InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
December 21/28, 1998
Faster Chips In NotebooksIntel boosts mobile Pentium II, Celeron
By Tom Davey
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From Our Sister Publication: |
otebook PCs will accelerate late next month when Intel introduces faster mobile Pentium II
CPUs. At the same time, the company will debut the first mobile versions of the Celeron for
low-priced portables. Most major vendors will have new Pentium II notebooks available for
immediate delivery, and a smaller number will be ready with Celeron-based notebooks.The Pentium II notebooks will run at 333 MHz and 366 MHz, up from 300 MHz. But a bigger performance boost will come from integrating the Level 2 cache, which stores frequently used data, into the CPU; currently, Pentium II chips lack this feature. Nathan Brookwood, an analyst for Insight 64, says the 366-MHz chip may be 22% faster than the 300-MHz Pentium II.
New models of IBM's ThinkPad 600E will feature the 366-MHz chip and hard drives of 4 Gbytes to 6.4 Gbytes. IBM will also introduce the 770Z, with a 366-MHz PII and a 14.1-Gbyte hard drive. Compaq, Hewlett- Packard, and Toshiba will also have new Pentium II systems at launch.
Most vendors will include the new 266-MHz and 300-MHz Celeron chips in their lines, although some won't have products until late in the first quarter. NEC will use a 300-MHz Celeron in its lowest-cost model, at about $1,700. HP will use the 300-MHz Celeron in its 2100 series, priced at about $2,000.
The mobile Celeron also has an integrated L2 cache; performance should be between that of Pentium MMX and Pentium II CPUs of the same speed. But some cus- tomers have reservations. Peter Tsai,
a senior engineer at MCI WorldCom, says that his company strives for longevity over bargain prices, so it's not likely to buy Celeron notebooks.
Early in January, Intel will also ship a mobile 300-MHz Pentium MMX chip. However, most vendors
will use that in consumer or corporate-niche products, such as ultraportables.
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