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The business-themed event, aimed at IT managers, focused on the security and manageability features which distinguish Centrino Pro from Santa Rosa's domestic implementation (known as Centrino Duo).

There was little talk of the platform's other technical advances, as previously described here.

The major new addition in Centrino Pro is remote administration, which Intel claims can dramatically reduce the need for personal visits by IT support staff. Intel's Active Management Technology (AMT), first seen in its desktop vPro platform, enables a management console to remotely take control of any registered Centrino Pro client - even if it's frozen, powered down or not running a networked

Centrino Pro also supports a remotely configurable client-side hardware firewall: authorised servers (as configured in the BIOS) can push rules to LAN clients, which are then stored locally in the chipset's integrated NVRAM. The firewall is inaccessible to local software, so once such rules are in place it's all but impossible for malware to defeat them.

Intel also claims the chipset can detect virus-like network activity, and, if it suspects it has been compromised, can alert a management console and voluntarily isolate itself from the network, preventing any virus from spreading. It remains to be seen how this will work in practice.

Though the Centrino Pro platform permits 802.11g wireless networking, it's expected that most manufacturers will build systems to Intel's 802.11n-based design - even though that standard has yet to be fully finalised by the IEEE. An Intel spokesman gave assurances that Centrino Pro-branded hardware will work out-of-the-box with a wide range of pre-N hardware, and emphasised that Intel's model fully conforms to the 802.11n hardware specifications. Any incompatibilities following the full ratification of the standard should thus be resolvable with a simple driver update.