More details on Centrino platform

Naturally, the new Pentium M was the most interesting thing.

As we have informed before, Centrino products will have to feature three Intel’s components at once: Pentium M, Intel 855 chipset (on the photo – discrete Intel 855PM) and Pro/Wireless 2100 mini-PCI card. But this isn’t that rough – if a maker decided not to include Pro/Wireless 2100 he can’t use the Centrino logo, but he still can mention the Pentium M brand. I think many might find this enough for the beginning until Centrino reaches Pentium’s popularity. Though one might be forced to use third-party wireless solutions only in case high prices for Intel’s solution kits. We’ve already reported that some Taiwanese makers were sceptic about low notebook prices due to the cost of Centrino, however, it’s now hard to tell what’s better: to install a WLAN module without Intel’s certificate or hold on to the Centrino brand.

Intel’s Japanese branch have already informed about such Centrino features, as low-power operation, 1Mb L2 cache, etc. But what’s more interesting – that Intel intends to support new IEEE 802.11g WLAN standard, but only after its specs are finalized. Moreover, it was underlined that, most likely, the company will turn to 11b for the business sector instead of more popular 11a counting on global utilization of 11g in the future.

As for Centrino-based notebook prices, they were said to remain the on the level of existing Mobile Pentium 4-M products. For example, a typical volume model will cost 210,000 yens (about $1750) in Japan.

By the way, having been asked if Centrino is to be used in markets other than notebooks, the company gave a negative answer, though we still might see some inexpensive Centrino-based desktops in the future. And finally, Intel informed it didn´t intend to release Celeron versions of Pentium M (with smaller cache.)

Source: PC Watch

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