Intel's next-generation Centrino platform, codenamed 'Napa', not only consumes rather less power than its predecessor does, but is faster and has garnered a greater degree of industry support, the chip giant claimed this week.

According to Keith Kressin, a marketing director within Intel's Mobility Group, Napa will form the basis for at least 230 systems, more than the previous generation of the platform, 'Sonoma'.

Why? A greater interest in mobile products, for one, but also because Napa consumes 28 per cent less power than today's top-of-the-range Sonoma-based notebooks, Kressin claimed. That's a result of the use of a 65nm process to make the CPU, 'Yonah', but it also arises from the tweaks made to the chip's sleep modes and its cache infrastructure.

The dual-core Yonah will also deliver a 30-100 per cent performance boost over 90nm, single-core 'Dothan' Pentium M chips, Kressin said.

"Napa offers substantially improved performance at the same time that we have this better battery life," he told reporters.

Napa is due to debut early next year - possibly as soon as 6 January, if claims made by industry sources prove correct. ®

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• Intel prices up 65nm dual, single-core 'Yonah' (3 January 2006)
• NEC unveils first 'Yonah' notebook (20 December 2005)
• Intel Viiv, 'Centrino 3' launch dates leak (12 December 2005)
• Intel's 'Yonah' benchmarked (30 November 2005)
• Exclusive Intel preps two-stage 'Napa' retail roll-out (22 November 2005)
• IDF Intel to bring Lakeport graphics to Napa (23 August 2005)
• Roadmap Intel's 'Yonah' to supersede 'Dothan' Q2 06 (8 August 2005)
• Intel 'ditches' high-end 'Centrino 3' chipset (12 July 2005)