At the Microprocessor Forum here, Intel also stated its plan to introduce separate mobile CPUs by 2002 or 2003, a move that would allow the company to meet the shift in demand from full-sized notebooks to thinner and lighter systems that place a greater premium on lower power and heat dissipation.

Within the next two years, so-called "thin and light" segment will account for 60 percent of the notebook volume, while full-sized notebooks will account for 30 percent, said Bob Jackson, principal engineer for Intel's mobile platform group, in a Forum presentation.

By this time, Intel will have a processor for full-sized notebooks and a second processor for thin and light, mini-, and sub-notebooks. The processor for the lighter end of the spectrum will geared for low- and ultra-low voltage scaling techniques, Jackson said.

In the meantime, Intel will continue to leverage its 0.18-micron process technology to increase frequency in full-featured notebooks while scaling the voltage down below 1-V for sub-notebooks. By the first half of 2001, Intel will be able to push its processor speed to 1-Ghz for full-sized and thin and light system, in which the average power dissipation is 1.5-watts. Currently, the company's fastest Mobile Pentium III runs at 850-MHz.

Within the same timeframe, the company will introduce 700 and 750-MHz Pentium IIIs for mini-notebooks in which average power dissipation is less than 1-watt. These processors will also be manufactured using 0.18-micron process technology.Using the same process, Intel will scale the power supply voltage to the 1-V range and introduce by mid-2001 500- and 600-MHz CPUs for sub-notebooks that dissipate 500-milliwatts or less. These systems will use a low-power 440MX chipset that will dissipate an average of 450-mW. The chipset and the 500-MHz processor combined will dissipate 850-mW, Jackson said.

Leveraging process technology
Intel will introduce its 0.13-micron process by the first half of 2001, which will enable the company to push processor performance beyond 1-GHz in the full-featured segment and beyond 700-MHz for sub-notebooks.

Beyond process technology improvements, Intel is looking at new ways to scale the voltage of its processors. Currently, Intel uses a method to throttle the voltage to a level just above the minumum operating voltage when the processor is idle, and then quickly bring it back up when it becomes active again.

Intel's next step is to introduce a third "deeper sleep" stage, where the voltage falls below the minimum operating voltage, Jackson said. The voltage will then jump back into active mode when the need arises."We're saving power both in active mode and idle mode," Jackson said.

Because power is proportional to the voltage, the processor should execute at high frequency and at the lowest voltage possible, and then quickly return to sleep mode. "You should always be running at the lowest voltage for better battery life," Jackson said.