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Intel to introduce a 'Celeron Centrino'

Posted on 14 Nov 2003 at 12:09

Intel is planning to introduce a cut down version of the Centrino platform, according to an industry source. A 'Celeron' version of the Pentium M - which, along with the Wireless LAN support and 855 chipset, forms the Centrino platform - would address the value end of the bourgeoning laptop market.

While Intel would not confirm the story, from a source close to the company, it comes in the wake of the new Mobile Celeron, introduced yesterday to explicitly give the company more focus on the budget end of the Laptop market.

Intel is particularly sensitive about getting Centrino pricing just right, and new top-end versions of the platform may not be any more expensive than their predecessors. The largest factor Intel will consider, as ever, is the price the market will accept. But with laptops rapidly overtaking desktops as the fastest growing segment of the Industry, there is a natural pressure for prices to fall - Intel will obviously have to find ways to address the bottom, and falling, end of the market.

Speaking to us at the Intel Developer Forum in September, Don Macdonald, Intel's Director of Marketing, Mobile Platforms Group, discussed the release of the next generation of the Pentium M - 'Dothan', which should replace the current 'Banias' core before the end of the year. When pressed on pricing issues, and how the Centrino platform is seen as a premium product (in the UK at least), he refused to concede prices for the processor would necessarily rise.

'It is not obvious that if you had a Dothan processor compared to the Banias (the current core of the Pentium M processor) that it would cost more,' said MacDonald.

'If we want to make the transition to our 90nm process (on which the Dothan processor will be based), we have a manufacturing pressure on us to say 'make the move from 200mm wafers and .013micron to 90nm with 300mm wafers' - we have a financial incentive to go do that. The best way to do that - this is not rocket science, purely the law of supply and demand - is to say "if you want to convert all your Banias customers to Dothan, price them at the same price". It's a much better product, why would you buy the other one?'

The challenge Intel would face, introducing a cut down version of the Pentium M, is that it doesn't damage the overall Centrino brand.