AMD Launches Turion64 Mobile Processor

[JCheng]

Heard the news this morning. Looks like AMD is finally getting serious about competing with Intel (and specifically, the Pentium M) in the mobile market.

http://www6.tomshardware.com/hardnew...10_103652.html

The new Turion 64 processor marks AMD's entry in a quickly growing notebook segment that so far has been served only by Intel's Pentium M processor and Centrino platform. While the announcement generally indicates that AMD has caught up with Intel in the mobile market, the manufacturer trumps its competitor by offering a 64-bit platform. Intel's first 64-bit Pentium M will be the dual-core "Yonah" processor that is scheduled to be released early next year.

The Turion 64 is based on the 90 nm "Lancaster" core with about 114 million transistors. The processors come with 512 KByte or 1 MByte L2 cache, 128 KByte L1 cache and support PC3200, PC2700, PC2100 and PC1600 unbuffered DDR memory. Processor speeds range from 1.6 GHz to 2.0 GHz.

AMD introduced for its Turion family a new model numbering structure that moves further away from a GHz-related designation and makes it increasingly difficult for the consumer to decide which product to choose. Turion comes in the two flavors "ML" and "MT". According to AMD Marketing manager Bahr Mahoney, the "M" stands for mobility, the second letter for the grade of mobility on an alphabetic scale between A and Z. The closer the letter is to A, the "less" mobile a processor is, the closer the letter to Z, the "more" mobile the chip is - which makes the MT more mobile than the ML.

This letter code is complemented by a number than currently ranges from 30 to 37. A 30 indicates 1.6 GHz with 1 MByte L2 cache, 32 means 1.8 GHz / 512 KByte, 34 offers 1.8 GHz / 1 MByte and 37 2 GHz / 1 MByte. This rather confusing coding scheme results in the products ML-30, ML-32, ML-34, ML-37, MT30, MT-32, and MT-34. According to Mahoney, the number does not relate to any other AMD or Intel product, but is chosen randomly. The same is the case for the second letter of the processor designation. "It gives us room for future products, Mahoney said. He conceded that the model numbers are not very transparent to consumers and currently were only understood by sales people. But he defended the AMD version since it "does not reflect a whole basket of criteria [such as Intel's Pentium M]."

Besides a different availability of processor speeds, the ML and MT family offer different power envelopes. The "more" mobile MT offers a thermal design power (TDP) of 25 watts and comes close to the Pentium M, which hovers around 20 watts. The performance oriented ML posts a TDP of 35 watts.

Instead of offering a complete mobile platform with graphics and wireless chipsets, AMD decided to go with third party providers. Supporting graphic chipsets come from Via, Uli, ATI, Nvidia and SiS; LAN from Broadcom, Marvell and Realtek and wireless from Broadcom and Atheros.

Mahoney said that notebook manufacturers were preferred to add graphics and wireless chipsets from a range of providers on their own. "This allows them to negotiate better pricing and optimize their logistics. The processor is one of the last pieces to go into a notebook and therefore it makes little sense to have an expensive part sitting around together with the other parts." Intel usually argues that the Centrino package allows system builders to use a package that is guaranteed to work. AMD however believes offering the processor separate from chipsets will reduce validation cost and time for notebook manufacturers.

AMD said that the Turion 64 processor is available worldwide today. Initial notebooks with the chip are expected from Acer worldwide and Fujitsu Siemens in Europe. According to AMD, other manufacturers such as Asus, Averatec, BenQ, MSI and Packard Bell will offer products based on Turion 64. The new processors are priced at are priced at $354(ML-37), $263 (ML-34), $220 (ML-32), $184 (ML-30), $268 (MT-34), $225 (MT-32) and $189 (MT-30).

[Nermal]

Somebody's bound to say it: If AMD can make a 64 bit laptop CPU, then PowerBook G5s must be here on Tuesday!

[Sun Baked]

Originally Posted by Nermal

Somebody's bound to say it: If AMD can make a 64 bit laptop CPU, then PowerBook G5s must be here on Tuesday!

Or Wednesday.

But it's nice to see another electronics company decide that, Apple's dark days of the Performa and PowerMac confusing Model Numbers and differing CPUs thrown in, is a good idea.

This should royally confuse the heck out of end-users at the store.

Errr, which one is better know nothing Mr. Salesman?

This One (as he points to the floor stock unit that Mr. Manager says he want cleared out).

[puckhead193]

Originally Posted by Nermal

Somebody's bound to say it: If AMD can make a 64 bit laptop CPU, then PowerBook G5s must be here on Tuesday!

Don't be modest, Saturday along with tiger

[Mechcozmo]

Originally Posted by Nermal

Somebody's bound to say it: If AMD can make a 64 bit laptop CPU, then PowerBook G5s must be here on Tuesday!

Well, do you want kids or not?

And it takes quite a bit of skill to make a laptop with only 1 or 2 fans than it does to make a laptop with 5 fans in it that gets 40 minutes of battery life....

[elevenpower]

AMD Introduces 64 bit Turion Mobile Processor (1)
AMD Introduces 64 bit Turion Mobile Processor (2)

What do you guys think about this new chip? What does this mean in regards to the offerings from IBM and Motorola?

[Lord Blackadder]

I have to say that, while I am very impressed with AMD's CPUs, I am rather less impressed about their silly "smoke and mirrors" naming system that amounts to a super-disingenious attempt to mask actual clock speed.

I'm sure it will be quite a performer, if any of their other hardware is a good indicator.

Maybe Apple should institute a new naming system: All new Powerbooks will ship with a new renamed G4 called a "3GHz" or "4GHz", which will clock in at 1.5 GHz or 1.67GHz respectively.

[jefhatfield]

i am not surprised amd is at the forefront, again

they hit 1 ghz first on a desktop chip and now they have this mobile processor

when in bought my pc laptop in 1999, it had a 366 mhz k6-II mobile processor which not only was cheaper than the mobile celeron, but also had more level 1 and level 2 cache

it benchmarked close to that of the much more expensive mobile pentium II of the time and a laptop with the k6-II cost about five hundred dollars less with similar appointments in the screen, hard drive, and ram

and when i upped the ram from 32 to 160 mb, the whole computer just zipped and it ran microsoft flight simulator with no problem

as the years went by i was really impressed with the mobile athlons in laptops and their better price point than the equivalent pentium IIIs and 4s, so i do look forward to seeing what the turion 64 offers and if i get a pc, to keep company with my mac (of course), i may just buy a laptop with this new amd mobile processor