Intel's Centrino set to launch

Asher · March 10, 2003, 17:41

On Wednesday, Intel's Centrino (and correspondingly, the new Pentium-M chip) will launch alongside a new $300M marketing push for it.

http://news.com.com/2100-1006-991566...g=fd_lede1_hed

Quote:

Intel wireless plans begin with new chip

By Michael Kanellos
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
March 10, 2003, 4:00 AM PT

Intel is betting that wireless technology will be the biggest thing since the browser, and new notebooks coming Wednesday will be an early indication of whether the company is right.
Learn more about Intel wireless

Intel Chief Executive Craig Barrett, Dell Computer CEO Michael Dell, and a host of PC companies will be on hand in New York for the release of Centrino, a collection of chips from Intel designed to transform laptops and tablet PCs into portable offices. Centrino computers, with a $1,500 starting price, will run between five and eight hours on a battery charge, the sort of energy efficiency required to make wireless Net access a habit.

The new chips will give Intel an opportunity to increase its presence in notebooks, a market growing approximately 17 percent a year. Additionally, Centrino will be the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company's wedge into the market for wireless chips.

If wireless takes off, the company will be poised to capitalize on supplying chips and other parts for updating the world's technological infrastructure over the next decade.

"The wiring task is hopelessly manual. The spread of computing is limited by manual labor," said Andy Grove, Intel's chairman. "We can reduce the speed and efficiency with which new equipment can be installed in a factory...It will increasingly be used for the last-mile connection into homes.

"The Internet was a major shot in the arm for the industry, and I've got a lot of the same feeling about this," he added.

A series of venture investments by Intel totaling $150 million into Wi-Fi start-ups could also pay dividends. The technology lets devices located within a 300-foot radius of one another communicate without wires.

But it won't be easy. A number of wireless data carriers have already gone under while survivors have cut their fees. Notebook buyers also have shown that they often care more about price than battery life.

Intel's own product plans haven't gone without a hitch either. The company planned to integrate its first homegrown Wi-Fi chip into Centrino, but delayed it until the middle of the year. Instead, Centrino will come with a Wi-Fi radio from Philips Semiconductor. Intel's communication group, which could benefit the most from wireless acceptance, still loses money and faces stiff competition from incumbents.

Roughly 35 percent of the notebooks shipped by the end of 2003 will come equipped with wireless, a fairly strong adoption rate, said Mario Morales, a semiconductor analyst at market research firm IDC.

Still, "there needs to be a lot of heavy investing in the infrastructure for this to take off," he said.

Mark Margevicius, an analyst at research firm Gartner, generally agreed. Centrino will likely increase demand and prompt upgrades, but wireless won't be a life-changing experience anytime soon, he said. "How many hot spots do you think you will use?"

Behind Centrino
Centrino consists largely of three parts: a new microprocessor called the Pentium-M, which is the heart of the project; a companion chipset; and a Wi-Fi module. Software and specialized packaging also are included.

The Pentium-M, which comes out of Intel's labs in Israel, seeks to solve one of the historical problems with Pentium notebooks: power consumption. Despite new chip technologies and industrywide efforts in the 1990s to increase overall notebook energy efficiency, growing screen sizes and faster chips wiped out many of the conservation gains. Intel-based notebooks still typically conked out after two to four hours.

In late 1998, details began to emerge about Transmeta, a then hypersecretive company that was working on an energy-efficient processor that could run Windows. Although company executives have said that the Pentium-M was independently conceived, Transmeta fueled the urgency, a number of Intel executives have said.

Rather than retrofit the Pentium, the Israeli team scrapped it. The Pentium-M was designed from the ground up to fit into notebooks. Although it runs the same Windows software as Pentiums, the chip is different from an architectural point of view.

Among the new architectural features, Micro Ops Fusion will combine routine instructions and tasks and thereby save time and energy. Anand Chandrasekher, general manager of Intel's mobile product division, likened the process to a bunch of people at the airport sharing a cab, rather than taking separate taxis.

Advanced Branch Prediction will let the processor better schedule tasks, and different parts of the chip such as the system bus and even the Wi-Fi chips will shut down when not in use to conserve power.

Energy-efficiency, though, means lower megahertz. The chip will initially top out at 1.6GHz, far slower than the Pentium 4, which runs at 2.4GHz. The imbalance, some analysts say, could muddle the marketing part for Intel.

Demand, finally
Despite all the complaints about battery power over the years, energy-efficient chips such as Transmeta's Crusoe and Intel's low-voltage Pentium III chips haven't sold in large volumes. Interest in these products in many ways has started to accelerate only with the advent of Wi-Fi in the past 18 months.

This new interest, though, seems earnest.

"In the corporate space it should be a good sell. Corporate buyers care less about frequency and more about cost of ownership and longevity," said Kevin Krewell, senior editor of The Microprocessor Report. "It's also going to be a good sell to people who are second-time notebook users and savvy buyers."

Energy-efficiency and Wi-Fi are necessary partners, Krewell emphasized. At a recent Advanced Micro Devices briefing, he noticed that nearly all of the attendees checked their e-mail via Wi-Fi during the break, but they had to huddle around power strips to keep plugged in.

"So they weren't quite wireless," he said.

The Pentium-M so far is succeeding better than expectations, according to Don MacDonald, director of mobile platforms at Intel. During the development process, Intel expected the chip to mostly go into "thin and light notebooks," which cost anywhere from $1,500 to $2,500 and get sold mostly to business customers.

Now the company says the chip will become its predominant notebook product by the end of the year and will be found in all types of notebooks and tablet PCs except the budget "desknote" machines. There are more than four times as many Pentium-M designs at this point in the cycle than there are notebooks for the Pentium 4 mobile chip, according to Intel's Chandrasekher.

In turn, this could help Intel's bottom line. The price difference between Intel's mobile and desktop chips, usually hundreds of dollars, has been steadily decreasing in the past year. That will likely continue, but increased volumes will more than compensate for the slide.

"There is going to be some uptick," Gartner's Margevicius said. "Mobile is something like 20 percent of the market. We believe it will go up to something like 35 percent" over the next few years.

A bumpy ride
Building the wireless environment, though, will cost money. According to estimates, Intel will spend around $300 million promoting Centrino, close to the cost of the original Pentium campaign.

In addition, the company is working with telecommunications carriers, hotel chains and cellular providers to develop networks for "hot spots"--public places that give people wireless access. Sean Maloney, general manager of Intel's communication group, wouldn't say that the company is partly subsidizing these networks, but admitted there is a "thorough and lively" campaign afoot.

"You'd be amazed at how open the service providers have been. None of them are in denial," Maloney said. Once the first networks are up, the next phase will involve "getting the owner of 1,000 hot spots in the United Kingdom to sit down with a hot spot provider in France and work out a revenue-sharing agreement" for roaming, he said.

But competitors aren't standing still. Atheros, Broadcom, Intersil and other wireless chip companies are fiercely seeking to get their Wi-Fi chips outfitted into notebooks and hot spots. The delay of Intel's own Wi-Fi chip has helped these companies maintain their existing lead: Hewlett-Packard, Dell and IBM will all offer notebooks on Wednesday with Intel and non-Intel solutions.

To attract customers, Intel is touting its engineering department. The company has spent thousands of hours testing how the Pentium-M and its approved wireless solutions work with hot spots and third-party software. The company has not tested other wireless products.

"We have developed (test and verification) chips whose only aim in life was to torture the rest of the system," said Mooly Eden, general manager of Intel's Israel design center.

Whether this succeeds has analysts split. Some say PC makers will want to work with the communications specialists. Others say that a Wi-Fi chip is just a fancy modem, and the only thing that is important after a while is price.

Transmeta, meanwhile, is gearing up for Astro, a new energy-efficient chip slated for the second half of the year, while AMD will come out with new notebook chips next week and in September.

Intel's recent history of monumental changes to PCs is also uneven. The company tried to make Rambus the standard PC memory. It flopped. Timna, another chip from the Israeli group, never came out.

Still, even with the hurdles, the wireless genie seems to be out of the bottle. Like the first PCs, it has become a technology driven by ordinary customers rather than marketing departments.

"It is one of those things that sort of happened spontaneously," Krewell said.

----

Pentium-M at a Glance
Speed: 900MHz to 1.6GHz
Transistors: 77 million
Cache size: 1MB
Bus speed: 400MHz
Next version: Dothan

Centrino at a glance
Parts: Three--a Pentium-M microprocessor, a chipset, and a Wi-Fi radio
Markets: All but bargain notebooks
Wireless: Standard. Centrino notebooks have Intel-tested wireless chips. Pentium-M branded notebooks contain other wireless chips.

I'm paying particularly close attention to this, because it's about time I bought my own notebook. My school's new computer science building has Wi-Fi throughout, and my friend with an iBook uses it all the time in class. And I want to do it, too.

Long battery life + good performance + standardized wireless + reasonable price.

I think I'll wait until later this year, when 802.11g chipsets come out...

Still cool though, it's nice to finally see some developments on PC laptops.

mrmitchell · March 10, 2003, 18:23

Obviously the amount of attention in this is simply staggering.

Asher · March 10, 2003, 18:26

I'm glad everyone else shares the same enthusiasm.

Provost Harrison · March 10, 2003, 18:58

Did something interesting wake me? No, I didn't think so...

Skanky Burns · March 10, 2003, 19:12

I think its interesting. Unfortunately, Telstra are a little on the slow side with upgrading Australia's infrastructure. The area I live in can't even access cable, so I doubt Wi-Fi will be supported any time soon.

Asher · March 10, 2003, 19:22

Quote:

Originally posted by Provost Harrison

Did something interesting wake me? No, I didn't think so...

This thread (and the technology it's about) was obviously not intended to be read by people who live in the UK or other sections of europe that are technologically backwards and still grappling with the concept of wired broadband...

mrmitchell · March 10, 2003, 19:30

Wait. Canada has wires? Who gave them wires?

Provost Harrison · March 10, 2003, 19:35

Quote:

Originally posted by Asher

This thread (and the technology it's about) was obviously not intended to be read by people who live in the UK or other sections of europe that are technologically backwards and still grappling with the concept of wired broadband...

Hey, I am still on 56k and proud! Well, I'm not proud, actually

Az · March 10, 2003, 20:01

what? even we savages get broadband.

Asher · March 10, 2003, 20:27

I was expecting your post to be something about the chip being designed in Israel.

NeOmega · March 10, 2003, 22:22

I think the push towards wireless that Intel thinks is the future is going to give AMD the air bubble it needs to keep from drowning.

Wireless technology would be great if it were 1998 and businesses were on a mad splurge to buy new technology....

But as the economy is now, more secured wired connections are the way to go.

However... interesting... Intel... Israel, AMD.... Germany... hmm.

Germany: anti-war, Israel: pro-war. My money goes into AMD stock

Asher · March 10, 2003, 22:26

You forgot about AMD's main fab plants in Texas, which certainly aren't anti-War.

I don't see why you think there's an issue with wireless. Wireless and laptops are virtually the only market that grew in 2002 tech-wise (laptop sales were up 17% alone).

There's no doubt that wired communication's going to be with us for some time yet, but wireless certainly has a place and is where we'll be in the future.

NeOmega · March 10, 2003, 22:39

I believe Intel has plants in the US as well.... so that's a tie :P

Urban Ranger · March 10, 2003, 23:32

Wireless is silly.

Asher · March 10, 2003, 23:35

I don't see why it's silly. It's a godsend on campus...

A lot of things don't need to be wireless, some things are much nicer as wireless.

My PC doesn't need to be wireless, my laptop needs to be, basically.

One is portable, one is not...

Actually, that argument reminds me of the "Cell phones are silly" assertions people made 5 years ago. Some people still think that now (I think you'd be one of them?), but they make everything so much more convenient for millions of people...

Agathon · March 11, 2003, 00:16

I wouldn't joke about internet connection in Canada, we have the highest rate of broadband use.

And Asher, who cares about all this stuff. Just buy an ibook like your friend.

PS. Iginla staying.

Asher · March 11, 2003, 00:17

It's not bad as far as laptops go, but they're overpriced still. And underpowered.

I need a laptop with horsepower.

Agathon · March 11, 2003, 00:32

Yep, you are right about the power, although the price has come down a lot. I'm waiting for them to move to the G4 chip like they have in the imac - that would be more than enough for me.

Az · March 11, 2003, 03:32

Quote:

I was expecting your post to be something about the chip being designed in Israel.

The only thing that I can say is : cool! Intel Israel would probably carry the bulk of production, and will, hopefully, regain its' status as No.1 exporter in Israel. there is one production plant and two research centers, and they'll all get a boost.

Wraith · March 11, 2003, 08:48

--"Actually, that argument reminds me of the "Cell phones are silly" assertions people made 5 years ago. "

The question is how useful is this really to most people? Wireless right now is pretty much limited to the office and campus. They'll be able to sell into the corporate market, but the whole battery-life thing was hashed over when Transmeta came out. There's plenty of other things in the notebook eating power, like the display.
Now, it certainly can't be nearly as bad for the battery as a P4 (or even P4-M), but how much difference it actually makes remains to be seen.

I'm most interested in how Intel will end up marketing this. They'll have to change the tune they've been singing since they released the P4.

Sadly, the one thing I'd really like to see them do with this chip is the one thing I'm sure they won't let happen. Put it in a small form factor desktop. I'd like to find a good processor capable of running in a HTPC with passive cooling without having to underclock it, etc.

--"I'm waiting for them to move to the G4 chip like they have in the imac "

Haven't they done that already with the Titanium iBook?

Wraith
Mornings are a delusion of the planet bound

chequita guevara · March 11, 2003, 11:33

What about security issues?

Provost Harrison · March 11, 2003, 13:37

Quote:

Originally posted by Asher
I need a laptop with horsepower.

'Need' or 'want' MCK?

Asher · March 11, 2003, 14:38

Quote:

Originally posted by Wraith
The question is how useful is this really to most people? Wireless right now is pretty much limited to the office and campus. They'll be able to sell into the corporate market, but the whole battery-life thing was hashed over when Transmeta came out. There's plenty of other things in the notebook eating power, like the display.

It's true there's not many wireless hotspots aside from work and campus, but there's more coming soon.

Starbucks has wireless access, now there's talk of all McDonalds getting them too.

As for the power consumption issue, I read a couple weeks ago (I think it was on THG) that Intel did a bunch of things aside from optimizing the chipset and CPU for power consumption. Things like how the display was powered was modified too to save power.

Quote:

Sadly, the one thing I'd really like to see them do with this chip is the one thing I'm sure they won't let happen. Put it in a small form factor desktop. I'd like to find a good processor capable of running in a HTPC with passive cooling without having to underclock it, etc.

Aren't there P3 1GHz+ Shuttle-based PCs that run with passive cooling?

Quote:

Haven't they done that already with the Titanium iBook?

The G4s are in the PowerBooks, G3s in the iBook.
On the desktop, the G4 is both in the PowerMac and the iMac, so eventually the iBook will switch over as well.

Az · March 11, 2003, 14:39

Quote:

What about security issues?

A good question, actually. AFAIK it is possible to intercept digital voice connections in cellular networks (though nowhere near the rediculous situation of the analog networks

).

How does Wi-fi treat this problem?

Oh, and another thing: what happened to bluetooth?

Asher · March 11, 2003, 14:43

Bluetooth is for things like wireless keyboards.

As for security issues, it's only an issue if you turn off WEP ("wired equivalent privacy"): http://www.80211-planet.com/tutorial...le.php/1368661

Az · March 11, 2003, 15:00

Thanks, asher.

How long are bluetooth chips away from mass production?

Master Zen · March 11, 2003, 15:55

Quote:

Originally posted by Agathon
I wouldn't joke about internet connection in Canada, we have the highest rate of broadband use.

Actually it's South Korea

Wraith · March 11, 2003, 20:33

--"Starbucks has wireless access, now there's talk of all McDonalds getting them too."

Starbucks makes sense. I just saw that McDonalds thing today, but why McDonalds? That doesn't really seem like the place to hang out with your laptop.
I mean, okay, a lot of geeks will eat there. Well, not there, exactly, they tend to buy-and-run. Which makes the wireless part pretty pointless for them.

--"I read a couple weeks ago (I think it was on THG) that Intel did a bunch of things"

They making laptops now?

--"Aren't there P3 1GHz+ Shuttle-based PCs that run with passive cooling?"

P3 anyway, not sure about the passive cooling bit. Better than P4 as far as heat and power are concerned, but I'm not sure they'd be as much better as I want. I'll have to check into it anyway, but the Shuttle website sucks.

--"How does Wi-fi treat this problem?"

Not very well. There are a couple of encryption standards in place, but from what I've read they're pretty trivial to break.

Wraith
Reality Sector Visitor Badge #9572

Asher · March 12, 2003, 01:23

Quote:

Originally posted by Wraith
They making laptops now?

No, but they have regulations for what can be branded as "Centrino" technology, and there's a bunch of specs in that about how they power things like DVD drives, laptop displays, etc.

Asher · March 12, 2003, 11:39

Some reviews have appeared now.

A 1.6GHz Pentium M performs on-par with a ~2.2GHz P4 chip.

And the real-world battery life is incredible...

IBM ThinkPad T40 (1.6GHz; 512MB DDR SDRAM; ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 32MB; IBM 80GB 4,200rpm; 5.4lbs; 14.1" display):
416 minutes (or 7 hours)