What hardware

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Mon, Jun 18, 2012 at 01:11:35PM -0700, James Mcintosh wrote:
> What hardware does a laptop lent to me have?
>  
> The owner says that it's a Pentium 3 with several gigabytes of RAM.
>  
> The hardware reports to me:
>  
> Computer:
> Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1400MHz 587MHz 512 MB of RAM
> 
> Does "Pentium M" mean "Pentium 3"?
 
Almost.  The Pentium M is the Pentium Mobile.  A very nice CPU based on
the Pentium 3 (and hence pentium Pro) optimized for low power consumption.
It was what the Core line of CPUs started from when the Pentium 4 disaster
was scrapped.

> It reports two speeds:
> 1400MHz
> 587MHz
>  
> Why?
 
To same power.

> Is the 1400MHz for processor, and the 587MHz for RAM speed, or speed of floating point processor - or what?

I believe it supports running at two speeds.  Low speed saves power and
makes the battery last longer.

> It seems to me that it has only 512 MB of RAM, rather than his stated "several gigabytes".
 
512MB was a lot for a Pentium M machine.  Perfectly reasonable.

> Maybe his recollections are mistaken?

Likely.

> I apologize for asking such a beginner's question.

-- 
Len Sorensen
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