This chip is a Merom Intel Core 2 Duo processor. It's a dual core with 4096 KB of unified cache L2, offers a complete x86_64 instruction set and includes an NX bit (Intel calls it XD bit, IIRC). Two generations ahead of the Pentium M, but still similar. The first iteraction of the Intel Core Duo CPUs (codenamed Yonah) were roughly just two Pentium M cores on the same die with a common cache L2. Clever but not innovative. Core 2 Duo chips are a major improvement over the Yonahs but nothing innovative.
A comparison between the Pentium M Banias 705, the Pentium M Dothan 750 and the Core 2 Duo is shown on the table below:
| Pentium M | Core 2 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 705 | 750 | T7700 | |
| Codename | Banias | Dothan | Merom |
| Architecture | 130 nm | 90 nm | 65 nm |
| Clock Speed | 1500 MHz1860 MHz | 2400 MHz | |
| Front Side Bus | 200 MHz (400 MT/s)266 MHz (533 MT/s) | 200 MHz (800 MT/s) | |
| Cache L2 size | 1024 KB2048 KB | 4096 KB (unified) |
|
| Family | 6 | 6 | 6 |
| Model | 9 | 13 | 15 |
| Model Name | Intel(R) Pentium (R) M processor 1500MHz | Intel(R) Pentium (R) M processor 1.86GHz | Intel(R) Core 2 Duo T7700 |
| Stepping | 58 | 10 | |
| Flags | fpu vme de pse tsc msr mce cx8 sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 tm pbe est tm2fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss tm pbe est tm2 | fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflsh ds acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe sse3 monitor ds-cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xTPR xd(NX) em64t lahf_lm | |
| References | |||
The battery runs out in almost 6 hours when the computer is idle (meaning noone is doing anything with it) using frequency scaling to cut down CPU and chipset power consumption. Normal usage drains the battery in about 3 hours which is well within the Centrino territory. Heavy usage drains it in about 1h-1h30 (linux kernel compilations or dvd burning, etc).
The battery on this laptop is a standard Control Mode battery, which means that the kernel can read reliably the battery state/status and the AC adapter state. Many graphical and text daemons currently monitor this information so no issues here.
Modules: ac, battery
SigmaTel STAC92xx
Modules: snd_hda_intel, snd_hda_codec
PCI id: [8086:284b]
Nvidia
Modules: nvidia (binary form: taints the kernel)
PCI id: [10de:0407]
Marvell Yukon 2 Gigabit 10/100/1000 Base-T is the name of the PCI-Express integrated ethernet controller. The best driver for this card is the sky2, although the older skge works as well. Selected under the Device Drivers - Network device support - Ethernet (1000 Mbit). For the sky2 driver, the option to select is SysKonnect Yukon2 support while for the skge it's the Marvell Yukon Chipset / SysKonnect SK-98xx Support in the kernel configuration tool.
Support for this PCI device [11ab:436a] was included in kernel version 2.6.21. By looking at the diffs, the driver itself did not change much - only the detection routine was changed to support this new id.
Modules: sky2 or skge
PCI id: [11ab:436a]
This MacBook Pro contains a wireless card based on the Atheros AR5008E chipset. Like in most other wireless NICs, this chipset is composed of an AR5133 802.11 radio chip and an AR5418 MAC/baseband processor module. The radio module is autonomous and handles the electric and radio work (both (de/)modulation and reception/radiation of the radio signal, along with any other signaling involved). The MAC module works at the link layer and interacts with the operating system through the PCI-Express bus to its respective driver.
Support isn't perfect but we're getting there. As far as I know, three (3) drivers may be used to handle this card, with the last (ath9k) likely to be the best one.
zealot src $ lspci -tvnn | grep -i Atheros
+-1c.4-[0000:0b]----00.0 Atheros Communications, Inc. Unknown device [168c:0024]
zealot src $ svn checkout http://svn.madwifi.org/madwifi/trunk madwifi-trunk
(...)
zealot src $ cd madwifi-trunk
zealot madwifi-trunk $ make
(...)
zealot madwifi-trunk $ su root 'make install'
zealot madwifi-trunk $ modprobe ath_pci
zealot madwifi-trunk $ dmesg | grep ath
ath_hal: module license 'Proprietary' taints kernel.
ath_hal: 0.9.30.13 (AR5210, AR5211, AR5212, AR5416, RF5111, RF5112, RF2413, RF5413, RF2133)
ath_pci: svn r3545
MadWifi: ath_attach: HAL managed transmit power control (TPC) disabled.
MadWifi: ath_attach: Interference mitigation is supported. Currently disabled.
MadWifi: ath_attach: Switching rfkill capability off.
ath_rate_sample: 1.2 (svn r3545)
wifi0: ath_announce: Use hw queue 1 for WME_AC_BE traffic
wifi0: ath_announce: Use hw queue 0 for WME_AC_BK traffic
wifi0: ath_announce: Use hw queue 2 for WME_AC_VI traffic
wifi0: ath_announce: Use hw queue 3 for WME_AC_VO traffic
wifi0: ath_announce: Use hw queue 8 for CAB traffic
wifi0: ath_announce: Use hw queue 9 for beacons
ath_pci: wifi0: Atheros 5418: mem=0x97300000, irq=16
Modules: ath_pci (madwifi trunk)
PCI id: [168c:0024]
No hassle.
Modules: uhci_hcd, ehci_hcd
PCI id: [8086:2830-32], [8086:2834-36], [8086:283a]168c:0024]
Modules: firewire_ohci
PCI id: [104c:8025]
Modules: mousedev, evdev, appletouch
