Actually, the real title of this Peter Lewis's article for Fortune is "Intel Outside." By this, he means that Intel has grand plans for expansion in wireless territory.
"Centrino Inside" is the catch phrase that you'll hear ad nauseam starting later this month. What the heck is a Centrino? It's a major departure from earlier mobile microprocessor designs and the centerpiece of Intel's plan to promote -- and dominate -- computing in wireless network environments.
Centrino, Intel says, is the first step toward a future when all computing devices communicate and all communications devices compute.
Lewis found that "Centrino" is an anagram for "no cretin," "rent icon," and "not nicer" and looks if these anagrams make sense. Let's check the first one, "no cretin".
Although it operates at lower clock speeds than current Intel Pentium-4 Mobile chips, the main Centrino processor is far from computationally challenged. It's a new low-power, high-performance processor called the Pentium-M.
That's only part of the story. The Centrino package comprises three main parts: Besides the Pentium-M, it includes a wireless radio chip for communicating securely with the growing number of 802.11b (Wi-Fi) wireless network hot spots, and a supporting chipset that Intel says will help improve the battery life and graphics performance of mobile devices.
And here are Intel's wireless plans.
Intel says Centrino notebooks can roam seamlessly among thousands of "Centrino-certified" hot spots in airports, hotels, and other public places. Intel plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars this year -- and devote 2,500 employees -- to test hot spots and third-party components, making sure that Centrino-based devices work flawlessly.
Now, please read Lewis's story to discover what he says about the two other anagrams.
Source: Peter Lewis, Fortune, February 18, 2003
12:16:13 PM Permalink
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