Ready for dual-core notebooks? The media certainly was. At Singapore Hard Rock Cafe, Gary Willihnganz, director of Marketing for Intel Asia Pacific, officially launched the platform for Asia formerly codenamed Napa and dual-core Yonah processors. In conjunction with the announcement, partners of Intel used this opportunity to showcase their latest notebooks based on the new technology.

	Napa notebooks in a row.

The latest mobile technology was declared production-ready at CES 2006 in Las Vegas. Unlike its predecessor, the latest processor is split into two distinct product lines: The Core Duo and Core Solo. According to Intel, the Core Duo chip should deliver a 68 percent performance gain over the current Sonoma single-core processors and reduce battery consumption by 28 percent. By splitting computing tasks into two data streams, both processor cores are put to task which improves performance. The Core Solo chip is a cheaper single-core processor which handles data input in a single stream. At the same time, the chipset's front side bus speed has been boosted to 667MHz for quicker information transfer.

With plans to ship over a million units of the latest chips worldwide over the next three weeks, the new platform looks set to storm the market this year. Intel claims that over 230 notebook based on the Napa platform are slated for release, with Acer and Powermatic likely to be first to market. As Hyperthreading applications are already in use, these software are able to fully utilize the dual-core processors. Users looking for a 64-bit processor need not wait long as Intel has plans to release a 64-bit-capable Yonah chip by mid of 2006.

Notebooks based on the Napa platform.

Models	Specs	Category
Acer Aspire 5672WLMi	Core Duo T2300 1.66GHz; 15.4-inch widescreen LCD; 265MB ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 graphics; slot-loading DVD Super Multi drive	Mainstream
Acer TravelMate 8204WLMi	Core Duo T2500 2.0GHz; 15.4-inch widescreen LCD; 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 graphics; DVD Super Multi drive	Desktop Replacement
Asus A6J	Core Duo T2500 2.0GHz; 15.4-inch widescreen LCD; ATI Mobility Radeon X1600; DVD Super Multi drive	Thin-and-light
Dell Inspiron 9400	Core Duo T2600 2.16GHz; 17-inch widescreen LCD; Nvidia GeForce Go 7800; DVD DL drive	Desktop Replacement
Fujitsu LifeBook N3530	TBA	TBA
Fujitsu LifeBook N6410	Core Duo T2400 1.83GHz; 17-inch widescreen LCD; 265MB ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 graphics; DVD Super Multi drive	Desktop Replacement
HP Pavilion dv1000 series	TBA	TBA
Lenovo ThinkPad T60	Core Duo T2500 2.0GHz; 15-inch widescreen LCD; ATI Mobility Radeon X1300; DVD DL drive	Mainstream
LG M1 Express	Core Duo T2300 1.66GHz; 15-inch widescreen LCD; Integrated graphics; DVD Super Multi drive	Mainstream
NEC Versa S5200	Core Duo T2300 1.66GHz; 14.1-inch LCD; Integrated graphics; DVD Super Multi drive	Thin-and-light
Pluto B3100	Core Duo L2300 1.5GHz; 15.4-inch widescreen LCD; Integrated graphics; DVD /CDRW combo drive	Mainstream
Prestigio	TBA	TBA
Samsung X60	Core Duo T2300 1.66GHz; 15.4-inch widescreen LCD; 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon X1400; DVD Super Multi drive	Mainstream
Samsung R65	Core Duo T2300 1.66GHz; 15-inch widescreen LCD; Nvidia GeForce Go 7600; DVD Super Multi drive	Mainstream
Toshiba Satellite A100	Core Duo T2400 1.83GHz; 15.4-inch widescreen LCD; ATI Mobility Radeon X1400; DVD Super Multi drive	Mainstream

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