Processor

Sometimes referred to as the CPU, or central processing unit, the processor is the brains of the computer. It's the most important chip in a notebook, and it has power-management features that extend battery life. Notebooks use a variety of processor types depending on their focus.

Celeron

A brand of low-cost microprocessor chip made by Intel that is designed and optimised to work best in computers used by average home-PC users.

Pentium M

A family of CPUs from Intel that are part of its Centrino brand for mobile computing. Introduced in 2003 at speeds up to 1.6GHz. Introduced in 2004, the second-generation Pentium M uses the same chip package but is built with 90 nm circuits rather than 130 nm.

Core 2

Core 2 Solo chips are single processor CPUs intended for the value market, while Core 2 Duo chips are dual-core models for mainstream desktop and notebook computers. Core 2 Extreme chips are also dual core with higher clock and bus speeds, designed for servers and high-end workstations. Note that Core 2 Duo and Core Duo chips (without the "2") are not the same.

Core Duo

The Core Duo is a dual-core chip that dramatically reduced power consumption over previous CPU chips. For example, when the laptop is placed in standby mode (sleep mode), the Core Duo flushes its cache to main memory because dynamic RAM chips use less power to retain content than the static RAM cache chips.

Turion

A version of the Athlon 64 CPU from AMD designed for thin, lightweight laptops. The Turion 64 CPUs dissipate as little as 25 watts compared to 65 for the Athlon. Introduced in 2005, Turion enhanced AMD's line of mobile CPUs, which included the Mobile Athlon 64 for full-sized laptops and the Mobile Sempron for the value market.

Sempron

Sempron is AMD's newest low-end CPU. It is replacing the Duron processor, and will compete against Intel's Celeron D processor