Intel Centrino Pro Officially Announced

April 4th, 2007

Intel Corporation today officially announced Centrino Pro processor technology for business laptop computers, which features Intel vPro technology currently used in desktop PCs.

“With Intel Centrino Pro processor technology, IT managers will be able to manage and protect their notebooks over Wi-Fi. In addition, administrators can manage both wired notebooks and desktop PCs regardless of their power state or the health of the PC. The result is better protected PCs, increased IT department compliance, more accurate PC inventories, fewer desk-side visits and less interruption to business,” the Corporation announced.

Intel Centrino Pro will be available in the second quarter this year as part of the company’s planned introduction of the next generation Centrino platform code named ‘Santa Rosa’, which is designed for use with Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs.

“A new wireless component, Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N will give users more freedom to do more, farther away from their access points with support for the draft 802.11n specification delivering up to five times the performance and twice the wireless range. Users will also enjoy improved graphics performance and support for Microsoft Windows Vista’s latest graphic interface Aero. In addition, the optional Intel Turbo Memory means users can experience up to two times faster performance when loading frequently-used applications, and up to a 20 percent faster boot time,” Intel says.

Intel

Previous article version (10/20/2006): Forthcoming Intel’s notebook platform, codenamed “Santa Rosa”, which is designed for use with Intel Core 2 Duo (Merom) processor, is to be officially named “Centrino Pro”, Digi Times reports according to the laptop makers.

“In the second quarter of 2007, Intel will launch its new Core 2 Duo CPU lineup, which includes the T7300, T7500 and T7700 models, featuring Socket P connector, 800MHz FSB and 4MB L2 cache, as well as the T7100 with 2MB of L2 cache. Simultaneously, Intel’s GM965/PM965 chipsets and 82566MM Gigabit Network/Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN network chips, which all support Intel Active Management Technology (Intel AMT) and Intel Virtualization Technology (Intel VT), will be announced to complete the Santa Rosa platform,” the report says.

The Centrino Pro, introduced at Intel Developer Forum as “Santa Rosa” platform last month, will incorporate 802.11n Wireless standard, ‘Robson’ NAND Flash hard drive cache, Graphics Media Accelerator X3000 integrated card and 3G WAN card. The new Intel Centrino platform will feature 667Mhz up to 800MHz frontside bus, but the bus speed can be dynamically reduced and raised, as required by the operating workload.

The first Intel Centrino platform, codenamed “Carmel”, was launched in March 2003. The second-generation Centrino “Sonoma” platform, started in January 2005, while the current “Napa” Centrino platform, was introduced in January this year.