ASUS prepped to "Turbo Charge" Santa Rosa laptop lineup

There's an official news release on ASUS' website which has yet to be, well, released. Some URL trickery, however, tells us that they've got a whole slew of new "Turbocharged" Santa Rosa laptops coming in August. The nitrous boost comes from the combo of Windows Vista and Intel's Robson (AKA, Turbo Memory) which offloads application read/writes to NAND-based system cache instead of the hard disk. Right, the same optional Centrino Duo tech we've already seen in some ThinkPads and Acers. The 8 new widescreen models are divvied up into 14-inch, 15.4-inch (including the VX2S-A1B/A2B (Black) & VX2S-A1Y/A2Y (Yellow) Lamborghinis), and 17-inch models. The latter includes an updated G2S gaming rig. Watch for the press release any day now.

[Thanks, Matt]

[nikster @ Jul 24th 2007 8:30AM]

Acer and Thinkpads don't have Robson though... Asus is the first to implement this as far as I know. That's the real news here. Will be exciting to see how this influences performance - I want to see the benchmarks.

Most other manufacturers have chosen to not include Robson after all.

[funk3r @ Jul 25th 2007 9:59AM]

Sager laptops have actually implemented the chips in their new laptops, the NP2090 to be exact. I read reviews how ever that suggests that with 2 GB of ram, you won't really notice the impact of the Robinson. I'm excited myself to see the new Asus laptops, the F8 and the V1S both look very exciting.

[Rik @ Jul 25th 2007 4:02AM]

I can put a Robson module in my D830 if I want to...

[Osiris @ Jul 24th 2007 9:25AM]

I suppose it'll compare to the boot speeds and application loading times of SSD hard drives but without such a hefty addition to the price.

I'm excited. Means we can still have the quick loading but also the large capacity that our standard HD's have..

[Pingspike @ Jul 24th 2007 10:00AM]

Oh look, its COAS again. Did technology just jump backwards 15 years or something ?

[Chad @ Jul 24th 2007 10:18AM]

Yeah, I'm all for the latest and greatest but every review of these I've seen has said that the impact is minimal at best. Neat idea but not worth any extra cost it might add.

[nobody important @ Jul 24th 2007 10:37AM]

To give the performance increase a number, it's about 2% on average, though it can be up to 10% on systems that are RAM starved. And the more RAM you have, the less of an increase it's going to give you. Best to skip this one.

[Omar K @ Jul 24th 2007 10:50AM]

umm. hate to be "that guy", but "turbocharge" and "nitrous boost" are two totally different automotive technologies. one (nitrous) involves shooting a gas into your cylinders to increase the explosive (read: power) yield of the combustion engine. the other (turbo) involves compressing air (oxygen) that goes into your cylinders to icnrease the explosive (read: power) yield of the combustion engine.

[OddManOut @ Jul 24th 2007 12:56PM]

So this is basically just ReadyBoost for laptops ?

Aren't here HDDs out there than come with a couple gigs of NAND built in for just this purpose ? Why do they need to add another board ?

[Jonathan @ Jul 24th 2007 3:35PM]

I've been looking to buy a G2S-A1, but i've seen that if you buy them from customizers, you can already choose to add a gig of robson memory. Makes me a little bit confused as to what they're really changing...but I guess i'll wait and see.

[Jonathan @ Jul 24th 2007 3:41PM]

Yeah, i'm gonna go ahead and say that press release is just an advertisement for the ability of the laptops to use ssds and robson memory chips, they already have the ability, but it's just harder to find a US dealer who'll put the chip in. Check out xoticpc.com, and see that you can add a one gig card on a few asus notebooks for just about 40 bucks.

[Z @ Jul 25th 2007 3:41PM]

I'm happy to see that Asus is adding this to their VX2S laptops - those laptops continue to look better and better everytime I turn around - they keep adding newer, more powerful features.

If this really does offer insta-boot, that would be absolutely fantastic. I've been waiting for that as well for what seems like forever.

[xinwangtrade @ Jul 17th 2008 1:38AM]

We are pleased to introduce ourselves(China XinWang diesel plant)as specialists for diesel injection spare parts with our
headquarters located in Putian city.
We are specialized in precise diesel fuel injection parts.Our products include injection nozzles, pump elements, delivery valves, feed pumps, HeadRotor, and other related to diesel injection pumps. For 20 years’s struggle, we have never stopped to devote the most adavatage of technology to offer our clients best quality and the service of our products. As a family owned company, we understand ourselves as a qualified partner and friend of our worldwide customers.
"Keep improving, offer the reliable products and better service to the customer." Quality principle makes good market images for Group.
With this short introduction of our company, we would like to be at your service at any time. For further information, please do not hesitate to contact XinWang family.
Website: www.googlediesel.com
Email: [e-mail]
Msn: [e-mail]
Phone:[phone]
Fax: [phone]
ADD:Fengmei Area of Putian,Fujian China