14 DAY TRIAL // Sometimes tweaking the operating system is not enough and you have to go under the hood. The system hood that is. There will always be a correlation between the hardware resources available and the performances delivered by the operating system and the applications running on top of the platform. Even more so with Windows Vista as the latest operating system will consume a decent amount of resources by all standards.
"Stop spending your time watching an hourglass during system boots and application loading," is an invitation delivered by Intel, promising also increased boot times and performance for Windows Vista. The answer - in Intel's vision - cannot be delivered by the Vista settings configuration alone. Users in need of an extra kick will have to resort to... an extra piece of hardware. Namely, NAND-Based Flash Memory.
"We've got a performance-enhancing NAND-based product in the market with our new Centrino mobile technology platform called Intel Turbo memory, and this newly formed working group will help make that and a number of other NAND-based solutions more prolific, faster," said Rick Coulson, senior fellow and director of I/O Architecture at Intel. "Open NAND Flash Interface formed last year to standardize the interface between the Flash controller and the NAND itself, and standardizing the register level interface between the Flash controller and the operating system driver is the logical next step."
Intel promises that Intel Turbo Memory will increase boot time in Windows Vista with up to 20%, because it delivers seamless support for ReadyBoost, ReadyDrive, and Superfetch, performance enhancement features integrated by default into the latest operating system from Microsoft.
"Results may vary based on hardware, software and overall system configuration. All tests and ratings reflect the approximate performance of Intel products as measured by those tests. All testing was done on Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate (build 6000). Application load and runtime acceleration depend on Vista's preference to pre-load those applications into the Microsoft ReadyBoost cache," Intel revealed.