Just when you thought that Intel was through with their product branding, the company adds another to its repertoire. First there was Centrino which took the notebook industry by storm. Then Intel launched its Viiv platform for entertainment PCs. Now Intel is stamping the vPro brand on next generation business PCs.

PCs with the vPro branding will feature a 64-bit Core processor, Intel Active Management Technology (AMT) and Intel Virtualization Technology (VT). Intel's AMT technology will be incorporated into the processor, wile VT will be integrated into the accompanying chipset. Intel hopes that the combined technologies will provide a stable and secure platform with unmatched manageability.

Offering businesses avenues to reduce PC support costs, Intel AMT helps manage, inventory, diagnose and repair PCs even when systems are turned off or have crashed operating systems or hard drives. The second generation of Intel AMT offers the ability to isolate infected PCs before they impact the network and alert IT when threats are removed.

Further strengthening PC security, Intel VT allows for separate independent hardware-based environments inside a single PC so IT managers can create a dedicated, tamper-resistant service environment – or partition – where particular tasks or activities can run independently, invisible to and isolated from PC users.

Intel already has backing from many of the top names in the industry including Adobe, Cisco, Computer Associates, Hitachi, Kaspersky Lab, Lenovo, Microsoft, Novell and Symantec. While Intel's Centrino marketing campaign has been an overwhelming success in the notebook space, most of us are still waiting to see what the real benefits are of Intel's Viiv platform...