Intel Corp. is planning to roll out a new line of faster Pentium M and mobile Pentium 4 (Pentium 4-M) processors for notebook PCs next month.
The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chip maker plans to make the Pentium M more appealing to customers by raising its maximum speed from 1.6GHz to 1.7GHz.
The company is also planning to release low-voltage Pentium M chips running at both 1GHz and 1.2 GHz.
The new Pentium 4-M will take over the job that was previously held by both the current Pentium 4-M and the Pentium III-M, to be the company’s chip of choice for thinner and lighter notebooks. There are also plans to boost the speed of the new 4-M, which currently sits at 2.5GHz.
The new Pentium 4-M boasts features including easier implementation into notebooks than desktop chips; faster speed than the older models; a 533MHz bus; and better affordability.
The Pentium 4-M isn’t expected to cost much more than the company’s 3.06GHz Pentium 4 chip, which currently sells for US$401.
Eventually, the company is planning to include Pentium’s hyper-threading technology – a function that bumps up the computer’s performance while it is completing multiple tasks – into the new 4-M.
The new Intel processors are expected to be released mid-June. Intel can be found online at www.intel.com.