Intel goes live with Centrino 2

Intel has officially launched the Centrino 2 platform, and is splitting it into a straight consumer offering and a business platform running vPro systems management technology.

The new platform will ship from today, the fifth anniversary of the original Centrino launch, with a 45nm Penryn Core 2 Duo processor running from 2.26GHz to 3.06GHz, with 6MB L2 cache and a 1066MHz front side bus. It is coupled with 802.11n Wi-Fi and an integrated graphics chipset.

Later this year the wireless component will be augmented by having WiMax built in but Intel claims the current 802.11n antenna can manage 450 MBps data rates. Later this year the company will also bring out a four core processor for the platform.

The company is claiming that the new platform will offer 23 percent better performance, for 23 percent less power and will show graphics speed enhancements of up to 70 percent.

Battery power has been a key focus of the new platform, as Intel’s vice president of mobile platforms Mooly Eden explained.

“It’s all about HUGI – hurry up and get idle,” he said.

“The optimal condition for a processor is like the optimum condition for my wife – in sleep mode. You are using the minimum amount of power. But when a task comes along you need to wake up the processor, get the job done as quickly as possible and then get back to sleep.”

Intel is targeting business users with the Centrino 2 with vPro technology. This allows system administrators remote access to laptops via wireless, enabling remote control and system control even if the laptop is in sleep mode.

Both consumer and enterprise offerings will have full support for dual channel DDR3 memory and Blu-Ray. Eden said that the platform would support two hours of high definition film viewing from a single battery charge according to its reference designs.

However the chipset would also support dynamic switching between the integrated graphics package and a standalone graphics card to save battery life. ATI is already producing graphics cards for the platform and nVidia will shortly.

All the major systems builders have produced Cetnrino 2 laptops for the launch, ranging from a Sony ultraportable to heavy gaming machines from Acer and Asus. Only Apple was not represented.