At least some stores in Tokyo, Japan, have started to sell Intel Pentium M processor with 780 model number, which has not been officially released by the manufacturer. The fact may indicate that the product may be released shortly.

Intel Pentium M 780 processor operates at 2.26GHz at full power, contains 2MB of L2 cache and sports 533MHz processor system bus. The new microprocessor has thermal design power of 27W, similar to predecessors and is made using 90nm process technology. The chip is optimized for operation in laptops, thus, contains special architecture enhancements in addition to Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology (EIST) support. The novelty also features Execute Disable Bit (EDB) security capability.

Japanese stores ask about $685 for the Pentium M 780 processor, reports Akiba PC Hotline, which is not much higher compared to Intel’s price of $637 for a top-of-the-range Intel Pentium M chip. The new mobile central processing unit (CPU) may be used for notebook upgrade, or for a low-power desktop computer.

The new chip has already been tested by X-bit labs in a series of benchmarks for desktops. While the chip is good for laptops and provides leading performance among mobile CPUs, its performance compared desktop competitors is not that impressive.

“It is hard to say a definite yes or no to the “desktop” Pentium M. The indisputable advantages of this series are very low heat dissipation and power consumption, which allows building quiet and economical systems around these CPUs. The performance of such a system would be quite high, but not the best available today,” X-bit labs analyst Ilya Gavrichenkov wrote in his review “Intel Pentium M 780 as Heart of Your Desktop PC”.

Intel is expected to decrease the pricing on its mobile processors on Monday, 25^th of July, 2005.