Sunday, June 15, 2008

INTEL CENTRINO 2 CHIPSET

Intel has delayed the next generation “Montevina chipset until mind-July, with a formal launch in mid-August says PC Magazine. “Montevina” is the next-generation Centrino chipset, used in laptops and will include enhanced wireless capabilities with WiMAX and 802.11n.

The new laptop design was originally expected to be launched in a week. Montevina-based notebooks will be known as Intel Centrino 2.

Intel kicked off day two of its Spring IDF with some announcements about its next Centrino platform, codenamed Santa Rosa, and its successors.

As we all know by now, Santa Rosa is the 2007 Centrino platform, which will officially start shipping in May. Santa Rosa is composed of Intel's Core 2 Duo processor, the mobile Intel 965 Express chipset, Intel's Wireless-N networking, Intel's Gigabit Ethernet as well as optional Intel Turbo memory. The latter is now the official marketing name for Intel Robson technology, which is on-motherboard NAND flash memory that can be used by Vista to speed up the OS via ReadyBoost or ReadyDrive.

In the first half of 2008, Santa Rosa will get a refresh to support mobile Penryn processors. Currently Intel is only indicating updated processor support with the Santa Rosa refresh; the rest of the components may remain unchanged.

After the Santa Rosa refresh, also currently scheduled for 1H 2008, is the Montevina platform. Montevina will also support Penryn but it will be equipped with a mobile version of Intel's P35 chipset, codenamed Cantiga. Cantiga will bring about DDR3 memory support which may actually be attractive in notebooks due to lower power consumption. The real killer in Montevina is WiMAX support, which will hopefully enable very wide area wireless network access on notebooks in areas where there aren't localized 802.11 networks. Montevina will also bring updated Ethernet controllers and a second generation Robson technology.

The close proximity of the Santa Rosa refresh and Montevina launches does confuse us a bit, and we're skeptical of whether or not Intel will stick to this schedule. Two new Centrino platforms in a 6-month window just doesn't seem like a good idea.

The Centrino 2 “Cantiga” chipset, their integrated Intel graphics chip, is causing other delays. Intel has decided not release a chipset initially with Intel integrated graphics.

“There were two minor issues we found during final testing – one with our integrated graphic chipsets, which we have found a workaround for but need to re-screen our parts, and second around our wireless wi-fi chip, which was a paperwork and certification mistake we made,” said Bill Kircos, a spokesman for Intel, in an email to PC Magazine.

“Both of these led us to establishing a launch date for our mobile processors and discrete chipsets of the week of July 14th, and taking a couple of weeks to get the right readiness and volume for the rest of our components,” Kircos added. “We’re looking at early August for that.”

The Echo Peak wireless module will support both WiMAX and 802.11n technologies and will be available in prices ranging from US$43-54, depending on specifications. Meanwhile, the Shirley Peak module will support only 802.11n technology with prices between US$19-30.

However, regulatory delays also affected the Montevina chipset, according to Doug Freedman of American Technology Research, who published a report last Friday claiming that the chipset had suffered “hiccups,” as a “mis-step” in the FCC certification process would prevent the chipset from being sold within the U.S. Freedman also claimed that Montevina also suffered from errors within the integrated graphics portion of the chipset.

Freedman also wrote that it was possible that notebooks would ship with older 802.11a/b/g radios, instead of the newer 802.11n technology.

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