Pentium 4 notebook chips on way

The general manager of Intel's mobile platforms group said today that the firm has plans to deploy Pentium 4 technology for the mobile market.

But chips utilising the technology seem to be a fair way off, with Frank Spindler refusing to be drawn on a launch date.

Meanwhile, he showed a roadmap confirming our earlier reports that Intel has 800MHz, 850MHz, 1GHz and 1GHz plus versions of its Pentium III mobile platform slated for this year and early next. The 800 and 850MHz parts will arrive this autumn, while the 1GHz and higher speeds are expected to arrive early next year.

Spindler said that while there were no major developments in power management at this IDF, a number of new technologies and improvements to existing technologies were being explained to delegates. Those included an extension of the Smbus in the form of version 2.0, Smart Battery Accuracy guidelines, a new ACPI specification, and changes to voltage regulation technology.

Meanwhile, the Bluetooth group seems to have sorted out its little problem with the French military, which had some of the group's radio spectrum.

According to Intel, the group recently met with a French colonel and an agreement has been reached, which will take effect in 2001.

Intel also showed us a Bluetooth USB based antenna, which it said was under development.

While there are still issues with interconnectivity between different vendors at their famous Bluetooth plugfests, Intel now believes we will see real products based on the wireless technology early next year.

The IEEE standards body has adopted Bluetooth and formed an 802.15 group, while it has also formed an 805.15.2 group to study co-existence with other standards, Intel said. ®

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