Intel Pentium M (Centrino) CPU moving to 90µ

The Inquirer: Dothan Pentium M (Centrino)

CHIP FIRM Intel appears to be pressing forward its advantage on process technology, with the 90 nanometer version of the Pentium M chip likely to be available in late Q3 or early Q4.

The Pentium M is used as part of the Centrino marketing package. The 90 nanometer Pentium M is currently codenamed Dothan, and when released will have 2MB of cache and uses a 400MHz system bus.

Nevertheless, despite what seems to be Intel's success in moving to the 90 nanometer process, frequencies for its Pentium M family won't reach 2GHz until the second quarter of next year. A 2GHz Pentium M Centrino notebook is likely to cost over $3,000 when it's released.

The first Dothan Pentium M will also have 2MB of cache, and will have a clock speed of 1.80GHz. But it appears Intel will at first limit the 90 nanometer versions to the highest performing chips. This is because Intel needs to move its entire manufacturing base from the current 130 nanometers (.13µ) to the newer 90 nanometer process, for notebook, for desktop and for server microprocessors.

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