Intel® Centrino® Mobile Technology Gets Multiple New Features, Improvements

The company also announced a unique interoperability program for upcoming 802.11n products, designed to ensure fast and seamless communications with a variety of Wi-Fi access points. The improvements are designed to take what are already the world’s best processors and Intel Centrino mobile technology to the next level.

“In the past, users have sacrificed one or more capabilities in order to have a mobile PC,” said David (Dadi) Perlmutter, senior vice president and general manager of Intel’s Mobility Group. “But in the last few years, Intel has taken mobile computing to new levels of performance, connectivity and battery life, so that mobility offers little or no compromises compared to desktop computing. We continue to strengthen and broaden the mobile experience, and our future products will expand the capabilities of people worldwide.”

Uncompromised mobile performance and connectivity
Perlmutter demonstrated the next generation Intel Centrino Duo mobile technology platform, which he said will improve upon the already unrivaled performance and great power efficiency of current Intel Centrino mobile technology notebooks. The platform, scheduled for introduction in the first half of next year, will improve upon the Intel Core 2 Duo processor by offering new power saving capabilities in the central processing unit (CPU) and a faster front-side bus from 667Mhz up to 800Mhz, enabling greater energy-efficient performance. New capabilities, such as longer residency in Enhanced Deeper Sleep low-power state and Dynamic Front Side Bus Switching, will help manage average power while delivering more performance.

The platform will contain a new Wi-Fi solution that will be compliant with the emerging 802.11n specification. To ensure optimal user experience with this solution before the 802.11n specification is officially approved, Intel has created an 802.11n interoperability program, working with leading access point vendors – including Buffalo, D-Link, Linksys and Netgear – to perform interoperability, performance, range and stability testing.

“Many 802.11n products currently on the market don’t interoperate optimally with Wi-Fi networks,” said Perlmutter. “We believe our 802.11n solution will offer the best balance of throughput and power efficiency on the market. Our robust program will help ensure optimal interoperability, something people expect from Intel Centrino mobile technology laptops. This interoperability program is designed to go beyond the already robust program announced by the Wi-Fi Alliance.”

Perlmutter also announced that Intel, in collaboration with Nokia, will deliver integrated wireless broadband connectivity products utilizing Nokia’s leading edge 3G technology for upcoming Intel Centrino Duo mobile technology platforms. This will further expand connectivity options for laptop users with the broad availability of 3G networks.

The next-generation Intel Centrino mobile technology platform will add many of the Intel vPro™ technology capabilities available today on business desktop PCs. Wireless Intel Active Management Technology¹ will help to improve a company’s information technology efficiency, asset management, system security and availability, ultimately lowering total cost of ownership. The new systems will also include Intel’s innovative flash memory-based accelerator, enabling systems to resume productivity from hibernation and run multiple applications up to two times faster, save 0.4 watts of power in the hard drive, and boot faster². In addition, Intel will revamp its chipset with a new integrated graphics core, offering new levels of richness, realism, life-like effects and high-definition playback.

Expanding Mobile Reach
Intel continues to expand its product portfolio of mobile devices and announced the next Ultra Mobile PC platform will be available during the first half of next year. The CPU for this platform will consume approximately half the power of today’s CPUs with approximately one-fourth the package size. This will enable smaller, cooler form factors with longer battery life and new usage models.

About the Intel Developer Forum
IDF, now in its 10th year, is the premier global technology forum for hardware and software developers to confer on Intel-based platforms, technologies and solutions, and the new usage models they enable. Visit www.intel.com/idf for more information.

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¹ Performance Claim: Based on published/measured SPECint_rate_base2000 results Dual-Core Intel Xeon Processor 5160 based platform details: Dell PowerEdge 2950 Server platform with two Dual-Core Intel Xeon Processor 5160, 3.00 GHz with 4M L2 Cache, 1333 MHz system bus, 8GB (8x1GB) FB-DIMM memory, Microsoft Windows Server* 2003. SPEC binaries built with Intel C/C++ Compiler 9.1. Referenced as published at 123. For more information see http://www.spec.org/cpu2000/results/res2006q2/cpu2000-20060501-05940.html Quad-Core Intel Xeon Processor 53xx based platform details: Intel preproduction Server platform with two Quad-Core Intel Xeon Processor Clovertown, 2.67 GHz with 2x4M L2 Cache, dual 1333 MHz system bus, 8GB (8x1GB) 667MHz FB-DIMM memory; Microsoft Windows Server x32 Enterprise Edition. SPEC binaries build with Intel compiler 9.1.

² Q2 2006 Release of the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker. August 22nd 2006.