Pentium 4 goes mobile
1.7GHz the new pinnacle of portable processing
Intel has unveiled its mobile Pentium 4 processor and an accompanying 845 chipset family laptop motherboard supporting DDR memory, bringing the best of the company's PC technology to mobile shores. At 1.7GHz, the mobile Pentium 4 is said to yield a 43 per cent performance improvement over its highest-rated predecessor, with a 512K on die L2 cache and the P4's array of buzzword features. The real question is battery life though, and Intel is quick to point out that it has implemented an enhanced variant of its SpeedStep technology, which can switch between maximum and battery-optimised modes as the system's demand on the processor increases or wanes. The processor can also induce a Deeper Sleep Alert State, operating at as low as 1 volt. This is largely thanks to the equally-enhanced Intel Mobile Voltage Positioning system (IMVP III), which can dynamically change processor voltage based on activity, improving thermal efficiency. The 845-derived motherboard is quite an impressive specimen, with AGP 4X and DDR 266 support for up a gig of memory. Twinned with one of the leading mobile chips from either NVIDIA or ATI, this could form the basis of a truly beastly laptop. Pricing for the new motherboard and processors is set at (in 1,000 unit quantities) $43 for the 845MP chipset, and $508 / $401 for the 1.7GHz and 1.6GHz processors respectively. Expect to see long-term Intel supporters such as Dell offering laptops based on this new apex of mobile processor design shortly. Related Feature - Pentium 4 review