Vista May Not Actually Support Turbo Memory

Sony claims the first release of Microsoft's operating system lacks the ability to take advantage of the new hardware, despite marketing claims to the contrary.

Transparent windows might not be Windows Vista’s only see-through feature. Sony is claiming that compatability with Intel’s Turbo Memory technology, which was promised with the new operating system, isn’t actually functional in the first release.

Turbo Memory is a form of on-board laptop memory designed to reduce boot time and application loading times by pre-loading data. While Dell, Asus, Acer and Toshiba already offer notebooks with Turbo Memory built in, Sony claims that they will not include it on their next line of Vaio notebooks because Vista isn’t actually capable of taking advantage of it.

David Spaeth, project specialist for Sony’s Vaio line, alleged that Microsoft intentionally left Turbo Memory capability out of Vista’s first release in order to get it to the market, since no hardware existed at launch time to take advantage of it anyway. “They had to cross out or skip some parts of the OS, and one of these things was the support of this third-stage memory,” he told ZDNet Australia.

According to Spaeth, Vista will recognize Turbo Memory and make use of it, but not in a way that will deliver the promised performance boost. “If you turn on your PC and there’s nothing in this Robson memory that is boot-relevant, there is no performance increase. Boot time will not be touched at all because Vista will basically need to learn from you as a user which applications you use the most.”

Microsoft denied the claim. “Windows Vista supports Intel’s Turbo Memory, and Microsoft and Intel have worked together to ensure that Turbo Memory works with Windows Vista technologies,” the company said. “There are no issues which we are aware of that would prevent [manufacturers] from adopting Turbo Memory for great performance results with Windows Vista.”

If Microsoft can’t prove Sony’s allegations incorrect, the company could end up in court over claims of deceptive marketing.