The Intel platform in notebooks hitting shelves at this moment is Montevina, the first to go by the Centrino 2 moniker. Though it’s fresh out the door, Digitimes supposedly has some details on Calpella, the one that’ll follow it next summer.
Intel’s Centrino 2 notebook platform officially launched yesterday, and brought an armada of new laptops with it. Centrino (2) is actually just a brand name for a mobile platform, which is really a fancy way saying a combination of Intel parts: a processor, chipset and wireless module. The latest and greatest is Montevina, which is not only energy efficient, but more powerful than the previous set, Santa Rosa. It also makes wireless N standard, puts WiMax in its future, and has graphics that can switch between integrated and discrete for battery/performance needs. In short, this year’s crop of notebooks will blow last year’s away.
Today AMD officialised its Puma notebook platform—AMD Turion X2 Ultra dual-core mobile processors with ATI Radeon HD 3000 graphics—”for superior 3D performance and HD image quality, with industry-leading wireless for greater throughput and range.” As we’ve noted in the past, it’s a consumer-grade laptop play, and performance-wise it’s aimed a bit lower than the upcoming but delayed Centrino 2 from Intel. But it’s here and backed by Acer, Asus, Clevo, Fujitsu, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, HP, MSI, NEC and Toshiba. Odds are it will be an option on your next PC buying mission. Want to know more? Take a gander at the long-winded press release below.
Intel has set a price for its low-cost N270 notebook CPU: a mere US$44. Now that actually does seem pretty cheap to us, so perhaps Intel’s promise of much cheaper computers in the future will come true. At the same time Intel announced two 65nm Centrino CPUs, both aimed at the entry-level laptop market. The Celeron 585 is a 2.16GHz processor costing US$107, and the 575 runs at 2GHz and costs US$86. It’s just possible Intel’s “nettop” design will work out after all.[Digitimes]
Intel has decided to simplify their low-power 45nm chipsets for ultraportables with sexier, more car-like names. The technology formerly known as Silverthorne and Diamondville, from this day forward, shall be known as “Atom.” And Menlow products shall be known as “Centrino Atom.”
Four of Intel’s mobile chipsets—including its most recent and well-known, Santa Rosa—have been Centrino as far as your mum is concerned. To help us keep things a little straighter and make it obvious they’re actually updating stuff, Intel’s upcoming Penryn-oriented mobile chipset, Montevina, which’ll be pushing Santa Rosa aside, will be branded Centrino 2. Thanks, Intel, for bringing just a little bit of logic to chip branding. Core 2 Duo is still a mouthful, though. [Digitimes]
