"Alex Johnson" wrote in message
...
Yousuf Khan wrote:
Saying that the next mobile Celeron will be based on the Centrino
(Pentium
M) platform rather than the Pentium 4.

Yousuf Khan


http://www.pcpro.co.uk/?http://www.p...y.php?id=50070

Registration required.

Hmm, it wasn't registration when I first accessed it. I tried it again, and
it is registration now. Here's the original article cut'n'pasted:

------------------------------------

Intel is planning to introduce a cut down version of the Centrino platform,
according to an industry source. A 'Celeron' version of the Pentium M -
which, along with the Wireless LAN support and 855 chipset, forms the
Centrino platform - would address the value end of the bourgeoning laptop
market.
While Intel would not confirm the story, from a source close to the company,
it comes in the wake of the new Mobile Celeron, introduced yesterday to
explicitly give the company more focus on the budget end of the Laptop
market.

Intel is particularly sensitive about getting Centrino pricing just right,
and new top-end versions of the platform may not be any more expensive than
their predecessors. The largest factor Intel will consider, as ever, is the
price the market will accept. But with laptops rapidly overtaking desktops
as the fastest growing segment of the Industry, there is a natural pressure
for prices to fall - Intel will obviously have to find ways to address the
bottom, and falling, end of the market.

Speaking to us at the Intel Developer Forum in September, Don Macdonald,
Intel's Director of Marketing, Mobile Platforms Group, discussed the release
of the next generation of the Pentium M - 'Dothan', which should replace the
current 'Banias' core before the end of the year. When pressed on pricing
issues, and how the Centrino platform is seen as a premium product (in the
UK at least), he refused to concede prices for the processor would
necessarily rise.

'It is not obvious that if you had a Dothan processor compared to the Banias
(the current core of the Pentium M processor) that it would cost more,' said
MacDonald.

'If we want to make the transition to our 90nm process (on which the Dothan
processor will be based), we have a manufacturing pressure on us to say
'make the move from 200mm wafers and .013micron to 90nm with 300mm wafers' -
we have a financial incentive to go do that. The best way to do that - this
is not rocket science, purely the law of supply and demand - is to say "if
you want to convert all your Banias customers to Dothan, price them at the
same price". It's a much better product, why would you buy the other one?'

The challenge Intel would face, introducing a cut down version of the
Pentium M, is that it doesn't damage the overall Centrino brand.

------------------------------------


Oh well, try this link too:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/mobile/...112155619.html

Yousuf Khan