Taiwan's Elitegroup has revealed that Intel is indeed planning to release a 2.13GHz Pentium M 770 processor this autumn - possibly as early as September 2004.

The PC maker this week announced what it claims is the first notebook to offer an integrated 1.3 megapixel digicam. The ECS G220 is pitched at businesspeople who do video conferencing and don't want to have to carry and connect a separate webcam whenever they're out and about.

The notebook is based on Intel's Centrino platform, offering a range of Pentium M CPUs, from 1.3GHz up to 2.13GHz, the company said, with older 130nm 'Banias' versions at the bottom end of the range, rising to newer 90nm 'Dothan' chips at the top.

The 2.13GHz PM doesn't appear on Intel's price list yet, but is expected to ship as the PM 770. As the clock frequency indicates, the chip will run over a 533MHz frontside bus, and not the current 400MHz PM FSB.

The higher bus speed wil be supported by Intel's upcoming 'Alviso' chipset, which will form the basis for the second-generation Centrino platform, 'Sonoma'. Intel recently admitted that Sonoma will not now ship until Q1 2005, so either Alviso will ship in the autumn on its own and under the 'Centrino 1' brand, or Intel plans to update its current Centrino chipset, the i855GME to support a 533MHz FSB.

Elitegroup has since said that it will actually only ship a 2GHz part this September, and not a 2.13GHz part after all. That, it claims, was a mistake.

The G220 provides 802.11b and g courtesy of an Intel ProWireless 2200BG network adaptor, and there's the usual 10/100Mbps Ethernet and 56Kbps modem in there too. The notebook also offers a unified SDIO/MemoryStick/MemoryStick Pro card reader, PC Card slot, Firewire port and three USB 2.0 ports.

Elitegroup will offer two screen options. Both are 12.1in LCDs, one with a 1280 x 800 resolution, the other set to 1024 x 768.

The G220 will go on sale in September in the UK from Protac Direct Sales, Elitegroup said, but it did not disclose pricing. ®

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