Intel Centrino officially announced
Today Intel posted the official press release informing Intel Centrino platform has been launched. This has been the most news-posted technology recently and I guess our readers are familiar with it already, but today let’s get deeper into the announcement.
Intel Centrino platform includes Intel Pentium M processor, Intel 855 chipset family and Intel Pro/Wireless 2100 networking interface. All components have been optimized, qualified and tested for mobile operation. Most important features are Micro-Ops Fusion and Dedicated Stack Manager for faster execution of instructions at lower power, and Advanced Branch Prediction to reduce re-dos for increased performance. Except wireless features Intel Centrino includes battery life extention tecnniques, thinner and lighter designs and higher mobile performance.
Pentium M processors are made using 0.13-micron process technology and consist of 77 million transistors. They have 400MHz FSB, 1Mb of power managed L2 cache supporting unused block turn-off, and energy saving features. The processor supports advanced Intel SpeedStep with multiple voltage & frequency operating points along with Streaming SIMD Extensions 2.
Intel 855 family includes two chipsets designed specificially for the mobile market: Intel 855PM to be coupled with an external graphics card, and Intel 855GM with built-in Intel Extreme Graphics 2. Both support Intel SpeedStep, Deeper Sleep mode and feature built-in timers for automatically disabling unused clock. 855GM chipset also supports energy saving for the graphics subsystem. Besides, both solutions support IO Hub, up to 2Gb DDR266.
Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 networking interface has been developed and qualified for 802.11b, Wi-Fi compatibility. It features built-in WLAN security functions, including 802.1x, WEP and VPN along with upgradability to WPA. Besides, partnership with Cisco Systems allowed mobile Intel Centrino to support Cisco LEAP with software upgradability to support Cisco* Compatible Extensions.
Leading manufacturers today start to ship Centrino-based notebooks for average $1399. Intel Centrino components: Intel 855PM, Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 and Intel Pentium M with 1.60, 1.50, 1.40, 1.30 GHz clock speeds will cost $720, $506, $377, $292, respectively, in over 1,000-unit quantities. Featuring low-voltage 1.10GHz Intel Pentium M or ultra low-voltage 900MHz CPU, Intel Centrino will cost $345 and $324, respectively. All devices are also available separately.
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