Intel unveils performance processors for laptops

Jim Christie

SAN FRANCISCO: Chipmaker Intel Corp. on Monday introduced five

microprocessors that it said would boost performance and lengthen battery life

of laptops, raising the stakes for upstart chip designer Transmeta Corp. and

rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

Frank Spindler, Intel's executive vice president and general manager of its

Mobile Platforms Group, said the launch of the Pentium III processor-M products

represented a "milestone in mobile computing" because of the energy

savings produced by the new chip line.

"We see it as a generation-like leap in capabilities for mobile

PCs," Spindler said. "Every major system manufacturer is adopting

this." The mobile Pentium III processor-M will provide almost a 50 per cent

gain in performance on data-intensive applications over the previous mobile

Intel Premium III, the company said.

Intel said its new processor will be available in mobile PCs made by Acer

America Corp., Compaq Computer Corp., Dell Computer Corp., Fujitsu Corp.,

Gateway Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., International Business Machines Corp., NEC

Corp., Sony Corp., and Toshiba.

Rival Advanced Micro Devices has said it is aiming for a 50 per cent share of

the US retail market for laptop computers. Transmeta, meanwhile, has succeeded

in convincing major Japanese laptop maker to use its power-saving Crusoe chip in

laptops.

Shares in Transmeta ended down almost 9 per cent on the Nasdaq after the

Intel announcement taking aim at its niche market. Santa Clara, California-based

Intel also launched a new chipset - which works with the microprocessor to help

run the computer - that it said will allow laptop-makers to design better

performing notebooks that are thinner, lighter, and have longer battery life

than those now available.

The chips are made using so-called 0.13-micron process technology, in which

the circuitry lines are thinner than those in chips made using 0.18 technology.

This newer process means Intel gets more chips from a single silicon wafer and

also more transistors can be crammed onto a single chip, boosting performance,

and also cutting power use.

The chips run at up to 1.13 Gigahertz, Intel said, and is available in large

quantities. Intel said that the 0.13 micron Pentium III chips use 40 per cent

less power and are as much as 20 per cent faster than the previous 0.18 micron

process.

Chips made with 0.13 micron technology contain circuitry that is about

1/1000th the width of a human hair. Paul Otellini, executive vice president of

the Intel architecture group, said research into smaller, faster, and more

energy-efficient chips for laptops has been led by demand in Japan, where

laptops account for roughly half of all PCs sold.

The Japanese market also is pioneering designs of increasingly smaller

desktop PCs, Otellini said. Intel's new microprocessors have begun shipping and

should appear in laptops soon, he said.

(C) Reuters Limited 2001.