Intel this week launched its Centrino technology, designed to improve the performance and battery life of laptops.

Vendors including Toshiba, Dell, IBM, Samsung and Sony are launching new systems based on Centrino, but some are also offering wireless capabilities other than those specified by Intel.

These moves add to the range of mobile choices already available to companies, and may force IT departments to support drivers and disk images for yet another Intel platform.

The Centrino label covers a new processor, the Pentium M, plus two 855 chipset options, and an Intel wireless local area network (Lan) solution. A laptop must have all three to carry the Centrino brand.

"To be compliant, [a laptop] must have Pentium M, Intel wireless Lan and one of the two chipsets. You can't call it Centrino otherwise," said Simon Muchmore, a technical marketing engineer at Intel.

But Intel's wireless solution only supports the 802.11b standard operating at 11Mbps.

The Pentium M chip at the heart of Centrino is available now at speeds of 1.6GHz, 1.5GHz, 1.4GHz and 1.3GHz, and with 1.1GHz low-voltage and 900MHz ultra low-voltage versions.

Centrino is not a version of the Pentium 4, but was designed from scratch to offer good performance while extending battery life, according to Intel.

"Thin and light laptops are the 'sweet spot' for Centrino," said Muchmore.

Although early tests in the labs at vnunet.com's sister title IT Week have not shown much increase in battery life, some vendors are describing Centrino as a big step forward.

"It makes a huge difference in battery life," said Adrian Horne, ThinkVantage specialist for IBM. Horne claimed that the new ThinkPads can last for up to nine hours with extended battery packs.

Intel has said that Centrino laptops with standard batteries should run for four to five hours.

Power saving extends to a new mobile chipset, which manages up to 2GB of double data rate memory with aggressive use of power-down when idle.

Two versions are shipping. The 855GM has integrated Intel Extreme graphics functions, while the 855PM links to a separate graphics chip. Both consume about half the power of current 845 mobile chipsets.