Read our full CES 2008 coverage of the Las Vegas trade show

Intel has used CES 2008 to unveil its first Centrino laptop chips built on 45nm process technology.

"The new products we're announcing today provide consumers and businesses with the benefit of sleeker and higher-performing laptops and more powerful and fashionable PCs that deliver for the most hard-core gamer, high-definition enthusiast and just about every other consumer demand," said Mooly Eden, general manager of Intel's mobile platforms group.

Of the five mobile chips, with availability expected later this month, there are a quartet of Core 2 Duo processors and a Core 2 Extreme part. Expected clock speeds range from 2.1GHz to 2.8GHz, with up to 6MB of Level 2 cache.

For improved graphics support, the chips include Intel Streaming SIMD Extensions 4 (SSE4) for faster video encoding for high-definition content and photo manipulation. There is also a "Deep Power Down Technology" Core micro architecture design feature, for further reducing the power demands of a chip when it is not processing data or instructions.

Looking ahead, Eden also promised more powerful handheld developments - small form-factor, low-powered devices that deliver broadband Net access.

"Later this year, Intel will begin delivering the mobile Internet with much smaller, lighter and powerful Internet-enabled devices that ultimately will fit right into your pocket."

We wrote about Intel goes green with Arizona Fab32 for 45nm 'Penryn' chips, back in October 2007, with desktop Penryn chips officially launched the following month, including the Core 2 Extreme QX9650 featuring a massive 12MB of L2 Cache, and run at a frequency of 3GHz.

With the 16 new chips announced today, Intel now has a total of 32 desktop, laptop or server processors based on 45nm process technology.

See also: Electronics Weekly's focus on microprocessors, a roundup of content related to x86 microprocessor technologies and developments.