Intel Launches Centrino Duo Notebooks

An anonymous reader writes "Intel has officially introduced their Centrino Duo platform. The new Centrino uses the Yonah processor which I guess is now called Core Duo. AnandTech has a review of notebooks based on it and the results are pretty impressive. They tested two identical notebooks, one based on Centrino Duo and one based on Centrino. The Duo notebook lasted 30 minutes longer on battery and was faster in the benchmarks. You can't beat longer battery life and better performance."

Comments

Intel Launches Notebooks

[jim_mcneely]

It looked like, from the title, that Intel was launching, not just a new chip for notebook machines, but actual notebook machines. That would certainly have Dell and HP shaking in their boots!

Re:Intel Launches Notebooks

[$RANDOMLUSER]

OK, I should have said ancient museum pieces.

The first is a circa 1979 Intel MDS-235, the second generation of the MDS-800, the machine CP/M was written on. It was a Multibus machine, with a 2MHz 8085 processor (almost certainly the first production 8085 machine), 64K of static RAM (filled a full card), an integral 8" Single Density 128K floppy drive, and an external dual 8" Double Density 256K drive enclosure. My drive enclosure differs from the pictured one - the drives in mine are horizontal, so the unit is "only" about 6" high. I have the EPROM burner too, with 2716 (4K EPROM) and 2732 (8K EPROM) modules. The full package, new, cost $27,000.00 IIRC. I've got a ton of software for it (on 8" Dysan floppies), and all the books, too. My wife has been after me for 20+ years to get rid of it; at this point I'd like to find a good museum to donate it to. It was running OK the last time I used it, but I'm afraid the capacitors could be dried out by now, so I'm kind of afraid to turn it on.

The second is an Intel 310, which I can't seem to find any pictures of on the Internet. It's a Multibus box with a 12 MHz 80286 and a 10 MHz 80287 on one card and 512K static RAM filling another card. The disc drive was a full-height 5-1/4 20 MB (MFM) drive. It was a popular (??) box to run iRMX-86 (Intel's Realtime Multitasking OS) on, for controlling stuff. I used it to develop a controller for elevators in office buildings. I also had the Intel (licensed from Microsoft (licensed from the original SCO)) version of Xenix for it. I bought it about the time the PC-AT came out, for about $5000.00, and I've still got all the books and media for it.

Intel has made mass-market IBM-PC compatabiles in the past, but they haven't done that on a long time.

Christ I'm old; it's time for my nap.

Re:Intel Launches Notebooks

[WuphonsReach]

Indeed, back in the 386 era, we had a few Intel 386 PCs in our testing lab.

The fun thing? The cases were identical to the AT&T (Olivetti?) 386s. I'm not sure if AT&T was re-branding the Intel PCs or if it was the other way around.

This was around 1990.

is 30 mins that significant ?

[rednuhter]

is 30 mins that significant ?
Obviously if your train journey lasts 30 mins more than your current battery life then is does.
But I would go with a margin of error of at least 30 mins in battery life depending on individual usage plus wifi, bluetooth, external devices etc.

Intel Outside

[digitaldc]

"The new slogan is supposed to signify Intel's shift away from focusing "inside" and starting to look at platforms and solutions for the end users."

What does this sentence mean? Intel is going to make their own hardware and software now?

Re:Core Duo

[wootest]

Apparently before the end of the year. The Pentium brand has now been around almost 13 years, and in a way it's past its prime. If Intel is tearing almost every other aspect of its marketing up to start fresh, Pentium, along with Intel Inside, is arguably the most stale, and Intel Inside has already been dumped. It seems like a good place to start. I, for one, welcome our new Core-named overlords...