Centrino 4th generation supports 800 MHz FSB speed

The platform for a Centrino laptop called Santa Rosa, launched in the first half of 2007, will be based on Merom technology, the first mobile device chip developed under Intel's new architecture.

Merom, which is expected to be released in the third quarter of this year, is part of the Napa-Centrino 3rd-generation platform. At the time of release, the Merom chip will still maintain Napa's 667 MHz speed but in Santa Rosa, the FSB will rise to 800 MHz. Meron has 4 MB L2 cache while Core Duo is 2 MB.

Santa Rosa will include Crestine, the next product of the chipset set for Express 945GM and 945PM mobile devices (same Napa). In addition, it also has Kedron, Intel's new generation WLAN chipset.

Meanwhile, Intel is also ready to introduce two 65 nm Celeron D chips for desktops, codes 352 and 356. Based on Cedar Mill chip technology (single-core 65 nm chip), the new Celeron will be available. 512MB L2 cache memory, double the current Celeron D line. However, like Celeron D, the two new models still work at FSB 533 MHz and support 64 bit computing.

Celeron will be released at the same time as the 671 (the Pentium 4 chip from Cedar Mill) in the second quarter of this year, clocked at 3.8 GHz, similar in 670 and 672 based on Prescott. 671 will support multithreading (HT) but no virtualization technology like 672.