Intel unveils 16 processors including mobile chips at CES

Stan Beer
Tuesday, 08 January 2008 07:35

Your IT - Home IT

Chip maker Intel unveiled 16 products at the Consumer Electronics Show today, including the company's first 45 nanometer processors for Intel Centrino based notebooks. The new line up includes 25% smaller chips suitable for the fast emerging sub-notebook market.

All of the new chips include the company's new transistor formula and 45nm manufacturing process which are claimed to boost a PC's speed, reduce power requirements, save on battery life and come in smaller packages for more fashionable and compact computer designs.

Intel said it will take advantage of its transistor and manufacturing advances to spur a category of small form-factor, low-powered, high-performance devices that deliver broadband Internet access "in your pocket."

Among the 16 new products, five are designed for new laptops, seven for desktops and four are for servers. Eager to boost its green credentials, Intel emphasised that all of its nee generation chips are now lead-free and, starting this year, will also be halogen-free.

"The new products we're announcing today provide consumers and businesses with the benefit of sleeker and higher-performing laptops and more powerful and fashionable PCs that deliver for the most hard-core gamer, high-definition enthusiast and just about every other consumer demand," said Mooly Eden, vice president and general manager, mobile platforms group, Intel. "And later this year, Intel will begin delivering the mobile Internet with much smaller, lighter and powerful Internet-enabled devices that ultimately will fit right into your pocket."

Intel claims that its five new mobile processors, enable breakthrough performance and improved battery life. The chips feature a new Intel Core microarchitecture design feature for advanced power management state called Deep Power Down Technology that is claimed to reduce the power of the processor when it's not running data or instructions to the laptop.

The laptop processors are also promised to deliver improved content and video capabilities with HD DVD and Blu-Ray support.

Intel has also added new video and graphics capabilities with Intel HD Boost that includes Intel Streaming SIMD Extensions 4 (SSE4) for speeding up workloads including video encoding for high-definition and photo manipulation.

Intel's new chips also target the "all-in-one" category, made popular by Apple, and are claimed to provide the performance to run a variety of digital media and the latest software simultaneously, as well as enhanced high-definition video and smoother playback using Intel Clear Video Technology.

Intel also plans to ship in the first half of 2008 its first-generation low-power platform chipset that will help deliver a range of ultra mobile and mobile Internet devices.

As far as desktops are concerned, Intel announced three quad core and four dual core 45nm-based processors for mainstream desktop PCs arriving later this month and throughout the first quarter of the year.

Dual core desktop processor-based PCs using these new processors begin shipping this month; quad core-based systems plan to arrive later this quarter.

The company also introduced four Intel Xeon processors for servers and workstations; they are expected to ship this quarter.