Your next notebook might just have a bit more power to it. Wow. Big news. Progress is expected after all. So we guess when it comes to updates on upgrades, what matters are the details.

The details here is that the 1GB of integrated flash memory for mobile chipsets that Intel announced last spring is part of the Santa Rosa Centrino platform and it's expected to be available by the second quarter of 2007.

Soon after the launch, vendors will then get the option to include 512MB modules instead of 1GB modules, just in case the people in their area find the 1GB units a bit to pricey. Both 1GB and 512MB modules are integrated into the Crestline chipset that makes up the core of the Santa Rosa platform.

This is pertinent because Windows Vista relies heavily on the ability to use flash memory to cache files with Superfetch. Instead of reading data off the hard drive, Superfetch occasionally writes the files to an available NAND device. Vista will then pool the NAND device for the data instead of powering up the hard drive.

Because the flash memory is integrated right onto the motherboard this means that the system can read data considerable faster and save power.

Something for you upwardly mobile laptop lugging people to think about. Well, there's this, and then there's Fujitsu's flash-drive system. You're call really.