New Intel Centrino chip tomorrow
Not sure if this has been discussed here yet.
Here's the jist of it.
Intel Chief Executive Craig Barrett, Dell Computer CEO Michael Dell, and a host of PC companies will be on hand in New York for the release of Centrino, a collection of chips from Intel designed to transform laptops and tablet PCs into portable offices. Centrino computers, with a $1,500 starting price, will run between five and eight hours on a battery charge, the sort of energy efficiency required to make wireless Net access a habit.
Centrino consists largely of three parts: a new microprocessor called the Pentium-M, which is the heart of the project; a companion chipset; and a Wi-Fi module. Software and specialized packaging also are included.
The full article is here on cnet:
<a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1006-"; target="_blank">http://news.com.com/2100-1006-</a>;
991566.html?tag=fd_ots
Here's the jist of it.
Intel Chief Executive Craig Barrett, Dell Computer CEO Michael Dell, and a host of PC companies will be on hand in New York for the release of Centrino, a collection of chips from Intel designed to transform laptops and tablet PCs into portable offices. Centrino computers, with a $1,500 starting price, will run between five and eight hours on a battery charge, the sort of energy efficiency required to make wireless Net access a habit.
Centrino consists largely of three parts: a new microprocessor called the Pentium-M, which is the heart of the project; a companion chipset; and a Wi-Fi module. Software and specialized packaging also are included.
The full article is here on cnet:
<a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1006-"; target="_blank">http://news.com.com/2100-1006-</a>;
991566.html?tag=fd_ots
Comments
I've seen the benchmarks and everything, and i don't think it's going to have an enormous effect on much of anything. It's just a chip that gives an x86 laptop a decent battery runtime.
1) It moves Intel away from MHz Madness - they have to market a chip as being just as fast as their previous fastest mobile chip, despite it being lower MHz than before. It means they're actually focusing on making a chip efficient, not just clocked really high.
2) It will bring WiFi to lots of people. Before, people didn't want to spend money for a wireless card. With Centrino, a lot more people will have it, and that will promote wireless internet access in a lot more places. Not just for coffee shops and computer stores anymore. That's good for Mac users in two ways - first, we've been using WiFi for a lot longer, since Airport was the first form of it. Also, it will cement 802.11b as a really well-entrenched standard. That means that 802.11a won't catch on nearly as well as 802.11g, because all these people will have b. Furthermore, since their 802.11b is built into their laptop, they can't just replace it with 802.11a at the drop of a hat. So I think the more widespread 802.11b is, the more likely it is the next standard will be g instead of a.
And 802.11a may not be dead yet. Mobile access networks for traffic and other in-car services aresaid to be considering 802.11a. I asked this before but no one knew, so i'll ask again, is there any advantage to 802.11a that would make it better suited to blanketing large areas with service in a way in which b/g are unlikely to be used?
.13u g4's should once again vault Apple's battery life to industry leading numbers.
check out 3Com's article:
<a href="http://www.3com.com/corpinfo/en_US/technology/tech_paper.jsp?DOC_ID=5392"; target="_blank">a vs b</a>
And as far as Centrino...
Nothing special, it looks promising on paper, but when u start using it it sucks.
just like tablets, (boy do they suck) :-)
:-)
<strong>Just saw a Centrino ad (sounds like the name of a vitamin pill to me) on TV. Sure sounds like Jeff Goldblum doing the voice offer. Anybody else think so as well?</strong><hr></blockquote>
Hmmm, just saw one of the commercials. That IS 'ol Jeffy boy. What a hoar!
Apple. Toyota, Intel. Are there any others? Looks like he's gunning for B.B. King to win the "advertising hoar of the year" award.
<strong>Just saw a Centrino ad (sounds like the name of a vitamin pill to me) on TV. Sure sounds like Jeff Goldblum doing the voice offer. Anybody else think so as well?</strong><hr></blockquote>
I've seen that damn ad three times today, twice on TechTV(during The Screen Savers) and once on NBC(during ED, which is on now). Too bad Apple didn't market the 'books this aggressiveley.
As far as 802.11a vs. 802.11b and g, it seems (from reading that document) that a would be better than g assuming that b wasn't so widespread and popular. I dunno. I'll be interested to see what happens. All I know is that my iBook's AirPort card will be compatible with 99% of wireless networks for quite a while.
It's going to be a hard sell for OEMs who are already ignoring the P4-M and using desktop P4 chips in laptops. For example, the Inspiron 8500, 8200, 4150 use P4-Ms while the other models use desktop P4s. Adding a third chip to the mix is going to be interesting.