vPro on the go
Intel is to take its vPro processor technology beyond the desktop by incorporating this IT management feature into its forthcoming Centrino Pro suite of notebook technologies.
By Matthew Wade Published April 8, 2007
Intel is to take its vPro processor technology beyond the desktop by incorporating this IT management feature into its forthcoming Centrino Pro suite of notebook technologies. First announced back in April 2006, vPro utilises Intel's Active Management Technology (AMT), which allows IT managers to isolate, repair and restore network PCs remotely (wherever employees are located). vPro also includes Intel's Virtualisation Technology (VT), which lets IT managers create partitions on the network in order to restrict users' access to different areas. "AMT allows a PC, whether on or off, to be audited, repaired and for the IT manager to securely wake and update systems," explained Pat Gelsinger, the senior VP and general manager of Intel's digital enterprise group, at vPro's launch last year. vPro has to date only been included within Intel's dual-core desktop line of CPUs. However from the second quarter of this year – in other words sometime in the next few weeks – the updated version of Intel Centrino, named 'Centrino Pro', will also include this technology, giving company IT managers the capacity to monitor, control and repair employees' machines wherever they are – including over wireless networks. "Intel Centrino Pro processor technology brings the best of our offering with Intel vPro processor technology and adds it right into our highly successful Intel Centrino brand for laptops," said Samir Al-Schamma, Intel's general manager for the GCC region. "This is an ideal time for this product as we continue to see notebook penetration rates increasing in business." In addition to vPro, Centrino Pro will also feature Intel's next-generation mobile processor technology, code-named 'Santa Rosa,' and a newly upgraded wireless component based on the draft 802.11n standard, called 'Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N'. Intel claims this wireless specification will give its forthcoming Centrino laptops twice the wireless range (learn more about this claim here). Further information on Intel AMT is available from www.intel.com/technology/manage/iamt.