Intel Roadmap Update: Mobile and Server Edition

Going along with the recently announced addition of the 6xx series of Pentium processors in Intel's latest roadmap update, we have the latest information on their Mobile and Server chips as well. Things are a little less dramatic in these sectors, with no major name changes or additions being announced. You can compare this with our last update on the mobile sector from July 2004.

Starting in the mobile sector, we have a couple updated launch dates as well as some new additions to the Celeron M and Mobile P4 sectors. You might recall, Intel currently has four different mobile lines. The high-end parts are the Pentium M, with a value counterpart called the Celeron M, and then there are the mobile variants of the Pentium 4 platform, dubbed the Mobile Pentium 4 and the Mobile Intel Celeron Processor. The Celeron M 380 has a targeted launch date of Q2'05, and Intel has also added a new Mobile Pentium 4 Processor, the 548. The remainder of the lineup for the mobile sector remains virtually unchanged.

With the last update, Intel also added support for the execute disable (XD) bit across their entire product line. This corresponds to the NX bit from AMD. Previously announced parts without the XD support will continue to be sold for some time, and the XD versions will have a "J" suffix. Future processors will only come in XD flavors and may lack the "J" suffix. Similar to the Celeron "A" chips, the "J" is only used when there is overlap with an existing processor.

We will include the complete range of upcoming processors in the charts below, while omitting many of the processors that have been shipping for a while. Please refer to our CPU Cheatsheet if you're looking for details on older processors.

There's not a whole lot new to say about the Pentium M roadmap. A few processors have been pushed back to Q1'05, and we continue to see several future processors that will not include the XD support. The only explanation would seem to be that Intel has already started production of these parts even though they are not yet available. Notice that all the 533 FSB Dothan parts include the "J" suffix while the 400 FSB parts do not.

The latest Celeron M chips are based off of the Dothan core, only with 1 MB of L2 cache instead of the full 2 MB. While we don't have any specific performance numbers yet, larger caches, especially in the mobile sector, do not necessarily improve performance a lot. This means that the "value" Celeron M mobile chips should be pretty similar in performance to the Banias platform, provided all other components are the same. This is good news for those interested in less expensive laptops.

Somewhat less exciting is the release schedule for these chips. You can see the only addition to the Celeron M platform is the 380 part, which will include the XD bit but lacks the "J" suffix (similar to the 370 part). While performance should be close to that of the Banias 1.6 GHz part, it will not hit the market until the middle of next year. Right now, there is little competition for the Celeron M and Pentium M chips, and so Intel is in no rush to push faster chips into the market. Love it or loath it, it's simply good business sense. (Yes, the Athlon 64 is available in lower power DTR versions, but right now Intel owns the lion's share of the performance mobile market.)

Intel seems to be phasing out the mobile P4 and Celeron chips, as there are fewer planned launches in this segment. No parts are listed for Q2'05 and beyond, so that may be the end of the line. We also see the new addition of the P4 548 part, with availability planned for the end of this month. This part was most likely added due to OEM demand. This will be a 3.33 GHz Prescott chip, taking up position between the already released 538 and the upcoming 552 parts. Since the 552 part isn't scheduled for release until Q1'05, OEMs probably felt that five or so months with no new Mobile P4s was too long.

One last thing worth mentioning on the Mobile front is the upcoming chipsets Intel has planned. In Q3 or Q4 of 04, Intel will launch a tri-band chipset, something many never expected from Intel. 802.11a uses the less common 5.2 GHz radio frequency, which gave it superior transfer rates and less congestion but at the same time limited range. Intel has apparently seen enough demand for 802.11a support that they are now including it in their Intel Pro/Wireless 2915ABG chipset. Then, in Q1'05, Intel has the 815GM, 915PM, 915GMS, and 910GML "Express Chipsets" scheduled for launch. The 910GML is slated for the value Celeron M platform, but all chipsets will include support for PCI Express, obviously in a different package than the desktop PCIe slots. The 915 chipsets will also bring 533 FSB support to the Pentium M platform, which is arguably the more useful technology.