Intel only began shipping 90nm Mobile Pentium 4 processors at the start of June, but it has already signalled its intention to upgrade the parts' core.

Like the desktop 'Prescott' CPUs, the mobile versions are due to move from the current, 'D-0' core stepping to a new one, 'E-0', later this year. Intel will begin sampling E-0 MP4s in July ahead of their introduction on 1 October.

The change will require a BIOS update, according to documentation seen by The Register. But "no significant changes are expected in electrical and thermal specifications relative to the D-0 stepping", the document claims.

The new version of the core will "incorporate power optimizations to enable speed enhancements", the documentation reveals. There is no indication that the chips will be granted 64-bit EM64T support.

The chips in line for the upgrade are the three MP4s launched on 2 June: the 518, 532 and 538, clocked at 2.8, 3.0 and 3.2GHz, respectively. All three contain 1MB of L2 cache, and provide HyperThreading support, SSE 3 and SpeedStep power-conservation technology. ®

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