For many years mobile computing was perceived as a performance-compromised platform. The mobile PC was just a smaller, "portable" PC, and the perception was that it lacked the necessary performance and features. Intel^® Centrino^® mobile technology changed this position dramatically. Centrino brought uncompromised performance to a very small, thin and light form factor, while delivering the required mobility capabilities of long battery life and wireless connectivity. It redefined the notebook, creating a new category which is being wildly accepted by users. Before Centrino, notebook percentage of PCs was in its teens; post Centrino, this penetration is in the 30% range and growing.

The new Intel^® Centrino^® Duo mobile technology brings uncompromised performance to new heights. It delivers faster performance than many desktop computers shipping today while improving battery life and maintaining thermal cooling and small form factor. All this is possible due to the revolutionary technology implemented in the Intel^® Core™ Duo processor and its supporting platform components. The Intel Core Duo processor brings dual core to the notebook with "leap-ahead" performance. The processor is developed in 65 nm process technology, and delivers almost double the performance of a similar die size in the previous process generation.

Of notable distinction in the Intel Core Duo processor is its smart-shared cache and dual-core power management. Unlike other architectures, this processor is a complete redesign of the cache and bus interface unit. It implements a dual-port shared cache, which enables both cores to have access to the full cache. This enables threads to dynamically use the required cache capacity. As an extreme example, if one of the cores is inactive, the other core will have access to the full cache. It also enables very efficient sharing of data between threads running in different cores.

Especially challenging for the Intel Core Duo processor was the support of dual core while supporting Intel SpeedStep^® technology. Cores can be power-managed independently while coordinating their states for the support of deeper sleep. In deeper sleep, the cache is automatically flushed to memory and its voltage significantly lowered to sustaining transistor level. This is a huge benefit to battery life. These and many other innovations described in this issue’s articles make the difference between other dual-core processors and Intel Core Duo processor’s smart dual core optimized for notebooks.

The Intel Core Duo processor is the beginning of a family of Intel dual- and multi-core mobile processors. Merom, soon to be introduced in the latter half of 2006, is a significant revamp of Intel Core Duo processor’s microarchitecture, which is more focused on core enhancements, delivering performance improvements while maintaining power. Merom’s performance efficiency is so compelling that the processor will also be offered in desktops and DP servers. Those products are the genesis of a new era of energy-efficient computing. Future generations will continue enhancing the core capabilities and increasing the number of cores to new levels of power-efficient performance which will be necessary to execute the requirements of future applications.

This issue of Intel Technology Journal (Volume 10, Issue 2) examines in detail the Intel Core Duo processor capabilities as well as the chipset and wireless capabilities of the Intel Centrino Duo processor-based platform. I’m very proud to have led the outstanding team that developed those wonderful capabilities, which will transform our lives and are critical for Intel’s future success.