Notebook News: Intel "Napa" Platform, Sierra & Intel, New Microsoft Mouse, Car Computers

Intel Announces "Napa" platform that Will Include a Dual-Core Pentium M Processor

Intel has announced it will move forward on its mobility Centrino wireless solution with a chipset codenamed "Napa". Intel's Centrino platform is currently based on the Dothan platform. With the introduction of the "Napa" there will be a dual-core mobile processor, this particular dual-core processor is being dubbed "Yonah". Of course, who knows when these chips will actually see the light of day because before these arrive Intel will be releasing it's new Centrino platform codenamed "Sonoma", with a 533 MHz front-side bus,sometime during the first quarter of 2005. Sonoma was supposed to have arrived in Fall of 2004.

Another interesting announcement from Intel came from the VP of Intel's Mobile Platform group, Anand Chandrasekher,

"Let's not forget that to be truly mobile, we have to focus on removing plugs too, and Intel is working with the industry on a platform approach to achieve the goal of eight-hour battery life by 2010," said Anand Chandrasekher, vice president and general manager of Intel's Mobile Platforms Group. "The industry is already addressing some of these challenges via the Mobile PC Extended Battery Life Working Group and today's release of ACPI specification v.3.0, but further industry cooperation and work is needed."

More: Intel Announcment Release

Sierra Wireless and Intel to Team Up on Wireless Products

Sierra Wireless, the maker of popularwireless modems for notebook computers, announced onWednesday it will team up with Intel Corp. the No.1 computer chip company, to integrate products. Sierra said the two companies would work to ensure Sierra's AirCard wireless modem would work seamlessly with the Centrino line of notebook computer chips. The duo will also collaborate on the development of wireless local area networking and wireless wide area networking products.

More: http://olympics.reuters.com/aitoolkit/aitArticle.jhtml?type=hotStocksNews&storyID=6185353

Microsoft to Release New Wireless Mouse for Notebook Computers

In its annual refresh of its computer input hardware, the world's largest software maker also introduced a new small wireless mouse designed for laptop computers and keyboards with a zoom slider bar to shrink or enlarge digital text or photographs.

More: http://money.cnn.com/2004/09/08/technology/microsoft.reut/

Computer on Board, and It's Not a Laptop

You're driving around in your car, and all of a sudden you hear a "You've got new e-mail". Could this be you have a laptop in your car that's connected to the internet somehow and just downloaded email? Well, maybe, but it could also be coming form a CarBot. What's a CarBot? Well, it's a Windows XP computer that can sit under the passenger seat that's about the size of a 3-inch stack of paper. The email that is downloaded can then be read to you or shown on a screen that sits on top of the dashboard. Damien Stolarz is the 30-year-old founder of the company CarBot that wants to install a Windows XP computer in your car to control functions such as navigation, e-mail and entertainment devices.

More: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/09/technology/circuits/09carb.html