New Intel Marketing Terms: Smart Connect & Rapid Start Technology
by Anand Lal Shimpi on May 31, 2011 3:38 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- Intel
- Computex 2011
- Trade Shows
- Ultrabook
In our Ultrabook article from earlier this evening I mentioned that Intel would be enabling a new technology with Ultrabooks that allows your applications that require real time updates (e.g. email, twitter) to keep receiving data even when your PC is asleep. In its opening keynote at Computex, Intel shed some more light on the technology.
It's called Intel's Smart Connect Technology. Using a software layer it'll periodically wake up your machine while in a sleep state to check for updates for things like email, Twitter, Facebook, etc... My guess is the software will just reactivate the network connection at a not-short interval so those applications can get updates. The result will be a machine that seems like it's been connected and constantly receiving updates while it was asleep.
Smart Connect Technology will debut in some Ultrabooks shipping at the end of this year, but with Ivy Bridge the technology will move to a push model instead of a pull model - which should be better for battery life.
The next technology is called Rapid Start. Rapid Start is simply hibernate to NAND, which allows your notebook to resume from a zero-power hibernate state in 5 - 6 seconds.
Expect both features in Ultrabooks starting at the end of the year.
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StormyParis - Tuesday, May 31, 2011 - link
I don't know how many users leave their machine half-on. I tend to work in bursts, I don't care if my machine polls while asleep, it's not a phone.ssj4Gogeta - Wednesday, June 1, 2011 - link
Exactly, I don't see a need for this either.dealcorn - Tuesday, May 31, 2011 - link
Cedar Trail also supports rapid start. Basically, diskless workstations (or media viewing stations) stink because it takes forever to boot. With rapid start, it looks like a 6 second boot time as long as the power does not go down. If you are just watching content streamed from a remote server and have reasonable memory, it looks like you can skip the cost of local storage?Yota999 - Tuesday, May 31, 2011 - link
As per intel Rapid Start promises 5-6s boot from zero power hibernate state, so it works even after power is removed. This means theoretically infinite battery life when pc is in this state, pretty cool!stephenbrooks - Tuesday, May 31, 2011 - link
My netbook can already resume in 5-6 seconds from a zero-power hibernate, by saving RAM to the hard disk. Can't they make it a bit faster?Yota999 - Tuesday, May 31, 2011 - link
Try taking battery out and then see how long it takes to resume. Your 5-6s resume is from sleep state and not hibernate. Standard win7 hibernate can take anywhere from 15 to 20s to resume even with fastest ssd. What intel is doing is something very special as no pc today can resume from zero power in 5s.dealcorn - Thursday, June 2, 2011 - link
Some folks buy ssd's for rapid boot. Now Intel uniquely delivers all the rapid boot performance benefits of a ssd but calls it resume from hibernate and gives it away free starting with its cheapest line. A perceived fast boot is different from a ssd, but still an attractive feature. Isn't that a lot of unique functional content for a marketing term?astrojny - Saturday, May 5, 2012 - link
the new raptor 1tb HHD with rapid start technology and a 64gb SSD. Could do it for around $400 and get a really fast drive, no?