Anywhere Computing with Laptops. Making Mobile Easier

This section looks in more detail at two of the components of the Intel Centrino mobile technology platformthe Intel Pentium M processor and the surrounding Intel chipsets (855 and 915).

Intel Pentium M Processor

The Intel Pentium M provides many advanced features including

• A micro architecture including power-optimized 400MHz or 533MHz processor system bus, Micro-Ops Fusion, and Dedicated Stack Manager for faster execution of instructions at lower power

• Normal, Low Voltage (LV), and Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) processor models to assist laptop designers in meeting their goals for performance and battery life

• Advanced instruction prediction to reduce re-dos for increased performance

• Support for Enhanced Intel SpeedStep technology with multiple voltage and frequency operating points, enabling a better match of performance to application demand

• Support for Intel Mobile Voltage Positioning, which dynamically lowers voltage based on processor activity to lower thermal design power enabling smaller notebooks

• Low power technologies

• 1MB power managed L2 cache increasing system performance

The Intel Pentium M is provided in many different models, with model numbers currently ranging from 715 to 770. These models feature 90nm and 130nm process technology, L2 cache, and clock speeds from 1.32.13GHz. The Pentium M series supports up to 2GB of DDR SDRAM or 2GB of DDR2 SDRAM, depending on the supporting chipset employed.

Intel 855 Chipset

The Intel 855 chipset family is part of Intel Centrino mobile technology and is designed to deliver excellent performance with lower demands for power (important in a mobile computer). There are a number of sub-chipsets that are part of the Intel 855 chipset family, including

• The Intel 855PM chipset is a discrete memory controller hub.

• The Intel 855GM chipset is an integrated graphics memory controller hub.

• The Intel 855GME chipset is a graphics memory controller hub featuring a highly integrated mobile solution optimized to support the Intel Pentium M processor.

Intel 855GM Chipset

The Intel 855GM Chipset graphics memory controller hub (GMCH-M) is a highly integrated mobile chipset solution that has been optimized to support the Intel Pentium M processor, high speed DDR memory, and a Hub interface. In addition to this, the Intel 855GM chipset provides integrated graphics capabilities.

Intel 855PM Chipset

The Intel 855PM Chipset memory controller hub (MCH-M) is a mobile chipset solution that has been optimized to support the Intel Pentium M processor, high speed DDR memory, and a Hub interface. This chipset has an AGP 4X interface and provides flexible support for high performance discrete graphics solutions.

Intel 855GME Chipset

The Intel 855GME chipset graphics memory controller hub (GMCH-M) is a component of Intel Centrino mobile technology. The chipset is a highly integrated mobile solution optimized to support the Intel Pentium M processor, high speed DDR memory, and a Hub interface.

Intel 915 Express Chipset

The Intel 915 Express chipset family is the second-generation Centrino supporting chipset with several important improvements over the original Intel 855 chipset family. These improvements include

• Support for Intel Pentium M processors with 533MHz Front Side Bus (FSB)

• Support for higher-speed DDR2 SDRAM

• Support for the new PCI Express standard

• Support for Serial ATA (SATA) as well as IDE disk drives

• Intel High-Definition Audio

• The Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 video controller