After a lengthy delay, the Intel Montevina Centrino 2 chipset is here. In May, Intel announced the delay of the launch to July 14, due to a series of technical issues. In addition to that, the company was reportedly facing some certifications problems with the chipset.

The new lineup includes five Penryn-type 45nm processors with 1066 MT/s FSB and clock speeds ranging from 2.26 GHz to 3.06 GHz, also featuring SSE4.1 support. Intel says that, overall, the Centrino 2 platform offers 23 percent better overall performance, measured by the Sysmark06 benchmark, versus a 27 percent overall decrease in power consumption.

The chipset is an Intel Mobile 4 Express series chipset (code-named Cantiga) which includes Intel's GMA X4500 graphics technology and ICH9M southbridge. The chipset can allegedly switch between integrated graphics and discrete graphics, depending on the performance requirements. Discrete graphics chips offer much more 3D computing muscle but consume a lot of power.

There's also a second generation NAND flash-memory caching branded as Intel Turbo Memory, Gigabit Ethernet LAN controllers 82567LM, and an Intel WiFi Link 5100/5300 mini-PCIe adapter.

Montevina was supposed to be launched at the end of May, however the final testing phase unveiled two minor issues, one with the integrated graphics chipsets and a paperwork and certification mistake on behalf of Intel. The hardware glitch was quickly solved, but the parts needed to be re-screened (checked for flaws).

Centrino 2 delivers better performance than any previous Intel mobile product, as well as provide a longer battery life, all in a smaller package, which makes them ideal for mini-notebooks, the company explained, adding that they support WiMax wireless, HDCP and come with integrated Wi-Fi. The module which will integrate both Wi-Fi and WiMax on the same silicon is called Echo Peak, but is expected to become available at a later date.

Last month, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. launched its previously announced Puma chipset for laptops. The specs released are quite impressive and it remains to be seen how it compares with Intel's latest offering.

Although far behind Intel in market share for as long as it competed with the CPU leader, AMD has always managed to come up with these innovative solutions which proved that its strength is primarily in its research and development. With far less resources than Intel, AMD managed several times to surpass its much larger rival in terms of technological advances and even processing speed.