Intel to demo Napa notebook platform next month

By Steve Malone

Posted on 15 Dec 2005 at 10:32

Intel intends to show off its latest low power Centrino system for notebooks at next month's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The platform, codenamed 'Napa' (successor to 'Dothan' and before that 'Carmel', which was the original Centrino trinity of processor, chipset and wireless networking) is said to provide higher performance with lower power consumption.

The Napa set includes both the upcoming 'Yonah' processor and a new wireless communications chip. The Yonah processor will be Intel's first dual core design and will offer both higher performance with lower power usage.

According to Intel, the new Napa design will consume up to 28 per cent less power while performing 68 per cent better than the current Centrino chips.

Built on Intel's new 65nanometer technology it is expected that Napa machines will run at between 1.5 GHz to 2.16 GHz.

While Intel is still the undisputed king of the notebook processor business, the company will be looking warily over its shoulder at AMD. Intel's biggest rival is beginning to make some progress with its Turion range of low power chips for notebooks, and has promised a 64-bit version sometime next year.

However, Napa is likely to generate some early wins for Intel. Later next month Steve Jobs is expected to spring one of his 'surprises' at the MacWorld Expo. The rumour mill is suggesting that this time it is likely to be an Apple PowerBook running the Napa/Yonah combination.