Intel Corp (INTC)

[wbmw]

Re: Turion 64 X2 and the top bin Athlon 64 X2 are on opposite ends of AMDs process tuning capability (for example they can vary gate lenght with 1nm accuracy). So the mobile chips have lower leakage, slower transistors than the high-end desktop parts.

It's got to be more than that, unless you believe they only need to trade 15% switching performance (2.2GHz vs. 2.6GHz) for 70% lower power (35W vs. 110W). To me, that falls along the lines of AMDMagic(TM), and not within the bounds of a realistic tradeoff. Besides, some empirical evidence already exists that indicates Turion may already be fairly close to its rated TDP (after accounting for VRM loss). Much closer than even Pentium M, in fact.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article300-page6.html