Intel's 'Santa Rosa' Centrino Update Due In First-Half 2007
At the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco, Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini said the next Centrino Duo platform, code-named Santa Rosa, will offer power savings and faster front-side bus support, up to 800 MHz from the current 667 MHz. The updated platform also will offer an enhanced Deeper Sleep mode to achieve a lower power state.
The enhancements will support Microsoft Windows Vista's new Aero graphics-intensive interface and 3-D capabilities, Otellini said. The Vista operating system is slated for general availability in the first quarter of 2007.
In addition, the updated Centrino platform will offer 802.11n wireless support, NAND Flash memory technology and new management and security technologies, including some support for vPro, according to Intel.
The Wi-Fi capabilities will be compliant with 802.11n, which may speed up data transfer rates as much as fivefold. The enhanced wireless support will be useful for high-definition video and the spate of new online services being used by consumers and business customers, Intel said.
Intel's NAND Flash memory stands to run multiple applications twice as fast as the current platform and resume laptops from hibernation faster. Intel also will offer a new chipset with integrated graphics that supports high-definition video playback.
The platform, too, will include Intel's vPro technology and Active Management Technology 1 for improved desktop management. In 2008, Intel plans to integrate WiMax support in Centrino.
Intel introduced its first version of Centrino in 2003 and followed up with Wi-Fi support and enhanced performance in 2004. In July, Intel launched its Core 2 Duo Centrino processor, which was code-named Merom. The Santa Rosa Centrino platform is due to ship in the first quarter of 2007.
"We don't sit still," David "Dadi" Perlmutter, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Mobility Group, said in a speech at IDF on Wednesday. "Our next big move is in the first half of next year with the Santa Rosa platform."
Meanwhile, Intel is hard at work with partners Toshiba and Matsushita on its "Robson" technology, designed to extend battery life to seven hours and beyond -- from the current average of three to four hours -- to cover notebook use for a full work day, Perlmutter said.
The technology also can shave as much as 400 milliwatts from the platform. One milliwatt represents about 25 minutes of battery time on a notebook, Perlmutter said. "It's a lot of work, but milliwatt by milliwatt, we are getting there," he added.
In the first half of 2007, Intel also plans to release a new silicon prototype of its ultra-mobile silicon that consumes half the power and occupies one-fourth of the space of its of its predecessor. That, combined with the release of a single, integrated ultra-mobile processor in 2008, is expected to spur OEMs and system builders to move ahead with innovative mobile designs, according to Intel.
"We're accelerating our plans," Otellini said in his IDF keynote.