Intel ups the ante for the mobile Pentium 4-M processor

By Alun Williams

Posted on 17 Apr 2003 at 12:52

Intel releases three new mobile processors on to the market and Centrino is nowhere to be seen.

New processors designed for laptops come in the shape of a faster Mobile Intel Pentium 4 processor - M, and two new mobile Intel Celeron processors. The P4-M runs at 2.5GHz with the Celerons clocking 2.20 and 1.26 GHz.

Upping the speed ante for mobile P4s (the top end offering was previously 2.4GHz), the new chip features Intel's NetBurst Microarchitecture. Specifically, a 400MHz system bus and 512K of on-die L2 cache, along with SpeedStep technology.

You can find more technical info on the Intel Web site

While the mobile Pentium 4 is aimed at desktop-replacement notebooks, the mobile Celerons are Intel's budget offerings, targeted at the 'value' consumer market. Neither are to be confused with the Pentium M that forms part of the newly released Centrino package.

Along with an Intel 855PM or 855GM motherboard chipset, and Intel Pro Wireless LAN support, the Pentium M (codenamed Banias) underpins the Centrino brand. It represents Intel's ground-up redesign of mobile processing, as compared with these Pentium 4-specific modifications for mobile computing.

If that wasn't enough mobile processors, Intel has also recently re-purposed the Pentium M for comms networking - Intel releases Pentium M for communications networking.

Pricing for the new chips is as follows. The 2.5GHz P4-M will cost $562 and the 2.20 GHz and 1.26 GHz Celerons will cost $149 and $107, respectively. These prices are based on 1,000 unit quantities.