Intel Corporation unveiled its Intel® Centrino® 2 Processor Technology products for laptops today, powered by five new Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processors. Close to 250 innovative consumer and business notebook PC designs are on the way, including those equipped with the right combination of powerful processors, graphics and battery life to enjoy viewing stunning high definition videos and myriad other computer and Internet activities.

Intel also introduced the world’s highest-performing dual-core mobile processor, the Intel® Core™2 Extreme processor running at a brisk 3.06 GHz, as measured by SPECint1_rate_base2006, an industry benchmark (www.spec.org).

Rounding out a mobile-focused summer for the company, Intel said it also plans to unveil eight processors within 90 days that will include first-ever mobile quad-core products and second-generation products for ultra-thin and light notebooks. In total, Intel will bring 14 diverse new processors into the marketplace as laptop sales continue to outpace desktop PCs.

Formerly codenamed Montevina, Intel Centrino 2 processor technology and Intel® Centrino® 2 with vPro™ Technology improve upon every facet of a laptop’s main features, including performance and battery life via new processors and chipsets, faster draft 802.11n wireless (with WiMAX arriving later this year), and new business-class manageability capabilities.

The company is expanding its solid state drive (SSD) leadership with availability of a 128 GB drive and said it will announce its next generation Latitude laptops in the coming weeks.

Dell was one of the first major vendors to deliver SSDs to its customers and leads major vendors with the broadest portfolio of client products available with the technology. The new 128 GB SSD starts at $649 and is available tomorrow in the U.S. on Dell Precision and Latitude systems. The drive will be offered on XPS and Alienware systems next week.

The new drive helps solve customer pain points around price and capacity of SSD technology. Customers get double the capacity of Dell's 64 GB ultra-performance SSD offering for the same price.

SSDs are eight-and-a-half times more shock tolerant and have a predicted reliability more than three times that of standard notebook hard drives. Dell also offers a 64 GB ultra-performance SSD that delivers up to 22 percent better performance than a 7,200 RPM hard disk drive based on SysMark 2007 Benchmark tests performed by Dell Labs in January 2008. Actual performance will vary based on configuration, usage and manufacturing variability.

Samsung unveiled three Montevina-based notebooks: the R510 "Aura", R710 "Eclipse", and two variants of the model Q210 and Q310 with 12.1" and 13.3" screen sizes respectively.

The R510 will have a 15.4" display, Intel Core 2 Duo T9400 processor at 2.53 GHz on Montevina's 1066MHz bus, integrated X4500 graphics, 4 GB of RAM, dual-layer DVD writer, and 320GB HDD. It weighs about 2.3 kg.

The R710 (pictured) will features a 17" display, Intel Core 2 Duo T9400 processor at 2.53 GHz on Montevina's 1066MHz bus, 512MB Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT and other features common to the R510.

Rounding out the Eclipse line are the two ultraportables 12.1" Q210 and 13.3" Q310. Both feature Nvidia 256MB GeForce 9200M GS graphics, 4GB of RAM, 320GB HDDs, and dual-layer DVD writer in the new Eclipse case design. The Q210 makes do with a Intel Core 2 Duo P8200 which runs at 2.26 GHz, while the Q310 gets a 2.4GHz processor.

No pricing information is available yet.

Gateway is helping students and their families get ready for next school year with new models in its popular notebook lines that provide leading technology at exceptional prices.

“Summer is the ideal season to buy a new notebook or desktop PC from Gateway,” said Steve Bulling, senior manager, product management, Acer Inc. “Families can take advantage of their extra time by enjoying the latest games, as well as making videos and creating photo slideshows of summer events. In the fall, students can take advantage of their new PC’s impressive performance to jump into research and studies. Plus, now is the time consumers can get a great deal on a fashionable PC that fits within their budget.”

Gateway’s three lines of notebook PCs are now available in new configurations to provide students with more performance at incredible values. The offerings include digital media-ready systems capable of handling power-hungry applications as well as cost-effective entry-level solutions for students and families on a budget.