Intel has officially launched its Centrino Pro laptop platform for business buyers, offering new management capabilities, improved performance and support for new wireless technology. Laptops based on the new Intel platform are expected to ship within weeks.

Centrino Pro almost doubles performance over current laptops while offering better battery life, Intel said. It also adds an updated wireless adapter meeting the draft 802.11n specifications for greater range and increased data throughput.

However, the chief new feature is support for Intel's Active Management Technology (AMT), which enables IT staff to remotely reach into systems even if the operating system is not functioning. AMT was introduced in 2006 as part of Intel's vPro desktop platform, but with laptops the technology can operate over both wired and wireless networks.

"We're bringing the management and security of vPro to notebook computers, so firms have the same set of capabilities across their desktop and mobile fleet," said Arun Shenoy, Intel's director of Digital Enterprise for UK and Ireland.

With AMT, Intel has been trying to reduce the number of desk-side visits IT staff must make to support enterprise PCs, and fixing problems remotely is much less expensive, Shenoy added.

Also as with vPro, Centrino Pro laptops can isolate themselves from the corporate network and alert an administrator if they detect behaviour indicating the system has been compromised by malware.

The Santa Rosa technology underlying Centrino Pro will also be used in laptops without the management and security features, but such models will be branded Centrino Duo.

Vendors such as HP, Lenovo and Acer have all announced new Centrino Pro models that will ship in the next few weeks. However, some vendors such as Dell and Fujitsu-Siemens are taking the Centrino Duo route to market instead.

Dell introduced new D630, D830 and D531 models with immediate availability, for example, and said it will ship a Centrino Pro model in the autumn of 2007, the Latitude D630c.