PIONEER COMPUTERS IN Australia seem to be the first retailers offering a notebook based on Intel's "Montevina" Centrino 2 processor and new ATI graphics, with their release, today, of the Dreambook Style 9008.

The 9008 boasts Intel’s Centrino 2 platform (previously known by the name Montevina), which includes the 45nm Penryn Core 2 Duo processor, ATI Radeon M82 graphics, as well as a maximum RAM size of 4GB,120-420GB Hard Disk and 15.4" TFT display.

The Centrino 2 Platform is supposed to be smaller and more heat and energy efficient, which is good news for battery life, but the platform wasn’t scheduled for release until June 3, at Computex, Taipei.

Intel will the then follow up its release in September with more chips, including its first quad-core mobile processor. That doesn’t seem to be holding Pioneer back now though.

The notebook’s specs are listed as including Thermal Design Power of 25 watts, 1066 MHz front-side bus and comes complete with a Cantiga PM45 northbridge and ICH9M southbridge. The ATI graphics in the notebook is an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3400 series chip, and the hard disk drive is a 2.5-inch 320GB with a solid state drive option.

Apparently the notebook is available on pre-order from AUS$1399.

L’Inq
Pioneer Computers