks and nettops. The 7 or 8 hours of battery life may not be achievable with the same size batteries with the Intel SU2700, but I’m pretty sure some people would be willing to make the trade-off.

And speaking of trade-offs, the biggest trade-off around with netbooks right now is terrible video performance, but that’s the second part of today’s announcement. While we’re still waiting for the nVidia Ion platform to come out (lots of Ion-based machines are on display at Computex right now), Intel is still trying to counter by bringing out the Intel GS40. Let me say this right now: is this different from the Intel GN40?

The Intel GN40 was announced months ago as something that came with the Intel Atom N280 and boasted mpeg acceleration. Well, the Intel GS40 boasts the same, and an HDMI port. Is this different? It wouldn’t be the first time I was confused by Intel’s stupid naming scheme, so I fully admit right now that this part of the story may not even be a story. More details, perhaps, would clear that up.

Expect one or both to come out in H2 of 2009.

Anyhow, everyone in the world has more on the Intel SU2700 and Intel GS40, but Toms Hardware, Icrontic.