Core 2 Solo to be included with the next UX, will it make a difference? at Micro PC Talk

Core 2 Solo to be included with the next UX, will it make a difference?

News broke late last Tuesday that the UX series was getting another unit added to its line of UMPCs. The new UX configurations which have first been officially announced at Sony Japan have been given the model numbers of UX72, and UX92. These units will have the option of a 48GB or 64GB SSD, and the choice of a 1.06GHz (U2100) or 1.2GHz (U2200) Core 2 Solo CPU. While nothing has yet been officially announced for a US model, Amazon has already been spotted as offering pre-orders for a unit with model # UX490N, which supposedly includes the 1.2GHz Core 2 Solo, as well as a 48GB SSD. Most likely this unit will also have a WLAN EDGE module in place of the UX72/92’s CF slot. Amazon has the price of the UX490 set at $2,499, but that may change when the unit becomes officially available purportedly on October 21. Not all hope is lost for those wanting the 64GB SSD, Sony may offer customization options on their website, or release the 64GB flash drive on a separately numbered model.

The real question is “what does this mean for the UX’s performance?”. I’ve been pondering this for some time now which is why this post has come so late. It might be hard to put your finger on the advantages that the Core 2 Solo has over the original Core Solo. After taking a look at Intel’s website, it is apparent that both offer nearly identical CPU features.

Core Solo - (original UX CPU)

Core 2 Solo -

As we can see, both sets of CPUs offer the same features including Virtualization Technology, Speedstep, and EDB. Both are rated for the same power consumption, and they share a common FSB speed of 533MHz. What is interesting to note is that the Core 2 Solo (the newer of the pair) has only half of the former CPUs L2 cache (now down to 1MB). The L2 cache is essentially a very fast section of memory that stores frequently accessed data, similar to RAM, but much faster, and much smaller. A reduction in L2 cache can only be seen as a reduction in performance.

Another important thing to look at is the clock speeds of these CPUs. While the older Core Solo processor set maxed out at 1.33GHz (as found on the UX380/390 models), the newer Core 2 Solo only goes up to 1.2GHz. While this and other factors like the reduced L2 cache might make it seem as though the Core 2 Solo is actually inferior to the Core Solo, there is a very important, but not very apparent piece of information that one must know. That is the fact that the older Core Solo processor was actually a Core Duo processor with either a failed or disabled core. This means only about half of the space allotted to make use of the clock speed was being used. This time around the Core 2 Solo is and always has been a single core processor. That means that extra space that was once taken up by the extra failed or disabled core is now being utilized for processing.

So in the end, the Core 2 Solo processor should provide noticeable performance increases in the UX490 from previous models while keeping battery life the same. While another gig of RAM might offer more of a performance increase, the ability to add more is unfortunately limited by the chipset. So until we see and entirely redesigned model, it is unlikely that we will see any upgrades except for continued processor and storage capacity options.

Published by Benz145 October 1st, 2007 in Micro PC

18 Responses to “Core 2 Solo to be included with the next UX, will it make a difference?”

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1 1 Adamantite Oct 1st, 2007 at 12:50 pm

“So in the end, the Core 2 Solo processor should provide noticeable performance increases in the UX490 from previous models while keeping battery life the same. ”

So this is just speculation?
Guess we’ll have to wait for benchmarks to know for sure.
2 2 Benz145 Oct 1st, 2007 at 12:53 pm

Yes it is speculation, I can’t tell you for sure that Core 2 Solo will offer increases in performance over the Core Solo, but based on the available evidence, it should. Essentially we are upgrading from a ‘half core’ CPU to a ‘full core’ CPU. It should be similar in its performance increase that would would see between a single core CPU and a dual core CPU.
3 3 rick james Oct 2nd, 2007 at 8:52 am

what does it do? is it a phone, laptop, ipod all in one? either way it is hot.
4 4 hazmat Oct 2nd, 2007 at 2:52 pm

IMHO not worth the extra dough. I love my 280 and for a premium of probably close to $1000 bucks the new ver would hardly be worth it.

Maybe if they threw in an all-you-can-eat lobster dinner it would be more attractive..but as is, nope.

Its a shame because I think the UX line that’s currently available is probably the best UMPC out there…have not tried the new Fujitsu…that might be just as good.
5 5 Pyrojester Oct 2nd, 2007 at 6:25 pm

“Essentially we are upgrading from a ‘half core’ CPU to a ‘full core’ CPU.”

No… we are changing from two processors on one die with one disabled to one processor on one die. I assume there will be a performance increase because otherwise they wouldn’t be upgrading it, but its not going to be the same as getting a dual core from a single core.
6 6 Benz145 Oct 2nd, 2007 at 10:15 pm

Sorry Pyro, I’m not trying to make a direct comparison, more of a metaphor. What I wanted to get across was that we probably won’t see anything like double performance as one might expect to see from one CPU to two CPUs, as single and dual core doesn’t make as much of a difference as running an additional CPU.
7 7 Jens Oct 3rd, 2007 at 5:23 am

Why don’t you check the UX spec. in Japanese Sony website?

http://www.vaio.sony.co.jp/Products/UX3/spec_retail.html

In this site, Core 2 Solo has 2MB of L2 cache.

I guess that table has mistake.
8 8 Gabriele Oct 3rd, 2007 at 3:28 pm

From Intel web site : http://www.intel.com/products/centrino/compare.htm#

Difference between Intel Core Solo (U1000 series) and Intel Core 2 Solo (U2000 Series)

Processor Intel® Core™2 Solo Intel® Core™ Solo

L2 Cache 1 MB 2 MB

Clock speed up to 1.2 GHz up to 1.83 GHz

Memory support up to 533 MHz up to 667 MHz

Intel® 64 Yes No

Intel® Wide Yes No
Dynamic
Execution

Intel® Smart Yes No
Memory Access

Intel® Smart Advanced No
Cache

Tecnologies (from Intel web site) :

L2 Cache
A temporary storage area for frequently accessed or recently accessed data. A larger cache size can help the processor more efficiently run many popular applications, like word processing and 3-D gaming.

Clock speed
Speed of the processor’s internal clock, which dictates how fast the processor can process data.

Memory support (DDR2)
Dual channel memory for fast system responsiveness.

Intel® 64
An enabling technology that can take advantage of 64-bit operating systems and applications as they become available.

Intel® Wide Dynamic Execution
An Intel® Core™ microarchitecture feature designed to help improve CPU performance and efficiency, by increasing instructions per clock cycle from 3 to 4.

Intel® Smart Memory Access
An Intel® Core™ microarchitecture feature designed to improve system performance by optimizing data bandwidth from memory to the CPU.

Intel® Smart Cache
A temporary storage area for frequently accessed or recently accessed data, this Intel® Core™ microarchitecture feature is designed to run processor-intensive programs, like online games or video editing, more efficiently.

I think that the new UX series with Intel Core 2 Solo is a little faster as the Intel Core Solo because has more tecnologies to speed up the processor (Intel® Wide Dynamic Execution Intel® Smart Memory Access Intel® Smart Cache)

Sorry my bad english …
9 9 Gabriele Oct 3rd, 2007 at 3:31 pm

Ups !!! All my spaces between the words for the comparision are lost …

You should look the Intel Web site for the comparision.

Sorry !!!!
10 10 JonStatt Oct 4th, 2007 at 3:46 am

From my own research there are two main differences. One is 64bit support, although I am not sure this has much value for the use purposes of the UX series.

The other more interesting difference is the increase in instructions per clock cycle from 3 to 4. This is an effective 33% improvement if the clock speeds were the same.

But they are not the same….the clock speed on the new model is 10% slower. This means that the improvement will be at most 23% gain.

On the other hand, you will not always achieve that gain in instructions per cycle. It depends on what instructions you are executing. So in reality, the gain will be lower again.

If I were to guess…and it is a guess..I would think we are looking at around a 15% gain overall. Certainly not worthy of an upgrade, but for a new purchaser, a little bit of extra punch is never a bad thing!
11 11 Dr. YSG Oct 8th, 2007 at 2:40 pm

Let’s summeraize:

Remove non-functioning Core from Core DUO.
Add additional instruction processor to pipeline to privde 4 (nstead of 3) instructions per cycle (max)
Cut L2 cache from 2MB to 1MB
slow down the clock from 1.3Ghz to 1.2Ghz

And yet the die aize and power stay the same?

What exactly is Intel offering in the way of improvement here?
12 12 redphoenix Oct 12th, 2007 at 11:46 am

I would say intel is making a cpu directly apply to UMPC models. Where heat generation is a problem. By reducing speed from the conventional Core 2 it allow this upgrade given no change in interior size or air flow. I presume all above are valid, thinking Core 2 would increase the speed in the newer models. But you would not be able to see the increase that we saw when laptops went from core solo to core duo to core 2 duo.
13 13 Ron Larock Dec 23rd, 2007 at 9:50 am

I think the biggest gain is the solid state drive and 64 bit processor. 1 Gbit ram is not enough for Vista to run well. For me, I wish the unit had built in GPS with WAAS and a little faster processor to run HD content.

The size is great. It can be used as a GPS in the car, browse the net, store data, do microsoft office apps. It will be nice when I don’t have to drag a laptop around on flights.

Some want their phone to do it all, but I want my phone small.

I like to upgrade computers every 4 years and this unit is a size I like, and its almost there. Maybe the UX590 will be the one. It will be interesting to see what CES comes out with.
14 14 Elliot Roskow Mar 15th, 2008 at 6:01 pm

I’m looking for a Ron Larock from Massachusettes, would that be you?