Intel is working to move its notebook customers from the Pentium 4-M to the newer Pentium M. The Pentium M, which uses less power and offers nearly as much performance, is at the heart of Intel's new Centrino family of chips for wireless notebooks. Most manufacturers are expected to adopt the Pentium M as the processor for their flagship notebook models. With this shift getting underway, Intel is expected to change the mission of the mobile Pentium 4. The chipmaker is expected to shift the mobile Pentium 4's focus from lightweight performance notebooks and use it to address desktop-style notebooks, sometimes called desknotes, which have become popular with consumers. Most of the desknotes available now use desktop Pentium 4 chips. To counter this trend, Intel will augment the Pentium 4-M with a new strain of mobile Pentium 4 chips, with clock speeds that are closer to its desktop processors. These chips, which will basically be desktop Pentium 4s in mobile packaging, will allow Intel to offer lower prices and higher clock speeds, and will support desktop features such as hyper-threading in notebooks. While it plans to offer the Pentium 4-M along with the new mobile Pentium 4 chips, Intel believes that most new notebook models will incorporate the Pentium M, the new mobile Pentium 4 chips or its Celeron processor. Intel's 2.5GHz Pentium 4-M costs $562 when purchased in 1,000-unit lots. The 2.2GHz Celeron lists for $149, and the 1.26GHz chip is $107.
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