X-bit labs

Intel Revises Centrino Product Family with New Chips, Logic.

Category: Mobile

by Anton Shilov

[ 01/19/2005 | 12:27 PM ]

Intel Corp. on Wednesday officially unveiled its new mobile Centrino-branded platform previously known as Sonoma targeting users seeking for multimedia capabilities, higher performance and longer battery life out of their notebooks.

“The platform’s new consumer and office-friendly capabilities allow an Intel Centrino mobile technology-based laptop to be not only a computer and wireless communicator, but also a gaming console, home theater, MP3 player and a critical business companion — all in a mobile design that can go virtually anywhere,” Intel said in its statement.

New Intel Centrino Gets More Performance, Features

In accordance with expectations, new Intel’s Centrino platforms feature higher-performance Intel Pentium M processors with 533MHz processor system bus, specially designed chipsets – Intel’s i915GM, i915GMS, i915PM and i910GML, dual-channel DDR2 memory, PCI Express bus, DirectX 9.0-supporting Intel Graphics and Media Adapter 900, high definition 7.1 audio, Serial ATA-150 as well as Intel PRO/Wireless 2915ABG Network Connection that sports all three widely adopted wireless standards – 802.11a,b and g.

Intel said that the Sonoma platform primarily targets the consumers, while the initial Centrino incarnation addressed the needs of business and enterprise users, who are not much interested in loads of multimedia capabilities, but are more concentrated on battery life and wireless LAN capability, still, Intel incorporated a number of technologies that further reduce power consumption of notebooks, such as Intel Display Power Saving Technology 2 (Intel DPST2), which reduces display backlight power by up to 400mW with minimal visual impact.

New Intel Pentium M Acquire Security Caps

Intel Pentium M processors with 533MHz processor system bus also feature Execute Disable Bit security capability, a security feature that protects certain system memory data regions from insertion and execution of potentially harmful code; the technology is also referred as NX-bit and EVP and works only in conjunction with Windows XP operating systems that feature Service Pack 2. Execute Disable bit allows the processor to classify areas in memory by where application code can execute and where it cannot. When a malicious worm attempts to insert code in the buffer, the processor disables code execution, preventing damage or worm propagation. Some of Intel’s desktop, server and workstation chips already support EDB.

All the mobile Intel Pentium M chips are based on the core code-named Dothan with 2MB level-two cache and are produced using 90nm process technology. The processors come in mPGA479 form-factor are available in various clock-speeds and thermal envelopes. At this point Intel supplies Intel Pentium M processors 770, 760, 750, 740 and 730 clocked at 2.13GHz, 2.00GHz, 1.86GHz, 1.73GHz and 1.60GHz, respectively. All chips feature a bit enhanced thermal design power of 27W, a little bit higher than typical 22.5W of Dothan chips. Additionally, Intel ships Intel Pentium M processors 758 and 753 at 1.50GHz (TDP=10W) and 1.20GHz (TDP=5W) with reduced power consumption.

80 Notebook Makers Adopt New Centrino Today, 150 by Year End

Intel originally planned to release the Centrino platform code-named Sonoma in 2004, but after a number of roadmap changes, the company said its partners would commercially ship their products based on Sonoma in 2005.

Intel’s President and COO Paul Otellini recently said 80 notebook makers planned to adopt the new Centrino flavour at launch and more than 150 would ship products based on the Sonoma by the end of 2005.

Some of Intel's partners have already showcased notebooks based on Intel's latest technologies at Consumer Electronics Show.

Pricing and Availability

Intel Centrino mobile technology pricing includes the Mobile Intel 915PM or 915GM Express chipsets; Intel PRO/Wireless 2195ABG or 2200BG network connection; and the Intel Pentium M Processor at speeds ranging from 1.60 to 2.13GHz, at prices ranging from $270 to $705 in 1000-unit quantities.

These prices represent the cost of each component (processor, chipset, WLAN) that together make up Intel’s Centrino mobile technology. Intel also sells each device separately.

For affordable notebooks Intel also today introduced the Intel Celeron M processor 370 at 1.50GHz, the Intel Celeron M processor ULV 373 at 1.0GHz, at prices of $134 and $161 respectively in 1000-unit quantities, and the Mobile Intel 910GML Express chipset.