Manage updates with the Download App 
By Daniel A. Begun Caching in This is not an April fool's joke--it is a mobile CPU that happens to have the largest L2 cache of any mainstream business or consumer processor on the market today. Believe it or not, Intel's new Pentium M processor comes equipped with 1MB of L2 cache--twice the 512K L2 cache found in Intel's current mainstream desktop processor, the Pentium 4. While L2 cache size is not the last word in performance, it can make a big difference if implemented correctly in a processor's design. And if the seven Pentium M-based notebooks we looked at when the processor made its debut are any indication, Intel got it right.
The Pentium M is at the heart of Intel's new Centrino platform (formerly known by the code name Banias). But giving a Centrino notebook its soul are an Intel 855 chipset and an Intel Pro/Wireless 2100 802.11b wireless NIC. The 855 chipset supports a 400MHz frontside bus (FSB), 266MHz DDR SDRAM, AGP 4X graphics, and USB 2.0. Check out Executive Editor John Morris's Digital Domain column for the full skinny on Centrino. Missing in action What a coincidence that on the very same day that Intel launched the Centrino platform, AMD would launch a slew of new Mobile AMD Athlon XP-M processors! There is a huge difference, however, between Intel's and AMD's definition of launch. There were actually quite a number of shipping notebooks available using the Pentium M processor on the day of Intel's debut. On the other hand, AMD launched its new product line of mobile processors with all bark and no byte. In fact, we've had great difficulty locating shipping notebooks in the United States that use these new processors. Fortune eventually smiled upon us; we just received one from Fujitsu, the LifeBook S2000. Expect to see a full review and CNET Labs' performance tests of this notebook shortly.
True innovation from AMD on the mobile front will have to wait until this September, when AMD plans on launching the mobile Athlon 64. Based on the ClawHammer core, this family of mobile CPUs will be the first 64-bit processor for mainstream notebooks. Perhaps this time, there will actually be shipping notebooks on the day it launches. Screaming graphics Why all the innovation on the mobile front? Because notebooks continue to grow in percentage of total PC sales. Though more desktops are still sold than notebooks, the margin is shrinking. So it should be no surprise that the two biggest manufacturers of graphics chips are going after the desktop-replacement market. Based on their most recent desktop GPU designs, Nvidia's GeForce FX Go 5600 and 5200 as well as ATI's Mobility Radeon 9600 could start appearing in desktop replacements as early as May. Both Nvidia and ATI's solutions represent the leading edge in mobile graphics with full AGP 8X and DirectX 9 support. On deck for my next column: the new desktop CPUs and chipsets.
Daniel A. Begun is CNET Labs' manager in New York.  
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
