Dothan 2GHz (755) Pentium M to arrive in May

YES IT'S ALL change on the gravy train because Intel has changed sensible MHz and GHz figures not only on its desktop products but on the Pentium M products too.

Recent roadmaps seen by the INQ at the usual place show that it's likely its 2MB Dothan 90 nanometre version of the Pentium M will be introduced on the 9th of May. That chip is called the 755, and we hope you're getting as used to these numbers as we're going to have to be soon.

The 755 will cost $640 when you buy a thousand of the little beasties, and will have a 400MHz front side bus, although that's set to change later this year, when the 533MHz bus will be applied to the Pentium M family.

The Dothan 755 chip - delayed from earlier this year because of an architectural glitch - is a 2GHz microprocessor and has 2MB of cache. Intel is throwing out all of the previous 130 nanometre chips and hopes to sell all Dothans during the second quarter.

Here's how the Pentium M Dothan chip roadmaps look like until Q1 of next year - and we're providing you an explanation if you need to check what the numbers mean below.

	Q2 04	Q3 04	Q4 04	Q1 2005
$3000+	755	755	770	770
$2,500+	745	745	755/760	760
$2,000+	735	735	745/750	750
$1,400+		725/715	735,740,725, 730	740,730

A 770 is a 90 nano 2.13GHz chip at 533, a 760 a 2GHz chip at 533, a 755 a 2GHz Pentium M at 400, a 750 a 1.86GHz Dothan at 533, a 745 a 1.80GHz with 400MHz bus, a 740 a 1.73GHz with 533 bus, a 735 a 400MHz 1.70GHz Pentium M, a 730 a 1.60GHz Dothan with 533MHz bus, a 725 a 1.60GHz with 400MHz bus and a 715 a 1.50GHz Dothan with a 400MHz front side bus. All have 2MB of level two cache.

Confused? You will be in a minute.

Intel will also designate its performance LV (low voltage) and performance ultra low voltage (ULV) with numbers too.

The 753 is a 1.50GHz 400MHz LV chip, the 733 a 1.40GHz chip of the same LV type.

The 758 is a 1.20GHz 400MHz system bus ULV chip, the 738 a 400MHz Dothan 1.10GHz chip, and the 718 is a humble Banias 1.10GHz chip wit a 400MHz front side bus.

The 733 is due in Q3, the 753 in Q1 next year. The 738 and 718 are due in Q3, the 758 in Q1 of next year.

Confused? There's also Celeron M chips and they've all got numbers too. The Dothan versions of these will come out in Q3 at speeds of 1.50GHz (370). µ