Intel Corporation today unveiled its latest Intel Centrino mobile technology for notebook PCs (formerly codenamed Sonoma). The new mobile platform is packed with entertainment and business features ranging from blazing-fast graphics to better responsiveness and support for greater security options -- without compromising important capabilities such as integrated wireless LAN access and great battery life.
Intel Centrino mobile technology represents Intel's best technologies for notebooks. More than just a processor, it features fully integrated wireless LAN+ capability and delivers excellent mobile performance while enabling great battery life in lighter, easier-to-carry notebook PCs. Intel Centrino mobile technology includes the following components: Intel Pentium M processor, Mobile Intel 915 Express chipset family or Intel 855 chipset family, and Intel PRO/Wireless Network Connection Family, all designed and manufactured by Intel from the ground up for mobility and backed by tens of thousands of hours of testing and validation that spans from platforms to service providers to users.
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.
The company expects more than 150 different notebook designs based on the new Intel Centrino mobile technology to be available this year. In the fourth quarter of 2004, mobile processors grew by more than 20 percent quarter on quarter -- by far the fastest growing processor segment -- according to Mercury Research, while Intel reported record unit shipments of mobile processors. Upcoming notebook PCs will range from fully loaded, 17-inch wide-screen models with Intel(R) High Definition Audio and surround sound capability, to tiny, lower-power PCs that weigh less than three pounds. Buyers can also expect to see more models starting at $1,000.
"When we introduced Intel Centrino mobile technology almost two years ago, Intel changed the mobile computing landscape with a platform suite of technologies that enable great battery life, easier wireless connectivity, terrific performance and cooler designs," said Mooly Eden, vice president of Intel's Mobility Group. "Now, with all of the consumer and business-oriented features we've packed inside the 2005 platform, we're taking notebooks to a new level for a no-compromise mobile computing experience. Intel Centrino mobile technology has become the essential ingredient for notebook computing."
Entertainer, Office Warrior
The innovative Intel Centrino mobile technology platform includes new Intel Pentium M processors, the Mobile Intel 915 Express chipset family (formerly codenamed Alviso), and Intel PRO/Wireless 2915ABG or 2200BG wireless LAN components.
Among other features, laptops featuring the new power-optimized and reduced-sized chipsets will offer consumers and business users dramatically improved graphics performance. The new Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator 900 graphics core, a power-optimized 533MHz front-side bus, and support for dual-channel DDR2 memory all help to double the graphics performance on systems with integrated graphics based on the Mobile Intel 915GM Express chipset. Additionally, the new Intel Centrino mobile technology supports the new PCI Express graphics interface and can deliver up to four times the graphics bandwidth for high-end systems with discrete graphics.
When enabled by the system manufacturer, consumers will also enjoy such options as TV tuners, Intel High Definition Audio with Dolby Digital & 7.1 surround sound, personal video recorders and remote controls, while maintaining the great battery life they have come to appreciate with Intel Centrino mobile technology. Features that can help system manufacturers enable great battery life include Display Power Saving Technology v2.0, support for lower-power DDR2 memory and Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology.
IT managers and office users will have the opportunity to enjoy these and additional IT-centric features, which support Intel's Digital Office initiative, a strategy that defines new capabilities and usage models for the office, and drives technologies that make them a reality. With high-bandwidth integrated 802.11a/g wireless LAN capabilities workers can communicate and collaborate in new ways on the go. The platform also conforms to Intel's Stable Image IT program that provides a standardized hardware and driver configuration for at least one year so that IT departments can reduce qualification time and costs associated with deploying new notebooks.
Other IT-valued features include offering Intel PRO/Wireless 2915ABG integrated wireless chips that can provide enhanced security support for enterprises with 802.11i, an industry standard for wireless LAN networks that provides the highest level of encryption available. Optional Intel(R) PROSet Wireless Software also enables support for the latest Cisco* Compatible Extensions. Users will also have the flexibility to connect to all three of the most popular types of Wi-Fi networks, and with Intel PROSet Wireless Software v9.0, consumers and business users alike can enjoy an improved user interface and new manageability features that simplify the use of Wi-Fi at home and at public hotspots.
Along with the new chipset and latest wireless components, Intel will offer seven varieties of Intel Pentium M processors ranging from the top of the line 770 series running at 2.13 gigahertz to an Ultra Low Voltage Intel Pentium M processor that requires just five watts. The processor has a fast, power-optimized 533 MHz front side bus to speed and enhance application capabilities, and optional Execute Disable Bit technology support, which can offer greater protection against a certain class of viruses or worms when teamed with a supporting operating system.
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 2.13 GHz, at prices ranging from $270 to $705 in 1,000-unit quantities. Intel Centrino mobile technology also is available with the Mobile Intel 915GMS Express chipset, a low-voltage Intel Pentium M processor 758 at 1.50 GHz, and an ultra-low-voltage Intel Pentium M processor 753 at 1.20 GHz.
These prices represent the cost of each component (processor, chipset, WLAN) that together make up Intel's Centrino mobile technology.
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