Intel V Pro - VPro, AMT, Centrino 2, and Core 2 Relationships

VPro, AMT, Centrino 2, and Core 2 Relationships

There are numerous Intel brands. However, the key differences between vPro (an umbrella marketing term), AMT (a technology under the vPro brand), Centrino 2 (a branding of a package of technologies), and Core 2 (a processor) are as follows:

Intel Core 2 Duo or Quad processors are central processing units (CPUs).

Intel Centrino 2 was a branding of a package of technologies that included Wi-Fi and, originally, the Intel Core 2 Duo. The Intel Centrino 2 brand was applied to mobile PCs, such as laptops and other small devices. Core 2 and Centrino 2 have evolved to use Intel's latest 45-nm manufacturing processes, have multi-core processing, and are designed for multithreading.

Intel vPro is a brand name for a set of Intel technology features that can be built into the hardware of the laptop or desktop PC. The set of technologies are targeted at businesses, not consumers. A PC with the vPro brand includes Intel AMT, Intel Virtualization Technology (Intel VT), Intel Trusted Execution Technology (Intel TXT), a gigabit network connection, and so on. There may be a PC with a Core 2 processor, without vPro features built in. However, vPro features require a PC with at least a Core 2 processor. The technologies of current versions of vPro are built into PCs with Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Quad processors and more recently some versions of Core i5 and Core i7 processors.

Intel AMT is part of the Intel Management Engine, which is built into PCs with the Intel vPro brand. Intel AMT is a set of remote management and security features designed into the PC's hardware and which allow a sys-admin with AMT security privileges to access system information and perform specific remote operations on the PC. These operations include remote power up/down (via wake on LAN), remote / redirected boot (via integrated device electronics redirect, or IDE-R), console redirection (via serial over LAN), and other remote management and security features.