Intel last week expanded its line of mobile processors with faster, more energy efficient Pentium III chips, while rival AMD started shipping a 1.1GHz Duron processor.
With these introductions, Intel now offers a 1.2GHz processor for use in larger, 5 pounds and up, notebooks. For mini notebooks, 3 to 5 pounds, an 800MHz chip is now available, and a 700MHz processor has been developed for ultra small notebooks and tablet computers.
The basic chip architecture for the 1.2GHz and 800MHz chips has undergone a major upgrade. These improvements include using .13 micron technology in a mobile processor for the first time, placing 802.11b, Bluetooth wireless technology onto the motherboard and also increasing the chips USB capabilities. Other changes are the addition of a 512k cache and enhanced SpeedStep battery conservation technology.
The processor now lowers the power usage down for extremely short periods of time, such as between keystrokes, in order to extend battery life.
The 1.2GHz chips will cost $772 in lots of 1,000; the 800MHz models, $312; and the 700MHz processors, $209.
AMD’s new Duron, which competes against Intel’s Celeron family of processors for space in entry-level PCs, will sell for $103 in lots of 1,000. According to printed reports, AMD will follow this with the shipment of the Athlon XP, a high-end chip for use in PCs running Microsoft’s Windows XP.
