Intel to market mobile technologies as 'Centrino'

SAN FRANCISCO: Intel Corp., the company that brought consumer marketing to the invisible innards of computers, on Wednesday unveiled its latest brand name and plans for a big advertising blitz to pitch its new mobile chip technology.

Intel, of Santa Clara, California, the world's largest maker of semiconductors, said "Centrino" will join its existing line-up of three brands that include Pentium, its flagship microprocessor brand; Celeron, its value-priced line; and Itanium, its high-powered computer chip line.

Centrino, a combination of the words "center" and "neutrino" a sub-atomic particle, will be used to market the chipset, or combination of chips, and networking software that Intel plans to offer makers of notebook computers, the company said. "We will spend more supporting the launch of our Centrino brand than the couple of hundred million dollars ($300 million) we spent introducing the Pentium 4" in 2001, said Intel spokesman Howard High.

Intel Chief Executive Craig Barrett is expected to disclose more details on the timing of the Centrino launch during his keynote on Thursday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Intel is gearing up for what analysts believe will be the biggest push so far for wireless technology, which began with grass-roots use of unregulated spectrum. The branding move is a first for Intel, which previously has branded only one product at a time.

Centrino, by contrast, will stand as the brand name for a group of products: the Pentium M processor, for use in mobile computers; the chipset, or associated group of chips that provide additional functions; and software for so-called Wi-Fi, or local wireless, computer networks.

Intel launched its hugely popular "Intel Inside" campaign more than a decade ago, a move credited with grabbing consumer attention in a market dominated by easily recognizable computer and software application brands such as IBM and Microsoft.

The Centrino products, which are aimed in part at a competing offering from Transmeta Corp., will be sold as a package beginning in the first half of this year, and available for purchase separately. Nathan Brookwood, an analyst at Insight 64, predicted that people will soon see "Centrino compatible" logos in coffee shops and at other potential Intel wireless partners.

The Centrino trade name was chosen to convey a sense of small, fast and powerful products, said company spokeswoman Christine Vermes. Banias, the earlier code name, was taken from the name of a river in Israel, where engineers developed the technology.

Intel product development code names, including past efforts such as Merced and Willamette, have typically been the names of rivers on the West Coast of the United States.