According to Intel, more than 230 Centrino-based designs from manufacturers and resellers around the world are projected to adopt the new chipsets, previously code-named “Santa Rosa,” this year. The company added that notebooks will come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, ranging from models with 17-inch screens down to miniscule, energy efficient notebooks weighing less than three pounds.
“When we introduced Intel Centrino 4 years ago, Intel changed the computing landscape with our mobile innovations,” said Shmuel “Mooly” Eden, vice president and general manager of Intel’s mobile platforms group. “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.”
In testing two systems equipped with the new Intel chips — the HP Pavilion dv6500t and the Gateway E-475M — PCWorld.com writer Anush Yegyazarian said PCWorld found “the new platform offers users a good technological leg up,” but “doesn’t establish tremendous new performance records,” according to a review published Wednesday.
Yegyazarian added that the new CPUs have “better processing capabilities, thanks to improvements to their microarchitecture, such as a full four-wide superscalar pipeline, which enables the processor to handle four instructions per clock [cycle]; macro fusion capabilities, which allow the processor to combine several commonly used instructions into a single instruction for more efficient execution; and Intel’s Advanced Smart Cache, which is optimized to reduce access times to frequently used data.”
Intel plans to adapt its new mobile technology for a variety of “smaller, quieter and high-performing consumer desktop PC designs.”
“These computers will enable crystal clear audio, better graphics and sharper video playback and optionally include integrated 802.11n wireless support and Intel Turbo Memory,” the company stated in a press release.