Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[chipdesigner]

I sense your "point" is about to morph again, now that your "same transistor" speculation has been shown to be...

Wrong!


By DON CLARK
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
January 7, 2005; Page B3

LAS VEGAS -- Advanced Micro Devices Inc., in another attack on its giant rival, is taking aim at Intel Corp.'s high-profile Centrino chip brand for mobile computers.

AMD announced that it will soon begin selling a line of chips called Turion, which will be its first microprocessors to be designed from scratch for mobile computers. Up to now, AMD has adapted chips for desktop computers for the mobile market.

That strategy has left AMD at a disadvantage with Intel, whose Pentium M microprocessor was developed specifically for lightweight laptop computers. That microprocessor -- the heart of what Intel calls its Centrino technology "platform" -- has become popular for its combination of high performance and low power consumption, which extends laptop battery life.

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AMD, of Sunnyvale, Calif., hopes to make up for lost time. Marty Seyer, a vice president of AMD's microprocessor unit, said Turion will be based on a new transistor structure that will bring power savings and other benefits. While AMD plans to market the brand aggressively, he said there are no plans to emulate Intel's requirement that PC makers buy two kinds of chips in addition to the Pentium M to qualify for the Centrino logo and Intel marketing funds.

"Turion is the anti-Centrino," Mr. Seyer said.

An Intel spokesman declined to comment.

AMD, which announced the brand at the Consumer Electronics Show here, isn't disclosing many more specifics about the chips, except that they will be delivered in the first half. Like some other AMD chips -- and unlike Intel's desktop and laptop chips -- Turion chips will be able to process 64 bits of data at a time, which allows chips to tap into more memory than 32-bit chips. The impact of that advantage has been slight so far, because Microsoft Corp. isn't expected to deliver a 64-bit version of the Windows operating system until later this year.