Intel will break the 2GHz barrier for notebook PCs with the launch of a new Pentium 4-M chip.
The new 2GHz Pentium 4-M chip, which also comes along with a 1.9GHz Pentium 4-M and a handful of mobile Celerons, meet's Intel's internal target for shipping a 2GHz mobile chip by mid-year.
Although the PC market overall has lurched into the doldrums again, notebooks have fared better than desktops in a variety of markets for some time.
Notebook shipments are expected to grow 17 percent year over year in 2002 from 2001, said Anand Chandrasekher, vice president and general manager of Intel's Mobile Platforms Group, citing a study from Gartner.
The new 2GHz chip makes the Pentium 4-M one of Intel's fastest new processor ramps. The Pentium 4-M moved from 1.7GHz at its introduction to 2GHz in just three months. It took the desktop Pentium 4 several quarters to make the same journey.
Originally, Intel was expected to offer a 2GHz Pentium 4-M for notebooks later this year, but the company moved up that projection during its April analyst meeting, where Paul Otellini, Intel's president and chief operating officer, announced the goal for mid-year.
Intel intended to make the transition to the Pentium 4-M from its Pentium III-M more quickly for notebooks than it did for desktop chips. But the Pentium 4-M still faced several obstacles. The first notebooks to use the chip were relatively expensive. This limited the chip's adoption early on, analysts said, and some manufacturers opted to build products with Pentium 4 desktop chips instead to hold prices down.
Intel moved quickly to remedy the situation, introducing two new lower-clock speed, lower- priced chips in April. Those chips run at 1.5GHz and 1.6GHz. The company then dropped prices on the Pentium 4-M chips to further spur demand.
Now, with the chip more established, Intel will increase the clock speed on Pentium 4-M more aggressively. It will has also increased the speeds of its mobile Celeron chips from 1.2GHz as well.
If Intel follows a path similar to the one it took with its desktop chips, the mobile chip's clock speed will jump to 2.2GHz in the fourth quarter and probably 2.4GHz in the first quarter of 2003, sources familiar with the company's plans said.
Meanwhile, the new 1.9GHz and 2GHz chips will list for US$401 and US$637, respectively. The 1.33GHz, 1.4GHz and 1.5GHz chips will list for US$134, US$149 and US$170, the company said.
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