First Centrino 2 Systems on Monday
July 14 will see the first general release of Intel’s new Centrino 2 platform, previously known as Montevina. The launch was delayed for several weeks due to a problem with Intel’s own integrated graphics for the platform…which has yet to be solved. Centrino 2 notebooks running just Intel integrated graphics without a dedicated GPU will not be released until August. Therefore, only Centrino 2 systems running with GPUs from nVidia or ATI will be available on Monday.
The Centrino 2 platform is primarily aimed at enterprise users, but like the previous (and enormously successful) Centrino line, will be used in many consumer devices as well. Centrino 2 will be the first mobile platform to take advantage of Intel’s new 45nm Penryn CPUs and will run from 2.4GHz to 2.8GHz. The first releases will be dual core chips but quad core will be just around the corner.
Among the other features in Centrino 2 are:
- Native support for DDR3 RAM
- Native support for 802.11n
- Native support for WiMAX
- Increased battery life and lower heat.
- Lower power usage (25w as opposed to 35w for Centrino chips)
From the look of things, the Integrated Graphics snafu aside, this will be another triumph for Intel and the Centrino 2 chips will rapidly replace the original Centrinos as the CPU of choice for most users. Between Centrino 2 and Atom, it seems that the Intel throttlehold on the processor market will continue into the foreseeable future.































Please refer to the products properly…
Centrino is a package not a CPU! The CPU has been and will continue to be the Intel Core 2 chip…
Refer to Centrino as it accurately is… An Intel Chipset, CPU, and Wireless Card combination.