Intel will unleash the new breed of Pentium M processors designed for high-performance low-power mobile computers after numerous delays on the 10^th of May, sources close to the company revealed recently. Apparently, the chip will not only have lower than expected power consumption, but will also boast with two technology advancements over the predecessor.

Intel Pentium M processor – the key-element of Intel Centrino mobile platform – is based on a micro-architecture specially tweaked for mobile applications that delivers high performance amid low power consumption to enable longer battery life in today’s mobile systems. General micro-architecture of the Pentium M more resembles that of the Pentium III rather than the inner design of the Pentium 4.

The initial implementation of the Pentium M – the chip code-named Banias – has some important advantages over the previous generation P6 architecture, such as support for SSE and SSE2, Advanced Branch Prediction, Micro-Op Fusion, Power Optimised Processor Bus, Dedicated Stack Manager technology as well as Enhanced Intel SpeedStep technology for optimized power consumption The second silicon implementation of the Pentium M processor is code-named Dothan and will enhance the lineup of Banias’ innovations with improved pre-fetch mechanisms as well as revamped system of access to CPU’s registers. Additionally, Dothan will integrate 2MB L2 cache, two times larger cache compared to Banias.

On the 10^th of May, 2004, Intel is expected to unveil Dothan processors at clock-speeds of 2.00GHz, 1.80GHz and 1.70GHz. The products will be branded as Pentium M 755, Pentium M 745 and Pentium M 735 respectively. The new Intel Pentium M processors will contain 140 million of transistors and will devour about 21W of power, sources told X-bit labs. Such power consumption is lower compared to today’s high-end Pentium M by about 3.5W, though, the information contradicts data from some notebook makers, who believed that Dothan will be more energy hungry.

Thanks to the 90nm process technology, Dothan’s die size will be 83.6 square millimeters - only slightly more compared to Banias chip’s die size. Banias is produced using more mature 130nm fabrication technology.

The first three Pentium M “Dothan” SKUs – 755, 745 and 735 – will be available in May for the price of $637, $423 and $294 per unit in business quantities respectively. In June Intel Corp. is projected to broaden the mobile 90nm offerings with Pentium M 725 and 715 SKUs.

Along with the introduction of the new chips, Intel will lower the prices on existing Pentium M processors at 1.70GHz, 1.60GHz and 1.50GHz to $294, $241 and $209 from today’s $423, $294 and $241 respectively.

The information is unofficial. Intel’s reps typically do not comment on unreleased products.