Is New Centrino Viable?
Intel May Pick Wrong Time to Market CPU
By Kim Yoo-chul
Staff Reporter
U.S. chip giant Intel unveiled the latest version of its Centrino laptop computer chips Tuesday, but industry insiders here are skeptical of the chip's marketability as it doesn't support WiBro, the country's standard wireless broadband services.
Intel says that the chip, the latest step in the company's push in mobile computing, is specifically designed to improve wireless connectivity and help batteries last longer in laptop computers.
Intel last month released Atom, a chip designed for smart phones and other mobile Internet devices.
However, there are no immediate plans for making the chips capable of WiBro delivery, according to Lee Hee-sung, head of Intel's Korean branch.
"The Centrino's WiMAX and Wi-Fi modules are for U.S. standards and we need discussions with local telecom services providers such as Korea Telecom and SK Telecom," Lee said at a news conference held in southern Seoul.
Centrino, first introduced in 2003, includes three products ― a microprocessor, a chip set that handles other internal chores in a personal computer (PC) and chips that provide wireless networking.
The new version offers higher performance, a faster version of the wireless technology called Wi-Fi, and microprocessors that draw about 30 percent less power than prior models.
"About 250 laptops are being designed with the new technology. And we vow to deliver a series of other chips in the next 90 days, including our first 'quad-core' product for portables," Lee said.
"The Centrino 2 has meaning just by itself. Intel wants to focus on a bigger North American market for a pre-emptive measure," an industry insider, who wished to be identified only as Kim, told the Korea Times.
Intel's Lee also declined to comment on price ranges of its chip sets to PC set makers.
Advanced Micro Devices, meanwhile, has been shipping their own combination of chips for laptop PCs since June. And summer is when many parents buy their kids new notebook PCs.
Experts say sales of notebook PCs will begin to outpace those of desktop machines by early 2009. In line with such expectations, the world's top chip and PC makers have refocused their efforts on bringing more power to mobile computing.
Earlier in the day, Samsung Electronics released 11 sets of new laptops equipped with Intel's newest chips, targeting corporate and retail clients, while LG Electronics followed a similar path by launching three series' of its X-NOTE laptops. A smaller local PC set manufacture, TriGem, introduced four sets using the chips.