Intel’s launch of its upgraded Centrino platform for mobile chips for notebook computers comes as both businesses and consumers are looking to notebooks to replace clunky desktops.Centrino, code-named Sonoma, offers enhanced graphics and wireless connectivity. The platform includes three major pieces: the processor, its companion chip set, and a wireless board, IDG News Service reported.The platform includes improved versions of all three components with a new chip set, called 915 Express, forming its centerpiece. “The mobile sector is huge because in the corporate world, laptops are over-taking desktops as the preferred way to do client-side computing,” said Jonathan Eunice, an analyst with Illuminata. “In the home, the same dynamics are occuring as more people use laptops. “They are not going to go home and use clunky desktops,” Eunice added. “And the kids in college are getting used to mobile computing.” Centrino’s 915 Express chip set, formerly known by the code-name Alviso, adds support for the PCI Express interconnect technology, which allows users to add more powerful graphics cards or hard drives to their notebooks. “When we introduced Intel Centrino mobile technology almost two years ago, Intel changed the mobile computing landscape with a platform suite of technolo-gies that enable great battery life, easier wireless connectivity, terrific per-formance and cooler designs,” Mooly Eden, vice president of Intel’s Mobility Group, said in a statement. “Now, with all of the consumer and business-oriented features we’ve packed inside the 2005 platform, we’re taking notebooks to a new level for a no-compromise mobile computing experience. Intel Centrino mobile technology has become the essential ingredient for notebook computing.”The Centrino technology has broad support from notebook manufacturers. Nearly every major notebook vendor, including heavyweights such as Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba, IBM, and Sony said they will support the new Centrino platform and Intel said it expects more than 150 different notebooks based on the new platform to be available this year. Technology Industry