A casual observer might have gotten the impression from last week's colossal Centrino launch--which the company declared was its biggest product introduction since Pentium--that Intel had just invented 802.11 networking and wireless hot spots.
After last week's colossal Centrino launch, Intel may go down as the Al Gore of the wireless Internet. A casual observer might have gotten the impression from the spectacle--which the company declared was its biggest product introduction since Pentium--that Intel had just invented 802.11 networking and wireless hot spots.
The mainstream press was happy to play along. "Intel introduced a set of chips yesterday that promises to make wireless Internet access a standard feature on laptops," reported Reuters. "Centrino laptop users who are within 100 yards of access points...will be able to surf the Internet or use corporate networks." Holy hot spots! Get me a Centrino.
A few facts got lost in the Centrino PR shuffle, however. First, 802.11 has been around since 1997 and was already well entrenched before Intel served up Centrino. Second, nearly all notebooks makers already offer 802.11 options--either PC Cards or competing mini-PCI solutions. Finally, hot spots were already gathering steam as an alternative to pathetic wireless WAN solutions. Still, you have to admire a company that can take a name reminiscent of a mediocre Italian restaurant--well, that and US$300 million in marketing--and virtually co-opt an entire industry.
That's not to say Intel won't make a significant contribution to wireless computing. As analysts point out, the rising tide is bound to lift all boats. Even direct competitors such as Broadcom, which supplies Dell's TrueMobile wireless solution, among others, haven't raised much stink about Intel's progress. To underscore the message, Intel brought author Malcolm Gladwell (The Tipping Point) to the Centrino launch event to talk about the point at which emerging products or technologies break into the mainstream. Intel's marketing muscle, along with some important but dreadfully dull certification programs, will almost certainly speed that process along for wireless.
Clearly, Intel is no longer content to be on the inside. By expanding into wireless, the company is hoping to plaster its brand on every cafe, hotel, and airport-- and virtually any other place you might run into a hot spot. From a technological standpoint, however, Centrino isn't really about wireless--at least, its wireless components aren't what make Centrino innovative. In fact, Centrino's most notable advancement is its longer battery life.
In addition to the Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 wireless radio, better known by its code name Calexico, Centrino consists of a new processor, the Pentium M, and a family of power-saving chipsets designed to support the whole thing, called the Intel 855. Intel says that Centrino is the first product really designed from the ground up for notebooks, and it turns out there's a lot of evidence to support that claim.
In the past, most new chips popped up in bulky desktop-replacement notebooks, then gradually trickled down into smaller systems. That's because the faster chips tend to run hot at first, so they need a little breathing room until manufacturers can fine-tune the products and get their hands on low-voltage versions. By contrast, nearly all of the Pentium M systems that landed on our Labs' bench were thin-and-light systems that weighed around 2.7kg or less; the IBM ThinkPad T40 was the featherweight at a hair 2.2kg.
All of these thin-and-lights used top-of-the-line 1.5GHz or 1.6GHz Pentium Ms, but Intel also announced low-voltage (1.1GHz) and ultra-low-voltage processors (900MHz). That means Centrino could be used immediately in notebooks of all shapes and sizes from tiny subnotebooks and tablets to massive desktop replacements. (Although Intel may have a hard time weaning laptop makers off of the desktop P4s in the biggest systems, since these processors offer great bang for the buck.)
The Pentium M is no performance slouch, but its battery life really takes the cake. The thin- and-lights we tested all lasted a good four to five hours--an hour longer than we're used to seeing from top notebooks. In effect, Pentium M offers the best of both worlds: longer battery life than the top Pentium III-M notebooks combined with performance that rivals the fastest Pentium 4-M and P4 notebooks. For example, the Acer TravelMate 803LCi easily outscored the speed-demon Alienware Area 51m by a comfortable 15 percent on performance tests. That's especially impressive when you compare specs side by side. The TravelMate had a 1.6GHz Pentium M and 512MB of memory; the Area 51m had a 3.06GHz P4 and 1GB or memory. Forget about wireless--astounding battery life is true innovation.
Centrino still falls short of the magical 8-hour mark--at least on a single, standard battery (the ThinkPad T40 came pretty darn close with an optional battery hanging off the back, however). To get there will require more than smart processors and chipsets. The display chews up 30 percent of the battery, according to Intel, so LCD manufacturers have some work to do. And new battery technologies from companies such as PolyFuel, Smart Fuel Cells, and Toshiba promise to eventually outdo Lithium-ion. At the recent CeBIT trade show in Germany, Toshiba demonstrated a methanol fuel cell that powers a notebook for five hours.
Wireless access is also a drain on battery life--perhaps 30 minutes or so during continuous wireless use--and the Calexico chip has some features that should improve things slightly. But Calexico is available in 802.11b only, with a dual-band 802.11a/b version on the way. Meanwhile, the rest of the industry is moving toward 802.11g, which promises better bandwidth, longer range, and backward-compatibility with 802.11b. (Intel says it will sit it out until 802.11g is officially approved, hopefully sometime in June.) That's why many major manufacturers such as Dell, IBM, and Toshiba are offering both Centrino and their existing wireless solutions. Putting aside the lack of 802.11g, there have also been rumors that Calexico is a poor performer. But in our Labs wireless tests, we didn't see significant differences in throughput or range with the Calexico radio versus other top 802.11b adapters such as the Proxim Orinoco World PC Card.
That leaves laptop buyers in a real quandary. Not only do you have five different processors to choose from--Pentium M, Pentium III-M, Pentium 4M, mobile Celeron, and desktop P4--you also have to choose from competing wireless solutions. We have yet to test any notebooks based on the competing AMD Athlon XP-M family--curiously, it was announced on the very same day as Centrino--but there's no question that Pentium M is the best mobile technology Intel has to offer so far, period.
Unless I needed a desktop replacement that would never set foot outside my home, I wouldn't buy anything other than Pentium M right now. The same does not go for the rest of Centrino, however. You can get equal or better performance from competing wireless solutions, so you should pick the solution that meets your needs and budget.
