Intel’s Sonoma to Launch Next Week

” Intel plans to launch the second generation of its Centrino mobile processor platform at a January 19 event in San Francisco, the Santa Clara, California, company confirmed today. The new platform, code-named Sonoma, will include a new version of Intel’s Pentium M mobile processor, a new wireless chip, and a new chip set, which Intel says will have double the graphics performance of its current products.

Approximately 80 new notebook PCs based on the platform will begin shipping around the time of the launch, including products from Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Toshiba, Intel says. The total number of Sonoma systems is expected to grow to about 150 by year’s end, the company says.

At the heart of the platform will be a new generation of Intel’s Pentium M processor, code-named Dothan, which will have slightly faster clock speeds ranging up to 2.13 GHz, and as much as 2MB of on-chip memory. The fastest of these new processors, called the Pentium M 770, will be priced in the same range as Intel’s current top-of-the-line 2.1-GHz Pentium M 765, say sources familiar with Intel’s plans.”