INTC--New Intel laptop chips consume less power
By Bloomberg News
October 10, 2000, 3:45 p.m. PT
SAN JOSE, Calif.--Intel said it will enhance energy-saving features in processors for laptops and begin shipping new mobile Pentium chips next year as competition intensifies.
demonstrated two chips: a 1-GHz Pentium III that consumes 2 watts of power and a 500-MHz version that reaches half a watt. The company said both chips will be available in the first half of 2001.
Competition for low-power chips is heating up as more computer makers decide to use processors from rival Transmeta in some systems, claiming Transmeta's new design helps batteries last longer. Intel, trying to regain the spotlight, Tuesday highlighted plans for coming products and revealed details of energy-conservation techniques at the Microprocessor Forum in San Jose, Calif.
"The focus we've had on this has been coming to fruition in products very nicely," Frank Spindler, manager of Intel's mobile-chip group, said in an interview. "These technologies put processors into extreme low-power states."
Intel, based in Santa Clara, Calif., is considering the creation of a second design for mobile chips, to be released in 2002 or 2003, Spindler said. The evaluation is in early stages, and no name has been given to the project, he said.
The company will build chips based on its current design with smaller, 0.13-micron wires starting next year. Thinner circuits help make smaller semiconductors that use less power.
Intel last month began shipping new mobile Pentiums running at 850 MHz or 800 MHz when computers are plugged into electrical outlets and a Celeron operating at 700 MHz. |
