The First Pentium-M Notebook Put To The Test

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Centrino Mobile Technology: More Than Just a New Mobile Processor

If you think that what's behind the Centrino is merely a new processor for notebooks, then Intel's marketing squad is going to tell you a thing or two. Because lying beneath the Centrino, including the Centrino Mobile Technology, is a combination of the new mobile processor Pentium-M (codenamed "Banias"), the new Intel 855 chipset family ("Odem", "Montara-GM") and a WLAN adapter in mini-PCI format called Calexico, which is based on the 802.11b/a standard. Only notebooks with this whole package have Intel's approval to carry the name 'Centrino Notebook'. As soon as one of the above is missing, it ain't Centrino no more.

Intel's approach might have something to it, as it promises a platform solution in one single unit so that, theoretically of course, the individual components work together flawlessly. Another aspect is that, in case of 'Centrino', all power saving technologies of the different components can be used optimally. The new mobile processor Pentium-M has been designed to be significantly less wasteful with battery power and yet more powerful than its ancestors, the Pentium III-M and Pentium 4-M. Together, these factors have a positive effect on the battery life of the notebooks. At the same time, increased processor performance at lower thermal power dissipation also allows for notebooks in a smaller form factors.

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