Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[DARBES]

AMD: A low-power Mobile Athlon 64 in the works

...The 2800+, 3000+, and 3200+ models are rated at a maximum thermal design power (TDP) of 62W, while the 2700+ posts just 35W. The minimum TDP (at 800 MHz) decreases from 13W to 12W. The core voltage shrinks from a range of 0.95V to 1.40V down to 0.90V to 1.20V.

For comparison, Intel lists an average TLD for its mobile Pentium 4 processor of 66.1W for the 2.66 GHz model and 68.4W for the 2.8 GHz model. The Centrino platform is rated at 24.5W for models with 1.5 GHz, 1.6 GHz, and 1.7 GHz

As the regular Mobile Athlon 64 2800+, the 2700+ is clocked at 1.6 GHz. A notable change however is that the new chip receives a L2 cache of only 512 KByte while the other processors offer 1024 KByte.

Analysts believe that a low-power chip for its higher performing product line might improve AMD's position in the market. "If you not just view the 64 bit feature of the processor, but see it as high performing chip, then AMD's move makes absolutely sense," said Dean McCarron, principal analyst with Mercury Research. "Customers in the higher segment are willing to pay a premium on low power consumption....

http://www.tomshardware.com/hardnews/20040406_204801.html

Attacking on all fronts.