Banias, Dothan chipsets get real Intel names

THE ODEM AND MONTARA family of notebook chipsets for the Banias and Dothan chips now have real Intel cognomens, indicating that the firm is on track for an early launch of the processors in Q1 next year.

The Banias microprocessor, "designed from the ground up", will be the performance notebook chip. Dothan, scheduled for introduction towards the end of next year, will be a 90 nanometers "die shrink" of this processor, so running faster and cooler.

Intel has divided the chipsets into two families - Mobility and Portability chipsets.

The 855GME was formerly called the Montara GM+, the 855GM used to be called the Montara GM, the 855PM was called Odem, the 825GME is the Montara GT, and the 825GM chipset used to be called the Montara GML.

What's the difference between all of these babies? The P suffix means the chipset will support discrete graphics with an AGP port, G stands for integrated graphics memory, M means it's a chipset for these type of new chips, and E means the chipset has enhanced features.

For example, the 825GME chipset supports the Pentium 4 (the Portability) family, and these will launch in June next year with speeds of 3.06GHz, 2.80GHz, 2.66GHz and 2.40GHz. A mobile "Prescott" (90 nanometer) chip using hyperthreading technology will launch in Q1 of 2004 and it will have 1MB of level two cache.

But Intel may introduce HT support for the P4 notebook chips at some point next year, it appears.

The Pentium 4 notebook chips fall into a new notebook category that Intel calls "Transportable" [Luggable? Ed.]. The other categories are full size, thin and light, mininotebook and subnotebook, slate. These sizes (form factors) will be supported by Banias/Dothan chips, by Pentium 4-M chips, and by Pentium-IIIM chips, although Intel now wants to move the world+dog to the Banias chip starting early next year. The clock speeds projected are unchanged from when we first published them earlier this year.

Just in case you get confused, Intel will continue selling "Celeron" notebook chips, as well. By Q3 of next year we'll have 2.30GHz/2.40GHz Celeron notebook chips, still using the 400MHz system bus, and having 128K of L2 cache. Core voltage should be 1.525 volts, by then.

For Pentium 4Ms, the forecast speeds are 2.40GHz in Q1, 2.50GHz in Q2, 2.60GHz in Q3 and 2.60GHz in Q4. All of these have 512K cache, but hyperthreading could be slotted in, we suspect, at almost any point.

A low voltage 1.10GHz Banias chip will be introduced in March next year at $260, while a 900MHz ultra low voltage Banias will cost $241.

Intel made some price adjustments on its Pentium III-Ms over the weekend, but the next price changes on these are on the 12th of January.

If Intel decides to introduce hyperthreading for Pentium 4Ms, it will do as it does with the desktop chips and add a $15 extra charge.

Intel hopes to convert sales of Pentium 4M notebook chips during the second half of next year to the Banias platform. µ

See Also
Pentium 4 chips to get 800MHz system buses, while Prescott delayed
Intel Roadmaps page