14 DAY TRIAL // Intel plans to release its upcoming Centrino 2 mobile processors in two distinct waves. The company will roll out its first batch of mainstream 45-nanometer ex-Montevina CPUs in June this year. The quad-core mobile processors will launch with the second wave in September.
The recently-branded Centrino 2 mobile chips will come with optional integrated Wi-Fi and WiMax technologies, while the platform's new Cantinga chipset will be able to offer integrated graphics.
The chip manufacturer's first quad-core mobile processor to be released is the Core 2 Extreme QX9300 CPU. It is expected to show up during the September launch with a stock core clock speed of 2.53GHz. The quad-core will feature an impressive L3 cache pool of 12MB and will come in a thermal envelope of 45 watts.
There is a single problem though: the processor alone will come with a price tag of over $1,000, which should discourage customers into buying it, at least until the first price cuts. However, given the fact that the processor can easily compete with any quad-core offering for the desktop sector, the performance boost would be proportional.
Intel will unleash the first wave of Centrino 2-branded processors in June. The first chips to emerge will be the mainstream offerings, such as the T9600 and P8600, running at 2.8GHz and 2.4GHz respectively. The high-end offerings will be comprised of the X9100 quad-core chip that will upgrade the current Core 2 Extreme X9000. It will run at 3.06MHz with a 44W thermal envelope.
The September launch will introduce the energy-efficient processors such as the SL9400 and SU9400, running at 1.86GHz and 1.4GHz, respectively. They will feature a thermal design power envelope of maximum 17 Watts, but the SU3300 chip will feature a thermal envelope of just 5.5 Watts. The low-power processors will have a package similar to the chips used inside Apple's MacBook Air.
"The notebook market has taken on a lot of the characteristics of the desktop market," said Dean McCarron, founder and Principal of Mercury Research. He also claimed that it's vital for a x86 CPU manufacturer to have a quad-core offering in the mobile portfolio. Also, according to McCarron, the new quad-core processors will power the so-called "transportables", such as HP's HDX gaming laptop.