Mobile processor war heats up
AMD yesterday fired its salvo in the battle for mobile dominance. The chipmaker announced Puma, a new mobile processor that will go head-to-head with Intel’s Atom processor.
The Puma processor is a Turion X2 chip with a number of mobility features designed for the rapidly emerging ultra-portable PC market, or "netbooks".
The netbook phenomenon is a hot topic at the moment, led by the Asus EEE PC which is a lightweight, ultra-portable notebook with just enough features to get users onto the Internet and email wherever they are. HP’s Mini Note, Acer’s Aspire One and Via’s Netbook have also recently been introduced into this sector.
Intel already has a small head start in the netbook sector with its Atom processor being Incorporated into some of the latest Asus EEE PCs. The Atom is a low-power, miniaturised processor built for smaller chassis.
AMD’s Turion X2-based Puma includes two K8 cores, the same cores used in the larger Athlon processors. With mobility in mind, the chip can set different power levels for each core.
Other power saving features, which will only be available from the second version of the processor is the ability to switch from using an integrated graphics for low power usage or a separate graphics card for better performance without needing to reboot. Machines with this capability are expected in the second half of 2008.
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