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Sony is set to refresh its notebook lineup with upcoming mobile chips from Intel. Specifications posted on some reseller sites and leaked in Sony documents show a major refresh potentially in the offing.

Sony Vaio laptop

(Credit: Sony)

This may be good news for Advanced Micro Devices, too: its mobile graphics processors look to figure prominently in the new lineup.

A post on Laptoping says some model will come with 16.4-inch screens. Other models include ultraportables "featuring a 13.1-inch screen," Laptoping said. This series, as well as other Sony notebooks, will have a High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI).

One reseller lists a Sony Vaio VGN-FW198U/H laptop with a 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9400 processor, 4GB of memory, a 320GB hard disk drive, and a Blu-Ray disc drive. A price of $2,149.99 is given.

The T9400 is not yet listed on Intel's processor pricing page, but logically slots in below the T9500 (2.6GHz) listed at $530.

This document posted on notebookreview.com shows a VGN-FW100 series image. One model (Vaio VGN-FW160E/H) posted on notebookreview.com is spec'd with a 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo P8400, 4GB of memory, a 250GB hard disk drive, and Blu-Ray Disc drive.

The P8400 is part of the P series of upcoming Intel processors that uses less power than current mainstream mobile processors.

The Vaio FW series is expected to pack AMD-ATI HD 3470 graphics as well as other graphics processors.

A consumer notebook line with 13.3-inch LED backlit LCD is also cited with an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470 graphics chip on various sites. Models listed here specify an Intel Core 2 Duo P8400.

Sony said it would not comment on speculation.

Intel's upcoming mobile processors are making a sneak preview at resellers.

HP's 6930p (photo) and Toshiba's Qosmio G55, among other laptops, are expected to use new Intel mobile processors.

(Credit: Hewlett-Packard)

Though the initial roll-out of the Intel "Montevina" Centrino 2 mobile platform was scaled back by Intel last month, processors are still slated for July 14.

Last month, Intel said that only "processors and some of the chipsets" will be available initially. Technical and certification issues with Intel's integrated graphics and Wi-Fi silicon, respectively, will delay other Montevina silicon.

The delayed silicon includes the "GM" chipset that includes Intel integrated graphics. This will be released in early August. WiMax silicon is also slated to come out later, though Intel is not saying when exactly.

But mainstream processors are expected to appear on schedule.

The 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo T9600 can be found at select resellers. This 45-nanometer processor has 6MB of cache memory and a 1066MHz front-side-bus (FSB), beating the current crop of processors that have an 800MHz FSB. The front-side bus carries data between the processor and the chipset.

This part will become Intel's fastest mainstream (non-Extreme) Core 2 Duo mobile chip. Pricing ranges between $570 and $615 at resellers. Intel list prices will be different.

Intel's new P series is also showing up at resellers. The P9500 has been posted on reseller Web sites for some time. The 2.53MHz chip has a thermal envelope (Thermal Design Power or TDP) of 25 watts, making it more energy efficient than current mainstream Intel mobile processors, which have a TDP of 35 watts.

The P9500 has 6MB of cache and a 1066MHz FSB.

The P series chips in general are expected to have lower TDPs than the T series.

The 2.4GHz P8600 is also appearing as "backordered" at resellers.. The 2.26GHz P8400 is also listed at resellers.

The Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme X9100 "Extreme" mobile processor can be found at only a couple of resellers. It has a clock speed of 3.06GHZ and, because of its high clock speed, a high TDP of 44 watts.

New ultra-low-power processors will be released later this year, Intel said.

As a Computex preview, Intel is showing off its "delayed" Centrino 2 platform via an Asus notebook.

Asus M51VA with a 2.4GHz P8600 processor

(Credit: Intel)

A chunk of the Centrino 2 roll-out has been delayed until August 5--and WiMax even beyond that. Intel, however, is slated to do a Centrino 2 processor refresh on July 14.

"Today I've got my privileged hands on a brand spanking new Asus Centrino 2 ("Montevina" for us nerds) system," according to a pre-Computex Intel blog.

Intel, not surprisingly, is trying to build enthusiasm for Centrino 2 and WiMax. But, with chipset and WiMax delays, all this euphoria comes with qualifiers.

The Intel blogger, Craig Raymond, senior technical marketing engineer for Corporate Demonstrations at Intel, is--not surprisingly--ebullient about the "new mobile powerhouse"--An Asus M51VA with a Penryn P8600 2.4GHz processor. The P8600 is part of the upcoming Centrino 2 processor refresh.

But he quickly qualifies the euphoria with: "Oh Montevina...You broke our hearts with the launch delay."

He cites one of the best features as testing "World of Warcraft over the live Fitel WiMax here in Taipei."

"That's right. You heard me correctly. Montevina, WiMax; live in Taipei. Kind of strange to say it all in one mouthful, but it's finally here."

This statement has to be qualified too since WiMax won't ship with Centrino 2 until later this year. "When WiMax ships with Centrino 2 later this year, no add on card required, the Echo Peak mini-card hidden under the hood (like the one inside this Asus) promises the 'always on' connection we've been lusting for."

"Online gaming over a live carrier network has long been my holy grail around WiMax. Here from my outside park bench, after downloading my Warcraft client, I'm able log into the game world to slay all manner of goblins and over sized gerbils," he gushed. (More here).

As has been widely reported (for example, by EDN Magazine and both Brooke Crothers and Dan Ackerman here at CNET), Intel has delayed the first customer shipments (FCS) of its "Montevina" chipsets, part of the new Centrino 2 platform.

The delays are pretty short, however... a matter of just a few weeks.

Intel attributes the delays to two independent problems: one with FCC certification of the 802.11n WiFi feature in the chips (just "paperwork," Intel says), and one with the integrated graphics engines in some models.

Intel's probably right about the WiFi certification problem. I've been through the FCC certification process (for electromagnetic interference (EMI), at least); there sure is a lot of paperwork involved.

For the graphics problem, I see a couple of possible explanations.

Intel could have discovered a design flaw in the first production units severe enough to prevent them from being shipped, which would have caused a substantial delay while a new run of production units was completed. (See my earlier blog post, "Design flaws, defects, and faults", for an explanation of how design flaws are related to product defects and faults.) This delay would have been largely hidden by the usual rounds of testing, but perhaps it just used up a little more time than the slack that was available in the schedule.

Or perhaps there was a design or manufacturing flaw that didn't require trashing the first production run, but which did require some additional testing and qualification to reject specific problematic parts. This could be caused by slower or hotter operation than expected, for example. Such a problem would cause a shorter delay-- just the extra testing time. A statement from Intel in the Crothers post referring to "re-screening" suggests this is the situation here, although potentially that statement could also describe testing a second production run to ensure the problem has been solved.

I find it interesting that this problem is related to Intel's new graphics engine, which is certainly the most important element of the new chipset. Intel's previous integrated graphics products have been criticized for not really being up to the challenges of running Windows Vista, including by Microsoft itself, but due to pressure from Intel, Microsoft certified these chips as "Vista Capable." That's technically true-- I've used integrated-graphics platforms under Vista myself-- but the resulting shortfalls in performance and features probably discouraged many new Vista users.

Graphics engines are very complicated, and getting more complicated every year. Intel started out well enough in the graphics business when it worked with Real3D (now defunct) to develop the Intel740, a discrete graphics chip, but 18 months later it found itself already 18 months behind ATI and NVIDIA, and fell back to selling only integrated-graphics chipsets, where the graphics component is worth only a few dollars in incremental revenue.

Intel plans to get back into the market for discrete graphics chips in 2009 or (more likely) 2010 with "Larrabee", a multi-core CPU in which some cores are optimized for graphics processing. I think Larrabee will turn out to be a technical disaster, but Intel has leveraged its market domination to turn previous technical disasters into financial windfalls. Think of the Pentium 4's "Hyper-Pipelined" design, for example, which was too hot and too inefficient, ultimately forcing Intel to bring its predecessor, the P6 design, back from the grave several years later. Intel's current graphics engines, however, are barely worth selling today, and they won't be worth reviving after Larrabee has run its course.

Intel will delay the introduction of its highly anticipated "Montevina" Centrino 2 mobile chips due to technical and certification problems, the chipmaker said Tuesday.

The initial rollout won't take place until July 14. The next phase will take place in August.

Intel had recently been saying that the Centrino 2 mobile platform would launch after Computex, toward the end of June. Centrino 2 features upgraded integrated graphics, high-speed WiMax wireless silicon, and native support for High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP), among other features.

"Initially what will be available on July 14 are the (Centrino 2) processors and some of the chipsets," Intel spokesperson Connie Brown said. These processors include the "T" and "X" (Extreme) series. Other Centrino 2 silicon will come later.

The two principal problems concern, one, the certification (on the Centrino 2 platform) of the Wi-Fi wireless standard and, two, technical issues with the Centrino 2 chipset.

Wi-Fi is "not a technical issue. It's paperwork," Brown said. "There were mistakes made while filing and testing our wireless antennas." The paperwork involves both the FCC and other government organizations like Canada's IC, she said.

The second problem is centered on technical issues with the Centrino 2 "Cantiga" chipset and the Intel graphics that is integrated into the chipset. In short, Intel will not release a chipset initially with Intel integrated graphics.

Instead, on July 14, Intel will offer a "PM" version for discrete (stand-alone) graphics chips only, Brown said. The July 14 version of the chipset can be used with discrete graphics chips from Nvidia and AMD-ATI, for example, but will not have Intel integrated graphics.

The "GM" version that includes the Intel integrated graphics will not be available until early August. "It will be ramping by August 5," Brown said. The two initial versions of the chipset with Intel integrated graphics are the GM45 and GM47. Intel will also make available its updated Wi-Fi technology called "Shirley Peak" in August, she said.

Brown said the chipsets must be "re-screened." This means basically that some chipsets need to be rechecked to see if they have "an issue," she said. Intel is not specifying, however, what the issue is.

WiMax silicon is also slated to come out later, though Intel is not saying when exactly. The Intel module that combines Wi-Fi and WiMax is called Echo Peak.

The delay of Centrino 2 also gives rise to a broader competitive issue: Advanced Micro Devices is set to announce its new "Puma" mobile platform in the near future that will feature both improved discrete and integrated graphics. For example, AMD's 780M-based integrated graphics is expected to be very competitive with Intel's integrated graphics.

Note: Intel Centrino 2 processors expected on July 14 include the T9600, P8600, and P8400, running at 2.8GHz, 2.4GHz, and 2.26GHz respectively. A high-end upgrade to the current Core 2 Extreme X9000, the X9100, is also expected. The X9100 is expected to run at 3.06GHz with a 44W thermal envelope. Pricing will range from $209 for the P8400 to $530 for the T9600 to $851 for the X9100.

This appears to be a first: Australia-based Pioneer Computers is marketing a notebook based on Intel's "Montevina" Centrino 2 processor and new ATI graphics.

Pioneer DreamBook Style 9008

(Credit: Pioneer Computers Australia)

The mobile Centrino 2 processor isn't due until later this quarter but that's not stopping Pioneer from hawking a notebook based on the next-generation Penryn chip and ATI "Radeon M82" graphics.

The processor specifications for the Pioneer DreamBook Style 9008 speak for themselves: "Intel Core 2 Duo Centrino 2 processors (45nm Penryn CPU, Montevina Platform)."

The Thermal Design Power (TDP or thermal envelope) of the processor is listed as 25 watts. The front-side bus is spec'd at 1066 MHz. The low TDP and faster front-side bus distinguishes it from the current generation of Core 2 Duo mobile Penryn chips, which have higher TDPs and slower front-side buses.

The notebook is also listed with an "Intel Cantiga PM45" north bridge and "ICH9M" south bridge. These two components constitute the chipset.

Another intriguing aspect of the computer is the ATI graphics chip listed as "ATI Radeon M82 256M GDDR ll VGA Card PCI-E." This is otherwise known as an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3400 series chip.

The notebook is also listed as offering a 2.5-inch 320GB hard disk drive and a solid state drive option.

Intel will roll out its first wave of mainstream Centrino 2 mobile processors by June then follow this up in September with additional chips including the first quad-core mobile processor.

The Pioneer notebook was first sighted by Australian PC Authority.

Crave's Mike Yamamoto contributed to this report.

Micron Technology announced that it is sampling 4 gigabyte (GB) memory modules based on high-speed DDR3 technology and said the memory has been validated by Intel to run on its upcoming Centrino 2 mobile processor.

Micron DDR3 memory module

(Credit: Micron)

DDR3 SDRAM or double-data-rate three synchronous dynamic random access memory is expected to be faster than DDR2 SDRAM--now used widely in systems--though this will depend on the speed rating of the DDR3 memory and on what type of DDR2 memory it is tested against.

Micron's DDR3 modules support data rates of up to 1333 megabits per second, enabling better system and graphics performance. DDR3 supply voltage operates at 1.5-volts in comparison to DDR2's 1.8-volts, reducing power consumption by up to 30 percent, Micron said.

Micron said it has received Intel's validation on 512MB, 1GB, and 2GB DDR3 notebook modules for the upcoming Intel Centrino 2 processor technology mobile platform. The 4GB DDR3 notebook modules are still going through the validation process. Centrino 2 processors--formerly known by the code name "Montevina"--are due this summer.

The modules are designed using 2 gigabit (Gb) components, providing high-density DDR3 modules for notebook computers, such as those that would use the Cetrino 2 processor. High-density memory modules with large capacities are becoming increasingly important for notebook computers as graphic-intensive operating systems and other content heavy applications continue to make their way onto the market, Micron said.

DDR3 memory products that support Intel's high-performance desktop, workstation, server, and mobile platforms in 2008 are also being developed.

Micron's 512MB, 1GB and 2GB modules are in mass production now, with its 2Gb-based DDR3 4GB modules expected to be in mass production in Q2 2008.

Though rumors have been out there for weeks, Intel has confirmed that upcoming Montevina mobile technology will be branded Centrino 2. The chipmaker also said the Core 2 Extreme QX9770 is shipping.

Intel Centrino 2 brand

(Credit: Intel)

This follows the official rollout of the Atom brand for ultrasmall devices on Sunday. As part of the Atom platform, Intel will offer a combination CPU-chipset wireless solution called Centrino Atom, with device suppliers shipping products next quarter.

Now Intel has added the Centrino 2 brand to the mix. The branding will break down into Centrino 2 for consumer notebooks and Centrino 2 vPro for business portables.

"It will feature unprecedented processor performance for faster multitasking, high-bandwidth Wi-Fi (802.11agn), and for the first time, an optional integrated WiMax-Wi-Fi module. Centrino 2 also has a power-saving design to provide the longest possible battery life," Intel said in a statement.

The 45-nanometer Penryn-class processors will span the full range of notebook designs, from "mini notes to full-size (notebooks)," according to past statements from Intel. Processors will have clock speeds ranging up to 2.8GHz and thermal envelopes (referred to as Thermal Design Power, or TDP) of between 25 watts and 35 watts. The platform also features integrated Blu-ray Disc support, as well as integrated Wi-Fi and WiMax wireless technologies.

Some of the processors will come with the same compact chip packaging used in the MacBook Air's Core 2 Duo processor. These low-power processors will have TDPs as low as 5W.

Centrino 2 will also have improved graphics in the form of GMA X4500 silicon that will be part of the GM45 ("Cantiga") chipset. Performance is expected to be up to three times greater than current X3100 graphics (GM965 chipset).

Intel also announced that it has begun shipping its Core 2 Extreme quad-core QX9770 and X48 Express chipset. The high-end 3.2GHz QX9770 processor integrates 12MB of L2 cache and uses a 1600MHz front-side bus.

"We are in production. The QX9770 will launch later this month," an Intel spokesperson said Wednesday.