It’s likely that the new chip will be smaller and more energy efficient than current AMD processors. And AMD, which acquired graphics card maker ATI not too long ago, will likely use ATI’s expertise to produce a chipset with integrated graphics capabilities that will allow for decent high def video playback without burning down your battery in a matter of seconds.
In the past, AMD’s comments about netbooks have left me wondering whether the company truly understands what makes these tiny notebooks tick. We won’t know for sure until AMD unveils more details about the new processor, but I’m still a bit dubious. Focusing on battery life is a good start. But I’m not convinced that graphics should be a high priority. Sure, it’s nice to be able to watch some web video or a ripped DVD on the go. But I’ve never had a problem doing that with an Intel Atom, or even Celeron CPU. If AMD can offer performance as good or better without taking a toll on battery life, that’s fine. But I’d rather see a focus on multi-tasking. A dual core, low power chip would be a nice.
Pictured above: a netbook with a dual-core AMD Turion and 690E integrated video. It's E like with Jag-u-ars, so, limited and drop-dead gorgeous. You know, for integrated video.
What I'm saying is that AMD doesn't have any "new" plans to get into the netbook market, they're already there and with damn fine hardware, even if it's just the one netbook. Since they announced Phenom in aught-six, they've stated that they had no intention of phasing out the K8 architecture (although I bet no one expected to hang on to it quite like they have) instead, cutting it down, tweaking it for super-low-power and decent, if improved, mobile performance.
Not that there's much on the Turion Ultra front, either. But whatevs.
[Read Full Story at Liliputing]
