INTEL Turbo Memory (Robson) 1GB for sale

Some shops are now selling the Intel Turbo Memory (Robson) 1gb miniPCI-E card.

It is pretty cheap. Only €29.99 (about $37). I am sure it will soon pop up in many online hardware stores around the world. It seems cheaper then what companies like Lenovo are charging for it. This will become a nice aftermarket upgrade for all bargin hunters. Should be easy enough to install.

 

Its interesting, Does this mean laptops will now have two miniPCI-E slots in them? One for wireless and one for Robson?

 

I dont think all laptops will have 2 miniPCI-E slots but the ones that do should be upgradable. I think only Santa Rosa laptops work, and maybe not all of those because BIOS support is needed. It really depends on the model I think.

2 laptops that I got confirmation for are the Zepto 6224W and the 6625WD. I was told that both have two slots and the bios will be able to handle it. Would be nice if someone with a G1s could check if there is an empty slot.

 

I think it will be more something like $25 in the US.

And also fot those with a T61 without WWAN and without such a module pre-installed.

 

Also have to factor in that while your laptop may have the slot, if the BIOS doesnt have that device id in the whitelist, it wont even boot.

 

Any idea if the Turbo Memory will ever be useful for anyone who does not wish to use Vista?

 

I have red some reports that it shows up as a additional drive. So it is like a permenantly pluged in USB stick. Not really usefull.

XP will never get ReadyDrive so no use there. There was a discussion about if it is possible to make it work under Linux but they would have to program something similar to superfetch and readydrive to use it, and they might need drivers too. Apple is upgrading to Santa Rosa soon. Maybe they will use Robson and make it work under Leopard.

 

Linux has had superfetch for ages. And if the cards shows up as removable storage in WinXP, under Linux you could mount your swap to it. This would have the exact effect as readyboost, and greatly decrease hibernation times.

 

I am not sure that that will work. Readydrive does more then that. It only puts small files into the flash. Big files are better stored on the harddisk because it has a much higher transfer speed. If you put the swap file (or virtual memory I think it is called in Windows) on to the flash then you might slow things down alot. When the computer swaps large files or a bunch of small files in sequance out of or into the ram then it will be much slower. I think when you hybernate that is what the computer does. Makes a 1 to 1 copy of the Ram on disk. This will be much slower with the flash.

 

Just ordered two for $58 total.
https://magnum-pc.com/Products/index.co?id=M003858369
I wonder if these also works for non santarosa platforms.
I'm glad I didn't upgrade my lenovo RAM from 512MB to 1GB, to pay $50 for this intel turbomemory.

 

Just a minute :
The turboflash is different than the DDR SD-RAM memory - Though it can increase the performance - and if your laptop is non-Santa Rosa (if it works which I am not sure) it will have a single Mini-PCI which is occupied by the Wireless Card.