Pentium M: Laptops Flex Their Muscles
In 2003 the market for portable PCs was booming and Intel had only two processors for them: the aging Pentium III Tualatin and the Pentium 4, whose high power consumption made it unsuitable. But a savior was to arrive from Israel: the Banias (alias Pentium M). This processor, based on the P6 architecture (the same as the Pentium Pro) had high performance and low power consumption. It even beat the Pentium 4, while consuming a lot less power. This was the processor used in the Centrino platform and it was quickly followed (in 2004) by the (faster) Dothan model. The Pentium M left its mark on the world of mobility, and the Stealey (A100) still uses the Dothan architecture (with lower frequencies and TDP).
| Code name | Banias | Dothan |
| Date released | 2003 | 2004 |
| Architecture | 32 bits | 32 bits |
| Data bus | 64 bits | 64 bits |
| Address bus | 32 bits | 32 bits |
| Maximum memory | 4 GB | 4 GB |
| L1 cache | 32 KB + 32 KB | 32 KB + 32 KB |
| L2 cache | 1,024 KB | 2,048 KB |
| Clock frequency | 0.9–1.7 GHz | 1–2.13 GHz |
| FSB | 400 MHz | 400, 533 MHz |
| SIMD | MMX, SSE, SSE2 | MMX, SSE, SSE2 |
| SMT/SMP | no | no |
| Fabrication process | 130 nm | 90 nm |
| Number of transistors | 77 million | 140 million |
| Power consumption | 9-30 W | 6-35 W |
| Voltage | 0.9–1.5 V | 0.9–1.4 V |
| Die surface area | 82 mm² | 87 mm² |
| Connector | Socket 479 | Socket 479 |
As with the Pentium 4, the FSB actually operated at a quarter of the nominal frequency (QDR). The connector used, the Socket 479, actually had 478 pins, but they were arranged differently from the Pentium 4 Socket 478 (though adapters were made).
