Interesting that Abit doesn't mention anything about possible socket 479 (pentium M) motherboards. The demand from what I can tell is certianly there for such a consumer level motherboard, but its interesting that none of the big mobo manufacturers want to bite on it, especially since Dothan cpu's are readily available from many online retailers.....

It must be Intel that doesn’t want them to.....
We will be stuck with a lot of "power" and temperature, I guess.....

The chipsets for Centrino CPU and P4 cpu is the same?
Or only the socket changes?
I thought that the Centrino is a Pentium III, and the same chipset could not be used (P3 is a different architecture over P4).

What do you mean, no nForce3 250 based motherboard? I see an NF8 clearly on those slides.

The chipsets for Centrino CPU and P4 cpu is the same?
=> No they're not. Intel can, and has proven that they can develop a platform that uses a Xeon chipset. But is restrict it to developers or designers for routers. This is a mATX mobo using E7501 chipset with 2x PCI-X and one PCI slot. It uses the Pentium-M. It is said to work with Dothans.

So, you need to make some changes to make things work. You can't just slap it in there, it doesn't work that way.

Or only the socket changes?
=> Its a bit more than that. The bus architecture is different. As well, the Socket for each CPU is electrically different. You cannot just plug a Pentium-M into a P4 mobo.

I thought that the Centrino is a Pentium III, and the same chipset could not be used (P3 is a different architecture over P4).
=> Centrino uses a Pentium-M. The Pentium-M is based on the Pentium-M but with some changes that make it a "hybrid PIII-S" with improved branch prediction, SSE2 and larger cache, and of course, very good power saving features.

Its NOT a PIII but is a direct descendent to it. Obviously, its fundamentally based on the P6 architecture. (Pentium Pro all the way to PIII).

Intel DELIBRATELY puts consumers in a position where they have to buy a P4 over Pentium-M. Everyone knows a Pentium-M performs better in clock-for-clock comparison and rivals the Athlon64. (Except in pure FPU, that's where Athlons have dominated).

All one needs is a Pentium-M that has large FSB speeds (800Mhz+) and faster dual channel DDR chipset, and the P4 can be dumped.

There's one thing you shouldn't do if you manufacture mobos for Intel products...That is, when Intel says jump, you say, how high? No one that relies on Intel is gonna piss them off by releasing Pentium-M desktop mobos to the consumer.

(Of course, it hurts P4 sales, but honestly, who gives a crap about the P4 when you compare it to a cool and quiet Pentium-M? All Intel needs to do is beef up the FSB and memory speeds, dual channel RAM, etc. Heck, why not have dual-core Pentium-M? Since each core is 30W, having two is gonna push it to 60W. Easily within range of most air cooling solutions)

That's what I long for...A dual core Pentium-M variant.