Intel Reveals Details of a Chip for Laptops
Seeking to stay relevant in a world of evolving technology, Intel Corp. on Monday revealed new details of a chip it will introduce next year designed just for laptops, the only bright spot in an otherwise grim computer market.
Called Banias, the chip is more than just a new product. For Intel, Banias is a costly stab at keeping up with a new era of computing, one in which consumers will be less reliant on their desktops, Intel’s traditional stronghold. Instead, Intel envisions consumers using a panoply of devices designed to be always on, portable and wireless.
With PC sales expected to grow a mere 1.8% this year, Intel is experimenting with a variety of chips to power a range of products, from cell phones and servers to ultralight notebook computers and complex networking equipment. The laptop market is expected to grow 11% this year, according to estimates from IDC, a technology research firm.
Developed in Israel, Banias focuses less on raw megahertz and more on features that matter to laptop users such as built-in wireless Internet access capabilities and lower power consumption to extend battery life.
“The holy grail of computing is being able to run your notebook all day on a single battery charge,” said Mike Feibus, principal analyst with Tech Knowledge Strategies. “We’re moving a lot closer to that ideal with Banias.”
Banias, due out in the first three months of 2003, is expected to boost battery life by at least an hour, said Anand Chandrasekher, Intel’s vice president of mobile chips. The microprocessor moderates the power it consumes by shutting down parts of the chip that aren’t being used. The technique, called aggressive clock gating, is similar to turning off the lights in unoccupied rooms.
It also bundles commonly used instructions to aid faster processing. In addition, Banias is expected to make more efficient predictions of what calculations will be required, said Peter Glaskowsky, editor of Microprocessor Report.
“To boost performance, the Pentium 4 does work before it needs to, based on speculation,” Glaskowsky said. “If it’s right, it boosts your speed. But if it’s wrong, it has to throw that work away. The more work you throw away, the more battery life you waste.”
For Intel, which supplies the semiconductors that power more than 90% of the world’s laptops, Banias is a response to efforts by rival Transmeta Corp. to deliver low-heat chips that prolong battery life. Intel’s initial reaction was to introduce in 2001 the “speed-step” feature to its chips, which operate at a lower clock rate when the laptop is unplugged to save energy.
The most significant difference is the fact that Banias will be manufactured using a new process that shrinks the size of the chip’s circuit to 90 nanometers, roughly one-third smaller than Intel’s current chips. In general, the smaller the chip, the less energy it uses.
Until now, Intel reconfigured desktop chips for laptops. But that posed problems. Desktop chips are powerful, but they burn through batteries. Desktop chips also heat up fast and require fans and heat sinks to keep them from overheating, which adds bulk and weight.
Banias probably will debut at speeds far lower than its Pentium siblings for laptops. For Intel, which has dominated the PC market by relentlessly increasing the speed of its semiconductors, Banias will be a marketing shift.
Intel’s president, Paul Otellini, said the company will trumpet “all of its features,” from battery life and speed to its integrated wireless capabilities via a standard called 802.11, being rolled out at airports, hotels and coffee shops.
“Intel is building a wireless future where we carry communicators to check e-mail everywhere--at home, at the gas station, at the Starbucks,” Feibus said. “Wireless communication will do for the computer what cellular did for phones.”
Also Monday, Intel announced plans to integrate security features into its microprocessors.
Shares of Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel fell 14 cents to $16.08 on Nasdaq.
