Pentium M Dual Core in January 2006 - Summary of the Intel Mobile Roadmap

Pentium M Dual Core in January 2006 / Summary of the Intel Mobile Roadmap

With the flurry of new products from Intel coming up, we thought it best to recap a little bit on a CPU that is our personal favorite: Yonah. Intel will be introducing this highly anticipated dual core Pentium M CPU in January 2006. Yonah is based on the 65nm process technology. For the first few months of next year, it will coexist with the current Pentium M generation codenamed Dothan (based on the 90nm process technology). The Yonah based Pentium M's core also has architectural improvements for better SSE and floating point performance, two major weak points of the Dothan based Pentium M.

Intel currently identifies its dual core Pentium M series by using the letter "x" followed by the two digits. The chips with a leading "x" do not have a digit assigned to them yet, although we're already hearing some OEMs call these chips the "800" series. That will be a little odd, as there will be overlap with the already existing Pentium D line. However, Intel has done this in the past with the Celeron M and Desktop Celeron parts, so placing the chips in the 800 series seems likely.

Pentium M Roadmap
CPU Model	Codename	Clock (GHz)	Cores	FSB (MHz)	Launch
TBD	Merom	TBD	2	667	2H'06
x60	Yonah	2.33	2	667	2H'06
x58	Yonah LV	1.83	2	667	2H'06
x50	Yonah	2.16	2	667	Jan'06
x48	Yonah LV	1.66	2	667	Jan'06
x40	Yonah	2	2	667	Jan'06
x38	Yonah LV	1.5	2	667	Jan'06
x30	Yonah	1.83	2	667	Jan'06
x20	Yonah	1.66	2	667	Jan'06
780	Dothan	2.26	1	533	Jul'05
778	Dothan LV	1.6	1	400	Jul'05
773	Dothan ULV	1.3	1	400	Jan'06
766	Yonah	1.83	1	667	2H'06
756	Yonah	1.66	1	667	Jan'06
TBD	Yonah ULV	1.2	1	533	Q2'06
TBD	Yonah ULV	1.06	2	533	2H'06
TBD	Yonah ULV	1.06	1	533	Q2'06

The mainstream Pentium M dual core CPUs to be introduced in January will range from the 1.66GHz (Pentium M x20) to the 2.16GHz (Pentium M x50), similar in speed to all but the fastest current single core Pentium M CPUs. Intel will also be introducing two low voltage (LV) Pentium M dual core CPUs, the x38 (1.5GHz) and the x48 (1.66GHz), for the thin and light notebook and tablet PC markets. The front bus speed (FSB) for these new Pentium M CPUs will also be increased from 533 to 667.

Intel has not yet indicated if these dual cores will include Intel's Virtualization Technology (VT), but roadmaps did state that VT will be available in future Pentium M dual core CPUs such as the x60 (2.33GHz) and LV X58 (1.83GHz), currently scheduled to be released in H2'06. As with most of the Dothan Pentium Ms, all Yonah based Pentium M's will also have XD (Execute Disable Bit), EIST (Enhanced Intel Speedstep® Technology) and a 2MB L2 cache. The L2 cache for a dual core Pentium M will be shared between both cores, unlike the current Pentium D and Athlon X2 designs.

Unlike AMD's Turion mobile CPU, the Yonah based Pentium M's will not have 64 bit capability - at least initially. 64-bit will have to wait until the second half of 2006 with the arrival of the second-generation dual core Pentium M CPUs, codenamed Merom. Merom also doubles the L2 cache to 4MB. If you aren't aware, Merom is really just the mobile version of the new Conroe architecture that Intel recently announced, so it will have all of the other architectural changes planned for Conroe, and likely some low power performance tweaks as well.

Although dual-core will be the primary focus of the Yonah based Pentium M CPUs, there will also be a few single core versions of this CPU. Intel continues with the existing Pentium M numbering scheme for these CPUs, starting with the Pentium M 756 (1.66GHz) scheduled to be released in January, followed by the Pentium M 766 (1.83GHz) in H2 '06. They will not include VT.

The ULV Pentium M Yonah based CPUs, aimed at the imbedded market, will be introduced in the second half of '06. They are still unnamed, but will be 1.06GHz in both single and dual core and 1.2GHz in single core only. They will have an FSB of 533 and a 2MB L2 cache.

Celeron M Roadmap
CPU Model	Codename	Clock (GHz)	Cores	FSB (MHz)	Launch
430	Yonah	TBD	1	533	2H'06
423	Yonah	TBD	1	533	Jan'06
420	Yonah	TBD	1	533	2H'06
410	Yonah	TBD	1	533	Jan'06
390	Dothan	1.6	1	400	Jan'06

The Celeron M 410 and the Celeron M ULV 423 CPUs, based on the Yonah single core, will be released in Q1 of 2006. Clock speed has not yet been determined for these CPUs. The main difference from the Dothan based Celeron M is the increase of the FSB from 400 to 533 and the improved core. In 2H '06, the Celeron M 420 and 430 will also be released.

The last two Dothan based M chips will also be released in January '06. They are the Pentium M 773 ULV (1.3GHz) and the Celeron M 390 (1.7GHz). Intel will price the Pentium M dual core processors competitively with the existing single core Pentium M, for a rapid transition from single core to dual core. The dual core Pentium M, with the dual core AMD Turion, will ensure that the notebook market will not be left behind in the dual core revolution.

Mobile Chipsets

There are four new mobile chipsets for the new Yonah based Pentium M CPUs. The two high performance chipsets are the 945PM and the 945GM, the difference being that the 945GM adds the Intel's GMA 950 (Graphic Media Accelerator). These two chipsets have a PCIe x16 connection, and support an FSB of 533/667MHz and up to 4GB of 533/667 dual channel DDR2 RAM. These chipsets will be released in January 2006.

Besides the high performance chipsets, Intel will also be offering a couple of lower-end chipsets. The third chipset is the 945GMS. This chipset supports an FSB of 533/667MHz with a single channel of DDR2-533 RAM. This will be released in Q2 '06 and is aimed primarily at small designs such as tablet PCs. The last chipset, the 945GML, will also be released in Q2 '06. This is a value chipset supporting an FSB of 533MHz and up to 2GB of DDR2-400 memory, again in single-channel operation. It will have the Intel's GMA 950 video solution, but will not have a PCIe x16 connection.