Notebooks That Mean Business
By CXOtoday Staff
Mumbai, May 10, 2007

Intel India announced Centrino Duo and Centrino Pro technologies to be used in notebook PCs for consumers and businesses. The Centrino Pro was known by its codename 'Santa Rosa', while in development.

Notebooks will come in a plethora of shapes and sizes, with designs ranging from fully loaded, 17-inch wide-screen models ideal for entertainment to tiny, energy-saving notebook PCs that weigh less than 3 pounds.

"When we introduced Intel Centrino 4 years ago, Intel changed the computing landscape with our mobile innovations," said Ramamurthy Sivakumar, managing director of Intel (South Asia).

The platforms are based on Core 2 Duo processor. Users will experience improved performance when running multiple applications simultaneously, such as downloading a video clip while doing a virus scan. Mobile Intel 965 Express chipset family with Intel Clear Video Technology enables a high-definition video experience. A new suite of drivers delivers Windows Vista Premium experience featuring Windows Aero.

Turbo Memory is an optional feature that can access frequently used software applications twice as fast, and reduce the amount of time it takes to turn on, or boot-up a laptop, by as much as 20%.

With a new brand specifically for business users, Intel Centrino Pro processor technology will adopt features found in desktop business PCs today, with Intel vPro processor technology. IT departments will be able to manage, both desktops and notebooks and deal with security threats, cost of ownership, resource allocation and asset management wirelessly.

A key innovation in Centrino Pro is the Active Management Technology - that provides business-class notebook PCs with wireless PC management, protection and remote repair work thereby increasing productivity, IT savings and uptime.

It is learnt that Dell's new systems will be based on the latest Intel Core 2 Duo chips at the heart of Centrino Pro. Intel also plans to release a consumer notebook, the D531 (US$839) that supports AMD Turion 64 and Sempron processors.

"Intel's Centrino Pro processor technology now allows the inherent benefits of Intel vPro processor technology to be implemented in a mobile solution. Built-in features like remote management could potentially reduce infrastructure downtime and cost, in a form factor traditionally harder to keep tabs on due to the portable nature of notebooks," said Reuben Tan, research manager (personal systems) of IDC (Asia/Pacific).

All the products are now available.