Mobile Pentium 4 Chips Due Next Week

Intel's Pentium 4 mobile chips initially will be available in 1.6GHz and 1.7GHz speeds, said a source familiar with Intel's plans. An Intel spokesman declined to comment on the yet-unreleased information. Notebook manufacturers are expected to unveil products based on the chip next week as well.

At the Intel Developer Conference here, Anand Chandrasekher, vice president of the mobile platforms group, said forthcoming Mobile Pentium 4 products will add improved SpeedStep, a technology that saves battery power by lowering the processor speeds when a notebook is unplugged. A deeper sleep mode, available for the first time with the new products, will also enable additional battery power saving, he said.

The Pentium 4 chips also will support a 400MHz system bus, Intel's NetBurst technology and 4X AGP, Chandrasekher said. Notebooks expected to support the device will be both full-size and light, and many will include built-in wireless capabilities he said.

Then in the first half of next year, Chandrasekher said Intel will release Banias, its first low-power processor designed specifically for mobile devices.

Increasingly, boosting battery life and enabling wireless technologies will be key priorities for Intel, Chandrasekher said. As users become more mobile, system manufacturers need to be able to offer products that can seamlessly transition between many kinds of wired and wireless networks, he said.

"Seamless wireless connectivity that works securely wherever you are is what we are talking about," he said.

Battery life will be improved by reducing power consumption in chips and creating better standby technologies, he said, as the industry moves toward a cell phone model where battery life is discussed in standby and talk times.