Along with other PC manufacturers today, Gateway has announced that their 450 "normal" notebook and the M275 Windows XP Tablet covertible model will be updated with Intel's new Dothan processor.
Toshiba's Tecra M2, Tecra M2V and Portege M200 tablet PC will also start shipping with the new processor. Likely the M200/M205 will use the Intel 735 in the m200/m205, at the same clockspeeds as current Banias units. It will otherwise remain unchanged.
Dothan is the code name for the revised version of Intel's Pentium M processor used in Centrino notebooks. Most all subnotebooks, ultralights and tier one tablets use Centrino, which is a combination of the Pentium M processor, Intel 855 motherboard chipset and Intel Pro Wireless 2100 WiFi controller. Centrino may have slower clock speeds, but outperforms Pentium 4 processors significantly, negating the meaning we place on clock speed. Centrino also gets much, much better battery life than a notebook with a mobile Pentium 4 processor. In fact, Intel has changed their processor naming convention and no longer references clock speed but instead a model number such as 745. Does this make you think of Apple and the megahertz wars? Well, I can tell you that Centrino does rock, after reviewing many notebooks with that architecture.
Dothan chips are built on a 90nm process and will allow Centrino clock speeds to go higher, as the original "Banias" core 130nm Pentium M maxed out at 1.7 GHz. Will you be able to tell the difference between the original 1.7 GHz Pentium M Centrino processor and a 1.7 GHz Dothan 745 processor? Probably not, but thanks to Dothan, you'll be able to buy a 2 GHz Centrino in the future (755 processor), while this wasn't possible with the other processor. Both the old and new Pentium M processors have a 400 MHz front side bus and can address up to 2 gigs of DDR RAM. The new processor has a 2 MB level 2 cache, while the old one has a 1 MB level 2 cache.
The $2,100 Gateway M275XL model will use the Intel Pentium M processor 745 (1.80GHz, 400MHz FSB, 2MB Level 2 cache, built on the 90nm process), and will have 512MB DDR SDRAM memory and a 60GB hard disk drive. It should be available in 2 weeks, while the Gateway 450 is available now. At 5.7 lbs and 12.6" x10.8" x1.1", it's one of the largest and heaviest tablets on the market, but it offers pretty much everything you'd want in a notebook, including an optical drive. The previous M275XL models had 1.4 and 1.6 GHz Centrino processors.
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