Intel's Yonah leaps ahead

Initial PCW tests confirm Intel’s claim that its dual-core Yonah processors boost performance while reducing battery drain. Our figures relate to whole systems, so do not strictly compare like with like, but they nevertheless indicate a significant improvement.

Yonah is the codename for the processors on Intel’s third-generation Centrino mobile platform, tagged Napa, which was launched yesterday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

We got an early look at an Acer Travelmate 8204WLMi using a 2GHz Core Duo 250 Yonah, which scored 231 in our Sysmark performance benchmark, almost exactly a third better than the 174 achieved by the Evesham Voyager 270 that won our February notebook group test. That used an Intel M770 mobile processor clocking slightly faster at 2.13GHz.

Dual-core processors offer more performance at a given frequency or the same performance at a lower (and therefore cooler and less power-hungry) frequency. Intel claims Yonahs use 28 per cent less power than predecessors of an equivalent performance; the effect on whole systems would be less because other components, notably the screen, use a lot of power.

The test Acer had a 15.4in screen compared with the Evesham’s thirstier 17in, so you would expect it to draw less power. Even so its battery tests were impressive. It lasted two hours, 39 minutes on DVD playback and two hours, 53 minutes on the performance trial. This is compared to one hour, 38 minutes minutes and one hour, 35 minutes respectively for the older machine.