Don't buy a Centrino until June

IF YOU'RE THINKING OF waltzing down to your local computer shop today and spending money on a new Centrino notebook, just hold your horses.

Because chip giant Intel is not only introducing new frequencies of this chip this summer, but is dropping the price of existing microprocessors in early June.

Although the microprocessor - the "brains of a computer" - is only one component in the overall mix, it remains one of the most expensive parts, still.

Here's how the Pentium M chip is looking clock speed wise until this time next year. Note that the "price" column is a kind of an average for the frequency speeds - some manufacturers will vary the spec to include bigger screens, bells, whistles and goodness knows what else.

Price	Q2 2003	Q3 2003	Q4 2003	Q1 2004	Q2 2004
$3000 plus	1.70GHz	1.70GHz	1.80GHz	1.90GHz	2GHz
$2500 plus	1.60GHz	1.60GHz	1.70GHz	1.80GHz	1.90GHz
$2000 plus	1.50GHz	1.50GHz	1.60GHz	1.70GHz	1.80GHz
$1400 plus	1.40, 1.30GHz	1.40, 1.30GHz	1.40, 1.50GHz	1.50, 1.60GHz	1.60, 1.70GHz
Low Voltage	1.10GHz	1.20GHz	1.20GHz	1.30GHz	1.30GHz+
UltraLV	900MHz	1GHz, 900MHz	1GHz, 900MHz	1GHz, 1GHz+	1GHz+, 1.10GHz+

Starting Q1 next year, the Pentium M processors will be produced using a 90 nanometer process.

On the 1st of June, the 1.70GHz Pentium M is slated to launch at $640, the 1.60GHz will drop to $423, the 1.60GHz will drop to $442, the 1.50GHz will fall to $295 and the 1.40GHz will fall to $261.

When the 1.80GHz is launched in October, probably, it will cost $640, the 1.70GHz will drop to $423, the 1.60GHz to $295, the 1.50GHz to $241, and the 1.40GHz to $209.

Remember that if you want to use 802.11a, you will have to wait for a while. The alternative is to find a notebook manufacturer who is using the Pentium M but not going for the whole Centrino bundle.

This might be harder than it first appears - that's because Intel's marketing dollars are supporting the entire package of chipset, semiconductor and wireless kit.

If you want to use 802.11g, you'll have to wait until next year, it appears. µ