Intel Doubles Down on Laptops

The latest Centrino, known as Santa Rosa, is actually a combination of several different electronic components known as a platform. At the heart of the notebook platform is Intel's Core 2 duo microprocessor, which the company says has been tweaked for optimal performance and power savings.

Santa Rosa features a new version of the so-called chipset, which shuttles the data between a microprocessor and the PC's memory, and also features an integrated graphics accelerator.

Also new is a wireless chip based on the 802.11n standard, which provides greater throughput and range than the previous Wi-Fi standard. Intel said it plans to support an even faster wireless standard, dubbed WiMax, later in the year through an optional add-in card for notebooks.

PC makers can also incorporate 512 megabytes or 1 gigabyte of NAND flash memory onto a notebook's motherboard, an option which Intel says will speed up the time it takes to boost a computer by 20% and launch software applications twice as fast.

With sales of notebook PCs growing significantly faster than desktop PCs, establishing a strong foothold within notebooks is vital for success in the microprocessor business.

While Intel has traditionally dominated the notebook market, the company cannot afford to cede any ground to rival Advanced Micro Devices(AMD) .

"Intel is focusing their resources to make sure that AMD does not do to them on laptops what they did to them on desktops," says industry analyst Rob Enderle.