While AMD may be having problems tackling Intel in the high-end desktop and notebook markets, the company is looking to go toe-to-toe with Intel in the emerging Mobile Internet Device (MID) and netbooks/nettop market. Intel is currently having a lot of success with its Atom processor which will be in short supply until the end of Q3 2008.
AMD is countering with a low-power AMD64-based CPU design of its own according to leaked slides obtained by HEXUS. The unnamed processor features an integrated memory controller, 16-lane 800MHz HyperTransport link, 256KB of L2 cache, and a 1GHz core clock.
Considering that this new chip is to be used in low-power applications, power consumption is a critical talking point. Intel’s Atom N270 — the most popular Atom variant for netbooks — features a 2.5W TDP at 1.6GHz. However, we can’t forget the i945GSE Northbridge which adds another 4W — more than the Atom processor itself.
AMD’s new processor, however, has an 8W TDP for the processor with its integrated Northbridge/memory controller at 1.0GHz. Although performance figures obviously aren’t available at this time, it would be interesting to see how AMD’s 1.0GHz processor would do against Intel’s in-order 1.6GHz Atom N270.
Source: DailyTech