Intel's Mobile Centrino To Go Dual-Core In First Quarter

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http://informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=170000104

Dual-core processors are coming to Intel's mobile Centrino platform in the first quarter of 2006 with the launch of its Napa platform, the company announced at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco.

The market for notebook PCs has been booming, but there's still room for growth, said Sean Maloney, executive VP and general manager of Intel's mobility group. Intel hopes to help fuel that growth with the release of the Napa platform, followed in the second half by a "refresh" that will reduce the power needs of the Centrino brand even further.

Napa includes the Yonah processor, Intel's first dual-core Pentium M-based device; the Calistoga Mobile 945 Express chipset for enhanced graphics and video; and the PRO/Wireless 3945ABG network connection wireless LAN chipset.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. also plans to launch a lower-power, dual-core processor version of its Turion 64 mobile PC platform early next year.

The Yonah processor will feature an enhanced deeper-sleep mode. The idle state enables the processor to lower its voltage below the deeper-sleep state's minimum voltage during periods of inactivity without losing information held in on-chip memory. The lower-voltage sleep state is accomplished using a dynamic flush and evacuation of the level 2 cache when inactivity is detected.

The wireless LAN connection will feature an enhanced access point selection capability. The "more intelligent" capability will select potential wireless links based on a variety of quality parameters, not just signal strength. For example, in some cases greater bandwidth might be a more desired state than signal strength.

Hmm.....a dual core processor on a laptop.