All: Looks like mobile PII-300 will be a big seller.
joey
Intel Launches 300-MHz Pentium
II For Laptops
(09/09/98; 3:28 p.m. ET)
By Andy Patrizio, TechWeb
Intel introduced Wednesday the 300-MHz version of
its mobile Pentium II processor for high-performance
computing and software-only DVD playback.
The mobile Pentium II 300 comes in two forms, a CPU
mounted on the motherboard and a mobile module.
Laptop vendors that use the mobile module design can
easily remove older 233-MHz and 266-MHz Pentium
IIs, and even Tillamook Pentium 233-MHz and
266-MHz chips, without having to redesign the
computer.
The mobile module is a drop-in part, said Charlie
Carey, product launch manager for mobile processors
at Intel. With its 1.6-volt power consumption, the
300-MHz chip consumes less power than any other
Pentium or Pentium II chip, which translates into longer
battery life.
Although a Pentium II 300 may seem like more power
than is necessary for a laptop user, high-powered
applications like Outlook and Office, as well as the
increasingly popular Windows NT Workstation, are
creating a need.
"Anyone who wants to run NT and Outlook and still be
productive really needs Pentium II performance," Carey
said.
Nathan Brookwood, an analyst at Dataquest in San
Jose, Calif., agreed. "Even at 300 MHz, it's about as
fast as an entry-level desktop these days," he said.
The 300-MHz chip runs DVD without an MPEG-2
decoder board, something slower Pentium II systems
wouldn't be able to do. They'd require a decoder board
to handle the high compression of DVD video, but with
the 300-MHz system, laptops can play back a DVD
movie on the screen.
DVD video could be useful for more than playing
movies, said Brookwood. "A lot of mobile devices are
used in sales-force automation," he said. "With a
DVD-type device, you could actually have some pretty
good video in a presentation."
Compaq is one of the first vendors to come out with a
300-MHz Pentium II laptop and DVD-ROM drive.
The Presario 1810 comes with the new chip and DVD
drive, plus 64 megabytes of memory, a 6.4-gigabyte
hard drive, and a modem. The retail price is $3,599.
Hewlett-Packard announced three 300-MHz laptops
on Wednesday, the HP OmniBook 7150, 7100, and
2100. The high-end 7150 notebook uses the
Accelerated Graphics Port technology for fast graphics,
and comes with a 14.1-inch XGA screen, 8.1 GBs of
storage, 64 MBs of memory, and either a DVD-ROM
or CD-ROM drive. It sells for $4,999.
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