Intel Developer Forum Spring 2003 - Technology Showcase

Pentium M & Centrino on Display

The talk of the town is Intel's Pentium M processor, which is a part of the Centrino mobile architecture.

Intel's Pentium M Processor

The Pentium M is the processor that was formerly known as Banias, and is essentially an updated Pentium III core, with a 1MB L2 cache and a 400MHz Pentium 4 FSB. The fact that the Pentium M uses the same FSB as the Pentium 4 means that it can interface with existing Pentium 4 chipsets, which is why we were able to see this demonstration of a server running the Intel 7501 chipset and a Pentium M processor:

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The purpose of this demonstration was to show off the capabilities of a low power server microprocessor. Power consumption is an important thing to take into account in the server world, especially once you realize that having hundreds of 2-way Xeons or Athlon MPs can significantly impact power costs, especially in a collocation center. Power hungry servers also are harder to ensure uptime on as you have to make certain you have more powerful battery backups in the event of a power failure.

Intel also had a number of Centrino notebooks on display, most of which were running 1.6GHz Pentium M processors:

The more impressive demo came from Samsung, who has done a relatively unique design for the Centrino platform:

This Samsung thin-and-light not only boasts an attractive form factor, but in theory takes advantage of all that the Centrino mobile technology has to offer. Only time will tell if these notebooks are all Intel says they are cracked up to be; March 12th is the official launch of Centrino, so as usual, we'll let you know as soon as we find out for ourselves.