The biggest producer of chips for laptops in the world, Intel Corp., on Wednesday officially introduced new processors, chipsets, network controllers and other components of the new Centrino platform earlier code-named Santa Rosa. The new laptops will boost performance across-the-board: from the microprocessor to core-logic and networking speed.

“When we introduced Intel Centrino 4 years ago, Intel changed the computing landscape with our mobile innovations. Now, simply said, we have improved virtually all aspects of Intel-based notebooks, the most popular and fastest growing computing market segment in the world,” said Mooly Eden, Intel vice president and general manager, mobile products group.

The key features of the new mobile platform from Intel are the new processors, new core-logic sets, new network controllers, flash caches for storage devices, new software and many more:

• The new mobile platform features code-named Intel Core 2 Duo “Merom” processors with two processing engines and 800MHz processor system bus (PSB), which should have higher performance compared to current chips that use 667MHz PSB.
• New Intel PM965 and GM965 core-logic sets (earlier code-named Crestline) feature Intel Graphics and Media Accelerator 3100 mobile graphics core (GM965 only) and some other advantages.
• Intel Turbo Memory technology (code-named Robson) that boosts performance of hard disk drives with the help of flash cache located onto mainboard.
• Intel 802.11AGN wireless network controller (code-named Kedron) compliant with a draft-802.11n standard, which will increase bandwidth to up to 600Mb/s.

Instead of BIOS, the new Intel Centrino platform supports UEFI, an interface that helps hand off control of the system for the pre-boot environment (i.e.: after the system is powered on, but before the operating system starts) to an operating system, such as Windows or Linux.

More than 230 Intel Centrino Duo and Intel Centrino Pro designs from PC manufacturers, resellers and integrators around the world are expected to take advantage of these and other features this year. Notebooks will come in a plethora of shapes and sizes, with designs ranging from fully loaded, 17” wide-screen models ideal for entertainment to tiny, energy-saving notebook PCs that weigh less than three pounds. Some notebooks will be aimed at multimedia-oriented end-users and will take advantage of Viiv technology, whereas other will be targeted at business customers and will feature vPro technology.