i5-2410M Processor Questions (13" MBP 2.3GHz)
Question for the AI CPU gurus:
Looking at Intel's i5-2410M processor in the new, low-end 13" 2.3 GHz MBP, it seems to be missing a few features that are in the i7-2620M that Apple is putting in the higher-end 13" 2.7GHz MBP; notably VT-d and TXT support.
My question are if there is any actual benefits to VT-d (Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O) using Parallels or Fusion on Snow Leopard, or is that a server-level feature intended for VMware ESX/ESXi?
Also, is there any OS X support for the Trusted Execution Technology (TXT) hardware functions in the i7-2620M?
What I'm trying to figure out is whether there are any real-world limitations for OS X with the lower-end i5-2410M processor, aside from the obvious performance differences (which, from the early benchmarks, don't seem to be all that significant for the cost of three extra benjamins).
Looking at Intel's i5-2410M processor in the new, low-end 13" 2.3 GHz MBP, it seems to be missing a few features that are in the i7-2620M that Apple is putting in the higher-end 13" 2.7GHz MBP; notably VT-d and TXT support.
My question are if there is any actual benefits to VT-d (Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O) using Parallels or Fusion on Snow Leopard, or is that a server-level feature intended for VMware ESX/ESXi?
Also, is there any OS X support for the Trusted Execution Technology (TXT) hardware functions in the i7-2620M?
What I'm trying to figure out is whether there are any real-world limitations for OS X with the lower-end i5-2410M processor, aside from the obvious performance differences (which, from the early benchmarks, don't seem to be all that significant for the cost of three extra benjamins).
Comments
Bueller?
"The Sandy Bridge architecture all includes Advanced Encryption Standard New Instructions (AES-NI) that are a set of Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) instructions that enable fast and secure data encryption and decryption based on the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). AES-NI are valuable for a wide range of cryptographic applications; such as applications that perform bulk encryption/decryption, authentication, random number generation, and authenticated encryption. AES is broadly accepted as the standard for both government and industry applications, and is widely deployed in various protocols."
If you're not fussy about the 25% performance jump or using FileVault, get the i5. I actually think this is one of the few upgrade models they have put out worth upgrading to. The old C2D models, there was really no point in anything but the low end.
I'm doing a bit of research on this and wondering if this is currently possible, or might be possible soon with desktop Parallels.
One feature that I can see being possible with this is to nail up the NIC for a VM using this technology, while possibly using wireless connectivity for OSX.