Intel speeds up Pentium 4-M, Celerons

PC makers have begun beefing up their notebooks with a trio of new mobile processors from Intel. The chipmaker on Wednesday launched a new 2.5GHz Pentium 4-M processor and two new Celerons running at 2.2GHz and 1.26GHz, respectively. The chips address several categories of notebook PCs and are the latest mobile processors from Intel since its new Pentium M debuted in March.

Gateway is among the first PC makers to adopt one of the chips. The Poway, Calif., company's new 600XL computer incorporates the 2.5GHz Pentium 4-M and sports a 15.7-inch screen and a DVD burner for a starting price of $2,499.

The 600XL is Gateway's first notebook to offer a DVD burner, a DVD-RW drive. Sony and Toshiba have been offering a similar drive since late last year, and Hewlett-Packard introduced a new Pavilion notebook with a DVD+RW format drive earlier this month. The Gateway notebook also includes 512MB of RAM, a 60GB hard drive and built-in 802.11b wireless networking. Dell Computer plans to include the 2.5GHz chip in a high-end notebook, a company representative said. Intel expects Hewlett-Packard, Sony and Toshiba to adopt the chip as well.

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