Intel's Dothan Makes Its Late Debut

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Tom´s Hardware Guide have thrown up their review of Intel's all new mobile processor Dothan with a 2-MB L2 cache backed by Intel's 90-nm production technology.

Intel's CEO Craig Barrett had already announced Intel's plans to launch the Dothan in early 2003. Touted as the next-generation Banias mobile processor based on the Pentium-M core, Barrett said it would launch the device at the end of 2003. In August 2003, the rumors began to circulate. Dothan CPUs would not see delivery until mid-February 2004, some said. Finally, in January 2004, Intel officially postponed the device's launch until to Q2.

Intel attributed the delay to sample stepping, which meant there were difficulties for mass production. Thus, a new CPU stepping was required - at least that's what we're supposed to believe.

Perhaps another reason was that OEMs still had too many of the "old" Banias and Pentium 4M CPUs in stock, which led Intel to delay Dothan for tactical reasons. Who knows for sure?

Whatever the case, Dothan is here, which represents Intel's first mobile CPU based on its 90-nm process. We look at the CPU's features and how it matches up with its predecessor, Banias. In order to make a comparison between Banias and Dothan, we chose to use the Winbook W series notebook.

Intel's Dothan Makes Its Late Debut