Intel, at a presentation to press and analysts on 13th in Tokyo, disclosed several details of "Yonah," the first dual-core version of its Pentium M.

As the portable computers increase in popularity?notebook adoption has been growing among a number of consumer and business market segments and is expected to continue to deliver double-digit growth rates in coming years?Intel Corp. has been focusing much more development effort at the space.

The company rolled out Centrino in 2003, and in early 2005 it updated the platform to include a higher-performance version of its Pentium M and mobile chip set.

Intel is counting on Yonah, which will become the centerpiece of Napa?the third generation of Intel's Centrino bundle?for an even bigger boost. Yonah will feature a technology called Dynamic Power Coordination, essentially Yonah's power switch, allows its two cores to be power-managed independently, making it possible for one core to shut down.

Among Yonah's new features is a shared cache or onboard pool of memory that holds data close to a processor core for quicker access. Dubbed Smart Cache, the design element allows one processor core to access the chip's entire 2MB level 2 cache. This is expected to offer lower latency in the memory access. The provided FSB for Yonah is 667MHz, and it will incorporate 151.6 million transistors.

The Smart Cache is important to performance, allowing one core to store as much data as it can in the cache. The feature is also key to power management, as a single core can access the entire cache when the other is shut down, while running on battery. Intel made several additional modifications to improve the cache's performance as well, the company said.

Another new feature called Dynamic Power Coordination, essentially Yonah's power switch, allows its two cores to be power-managed independently, making it possible for one core to shut down.

It also includes the capability to put the entire chip into sleep mode as well as to apply Enhanced Intel SpeedStep, which can change the chip's voltage and frequency to meet performance needs of the applications a notebook is running, Intel said.

Intel also announced an effort to extend average notebook battery life to eight hours on a single charge by 2008.

Turning on the Napa platform including Yonah is scheduled for the first quarter of 2006.