“Santa Rosa” is the latest iteration of Intels Centrino platform, and consists of core logic, networking and updated Merom CPUs, which will start arriving in laptop PCs in late spring.
The new chip set is the mobile version of Intels G965 core logic, with enhancements added for improved power management, particularly of the graphics core.
The networking side has been updated to include 802.11n support, although final ratification of the latest wireless networking standard isnt expected until late in 2007.
Adding 802.11n should increase the range by a factor of 2 and improve throughput by 5 times, in ideal circumstances, over 802.11g.
The new chip set also supports an 800MHz front side bus, and will see the use of a new socket format, known as Socket P. Socket P is not backward-compatible with the current socket used in for the Core 2 Duo mobile line.