Intel To Unveil Mobile Pentium 4

The 1.6GHz and 1.7GHz processors, slated to ship in notebooks from most major OEMs, offer increased processing speeds and improved power management capabilities, Intel executives said.

To boost battery life, Intel enhanced SpeedStep, a technology that reduces the CPU's clock speed when the notebook is running on battery power, said Don MacDonald, director of marketing for the Intel Mobile Platform Group. A deep-sleep state that drops processor power to as low as 1 watt when not in use also was added, he said.

The new processors support a 400MHz system bus, up from 100MHz and 133MHz in Pentium III notebooks; 512 Kbytes of cache; and up to 1 Gbyte of faster DDR (double data rate) memory. Wireless capabilities also are expected in many of the forthcoming P4 notebooks.

Faster processors mean notebooks can be used with more sophisticated applications, but for many companies, mobile hyper speeds haven't been a priority, solution providers said.

"Will people be clamoring for it? 'No' ," said Miles Austin, owner of Focus Computer, a Redmond, Wash.-based solution provider. "The Pentium III at 1GHz is now doing very well on laptops."

But Intel's MacDonald said Pentium 4 notebooks and their predecessors offer opportunities for the channel because new bus speeds, power management and wireless capabilities require a more sophisticated sell. This will be particularly true when Intel releases its next-generation mobile CPUs next year, MacDonald said.

Intel's mobile release comes on the heels of its spring forum, where Intel offered a peek at its technology road maps. On tap are a redesigned 64-bit processor, 0.09-micron Pentium 4 chips running at up to 4 Gbytes, a variety of faster system bus technologies, improved wireless capabilities and a modular PC design with hot-swappable components.