Intel Adds the Pro to Centrino Mobile Chips

Intel's Centrino Pro is the new brand that will combine Centrino's battery conservation and wireless connectivity with the vPro automated network security and remote troubleshooting. The Centrino Pro is designed for the business mobile PC user, and is designed to help Intel to grab a larger share of the growing mobile market.

This appears to be the right time for the introduction of the Centrino Pro technology as more and more buyers are choosing mobile versus desktop PCs. Intel launched vPro in September as a set of ingredients in desktop PCs sold by Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and other vendors. The system allows corporate IT managers to manage PC fleets remotely, fixing their software problems, monitoring security threats and even booting computers up without leaving their seats. That has made vPro-capable desktops popular with enterprise customers including 3M, BMW, ING, Johns Hopkins University, and Verizon Communications.

The Centrino Pro will improve on nearly every aspect of the original standard, holding the line on power consumption while upgrading the processor from single-core to Core 2 Duo, adding enough graphics processing power to handle Microsoft's Windows Vista OS and offering the option of "Turbo Memory," which can cut boot times up to 20 percent by supplementing the PC's hard disk with flash memory.