News

Intel jumps the portable gun with new mobile P4 chips

Much to the surprise of roadmap fans - and customers - Intel has allowed its biggest customers, IBM and Dell to leak news of its 1.8 GHz mobile Pentium 4 processor.

Even IBM may be startled at the news of the faster chip - it was supposed to be secret for another week or two, and IBM itself was under instructions not to talk about it publicly till tomorrow (Wednesday).

But despite heavy "non-disclosure" contracts with several news sources, Intel Corporation today introduced three new mobile processors for laptop computers that "provide consumers the performance to take advantage of the latest computing trends" according to the press release.

The new processor is available clocked at speeds of 1.8 GHz, 1.5 GHz and 1.4 GHz, and according to sources at IBM, the 1.8 GHz device burns electricity at "only" 20W power - which sounds a lot, until you realise that the desktop P4 runs at 70W.

Intel says the latest computing trends are digital music, wireless gaming, photography, movies, and graphic-intensive applications - but it isn't only focusing on higher processor performance for lower power. It is also expanding its involvement in wireless, doing a deal with IBM rivalling IBM's "corporate" deal with Cisco on wireless networking.

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