Why Centrino really is big news

Walk around the departure lounges of a lot of airports these days and amidst the crying toddlers, holiday-makers and crashed out backpackers it is common to see business people with laptops sneakily plugged into spare power sockets. They're also recognisable by having one eye on the approach of any Hoover-wielding cleaners.

The point is that getting on a flight, especially a long flight, with a fully juiced laptop is important. You may just be intending to play solitaire but it's important.

So the main notebook PC makers and the companies that supply them have for several years been trying to make units that are efficient, manageable and still powerful.

AMD announced several processors specifically for laptops this week, Transmeta has mainly designed for this market since its inception and Intel, most loudly, has released Pentium-M processors and its bundle called Centrino this week.

Centrino is a fundamental redesign of the chip giant's mobile architecture and includes a Pentium-M processor, 855PM and 855GM chipsets and integrated silicon for wireless LAN connectivity using the Wi-Fi standard. The company has called its launch as important as the Pentium's and is spending $300m to make sure we all know what it is and does.

The move clearly makes sense.

Consider too that many of those people sapping airport power are also users of public wireless LANs - and there will be 44 million such users in total worldwide by 2005, according to Gartner. Integrating Wi-Fi capability is a no-brainer and making sure devices don't run out of batteries quickly as a result of being wirelessly connected is also important.

A few years ago Intel introduced SpeedStep technology in some of its mobile processors. It allows a processor to operate at a higher clock speed when plugged in and a lower, more efficient speed when truly mobile. When this writer suggested the company invest in some battery companies assembled execs gave wry smiles. Now all know that hitting eight hours of battery life - a standard working day or the length of many long-haul flights - is a key goal.

All the major notebook providers, companies like Acer, Dell, HP, NEC and Toshiba, are unveiling Centrino-based products, and even though some won't use the full Centrino package for WLAN connectivity all the time, they know they're onto a winner.

Maybe some of us - sorry, some travellers - won't have to sneak power top-ups in airport terminals forever.