14 DAY TRIAL // Intel has undoubtedly had a good start this year: the company came up with a new line of miniature solid-state drives to keep the Menlow platform warn. Not to mention the Consumer Electronics Show launch frenzy, when Intel pushed 16 new processors in a single shot.
Unlike the AMD competitors, Intel is moving fast in order to claim its lion's share of the processor market. As Santa Rosa is already old news and the upcoming AMD Puma platform (to arrive in Q2, if lucky) may be labeled as "trouble", Intel has decided to add some muscle to its upcoming mobile CPU line-up part of the Montevina platform. The platform was designed to include four Stock Keeping Units (SKU), namely X, T, L and U. Each of the letters stand for a specific Thermal Design Power (TDP) range.
X stands for the extreme segment, that includes CPUs with a TDP of over 40W. The T marking stands for mobile high-performance at 20-39W, while L designates the mobile high energy efficient segment at 12-19W. U accounts for mobile ultra-high energy efficient with a TDP less or equal to 11.9W.
Two more processors will join the Montevina family. The first addition will be the P class of processors that will designate the power-optimized energy-efficient high-performance CPUs with a TDP between 20-29W. The T segment will have its TDP range changed to between 30 and 39W.
Another new class of processors will be marked with the S specification and will include CPUs with a smaller package size, aimed at small form factor products. This class will also be divided in three sub-segments - SP for a TDP from 20 to 29W, SL for 12 to 19W and SU to mark everything under 12W.
Intel will launch its division of mobile quad-core CPUs during the third quarter of the year. They will be marked using the same "Q" code as in the desktop segment.