X-bit labs

Asus U1F: Ultra Compact High-End Notebook (page 8)

Category: Mobile

by Alexander Britvin

[ 11/01/2007 | 05:11 PM ]

Configuration

The ASUS U1F is based on an Intel Core 2 Duo U2400 processor (Ultra Low Voltage) with a clock rate of 1.06GHz (65nm Yonah core with 2 megabytes of shared L2 cache). Notwithstanding its low power consumption the Core 2 Duo U2400 is a full-featured representative of the dual-core series without any compromises. It differs from ordinary Yonah-core CPUs in three points only, namely bus frequency (533MHz), typical heat dissipation, and price.

Cache memory

Besides Enhanced Intel SpeedStep technology that allows the software and BIOS to control the CPU frequency multiplier (to reduce it under low load), this CPU supports Dynamic Power Coordination (the power consumption of the cores can be independently adjusted depending on the current load; one core may even slip into Deep Sleep mode with the lowest power consumption possible) and Dynamic Cache Sizing (unused segments of the CPU cache can be turned off to save power). For more information about Intel’s Core 2 Duo processors refer to our article called Intel Core 2 Duo in Notebooks: Centrino Duo Platform Refreshed.

Two power modes

This implementation of the Napa platform also incorporates an Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG adapter and an Intel Calistoga 945GM chipset. The chipset supports DDR2 SO-DIMMs, thus offering more memory bandwidth at lower power consumption. The ICH7-M chip is used as the chipset’s South Bridge. Connected to the North Bridge via a special-purpose Direct Media Interface, the South Bridge supports one Parallel ATA port, two Serial ATA ports, eight USB 2.0 ports and Intel High Definition Audio. It also offers six PCI Express x1 lanes for external devices.

The i945GM chipset incorporates Intel’s Graphics Media Accelerator 950. As opposed to GMA 900, this integrated graphics core supports higher core frequencies (up to 400MHz) and a larger amount of dynamically allotted memory (up to 224MB). GMA 950 has four pixel pipelines and can map four textures per clock cycle. It supports Pixel Shader 2.0 on the GPU and Vertex Shader 3.0 and T&L on the CPU. GMA 950 is fully DirectX 9 compliant, though. The detailed specification of GMA 950 can be found at the manufacturer’s website .

The notebook comes with a Toshiba MK8009GAH hard disk drive (1.8” form-factor, 4200rpm spindle rotation speed, 80GB capacity, ATA-6 interface).

The ASUS U1F is equipped with DDR2-677 SDRAM, the fastest memory type available for the Napa platform. The single accessible slot is occupied by a 512MB module. Another such module is soldered to the mainboard, so the memory works in dual-channel mode by default. The notebook supports a maximum of 1536MB of system RAM.

Dual-channel memory mode

We measured the temperature of the hottest spots on the notebook’s surfaces with an infrared thermometer after it had worked for half an hour in the Classic test mode of Battery Eater Pro 2.60 (the ambient temperature remained constant at 23°C during this test) and got the following numbers:

• LCD panel – 36°C
• Keyboard – 34°C
• Bottom panel – 41°C
• Vent hole on the right – 47°C

The next table lists the technical specs of the tested notebook: