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Intel Centrino 2 due Monday: HP notebook makes appearance

The Centrino 2 processors are slated to roll out July 14. HP has posted specifications on an upcoming "Montevina" Centrino 2 notebook.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
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Brooke Crothers
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Update July 11, 8:40 a.m. PDT with additional information on Toshiba notebooks and correction of integrated graphics chipset shipment date.

With Intel's rollout of Centrino 2 processors due Monday, Hewlett-Packard is not wasting any time in readying new notebooks, including a 17-inch model offering at least four of the new processors and 64-bit Windows.

HP DV7-1000 uses the Centrino 2 processor
HP DV7-1000 uses the Centrino 2 processor Hewlett-Packard

Intel will roll out "Montevina" Centrino 2 processors including the P8400 (2.26GHz), P8600 (2.40GHz), P9500 (2.53GHz), and T9600 (2.80GHz). The 3.06GHz X9100 Extreme processor is also expected to debut.

P7XXX series processors, such as the 2.0GHz P7350, are also spec'd with upcoming notebooks. (See Toshiba Satellite M305 laptop below.)

The lower-speed processors have 3MB of level 2 cache memory, while the faster processors integrate 6MB.

Correction (7/11 8:40 a.m.): While the GM integrated graphics chipset and the PM chipset for discrete (stand-alone) graphics have both been shipping to PC makers, only notebooks with the PM chipset will be available immediately. Consumer notebooks with the GM chipset will be available in early August.

The HP DV7-1000 series uses the P8400, P8600, P9500, and T9400 processors. The "P" prefix on Centrino 2 processors indicates a thermal envelope of 25 watts, less than the 35-watt TDP (Thermal Design Power) on mainstream laptop processors Intel has offered to date.

The laptop features 4GB of memory, a 640GB hard disk drive, an NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT graphics chip, a High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) connector, and an eSata connector--the latter allows hookup of external Serial ATA devices.

The system also comes with the 64-bit version of Windows Vista Home Premium.

The U.K. market version is listed with a starting price of 899 pounds or about US $1,778.

HP posted the most complete specifications for the DV7-1000 here at its U.K. Web site, though a listing can also be found on its U.S. site (dv7-1070ee).

Some online resellers are also posting information on the HP Pavilion dv5-1000us "Entertainment" 15.4-inch notebook.

This uses a Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz P7350 processor and includes 4GB of memory, a 250GB hard disk drive, and Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500 with up to 1759MB shared graphics memory.

Toshiba is also getting ready to offer the Satellite M305-S4835 with the P7350 chip.

Specifications include a 14.1-inch screen, 4GB of memory, a 320GB hard disk drive, Intel GMA 4500MHD (graphics), and Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1, 64-bit version.