AMD Puma notebook platform takes on Intel Santa Rosa
By Colleen Taylor, Contributing Editor -- EDN, May 18, 2007
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) today officially disclosed details of its next-generation open platform for notebook computing.
Codenamed "Puma," the platform is expected to build on the launches of the AMD M690 mobile chipset and 65-nm process-based AMD Turion 64 X2 dual-core mobile technology in April and May, respectively, AMD said. Those recent launches, along with the successful reception of a new graphics processor family and anticipation of its impending quad-core processor release, have proven to nudge AMD's stock back into Wall Street's favor after a months-long value slump.
Comprising Puma are AMD's next-generation notebook processor, codenamed "Griffin," matched with the next-generation AMD RS780 mobile chipset. Notebooks based on the Puma platform are expected to be available in the mid-2008 timeframe, AMD said.
The announcement comes on the heels of a release earlier this month from its rival Intel Corp., when the company unveiled its own updated notebook platform, the fourth generation of its Centrino family, codenamed "Santa Rosa." Intel's latest platform includes a new version of its Core 2 Duo processor, which is set to appear in more than 230 new notebook models from a bevy of OEMs including Acer, Lenovo, HP, and Samsung by year end, the company said.
Despite seemingly being beaten to the punch on its next-generation mobile launch, AMD claims that it is not shying away from the long-running MPU market share battle it has had with Intel. "With the unveiling of the 'Puma' mobile platform, we're sending a clear signal to the market that we intend to drive continued innovation in notebook computing in 2008 and beyond," Chris Cloran, VP of AMD's notebook division, said at a press conference in Tokyo today.
The company claimed that Griffin chips will include: power optimized HyperTransport and memory controllers integrated in the processor silicon that operate on a separate power plane as the processor cores, which the company said allow the cores to go into reduced power states; enhanced battery life with reduced power consumption through separate voltage planes allowing each core to operate at independent frequency and voltage; and power-optimized HyperTransport 3.0 with a more than tripling of peak I/O bandwidth. For its part, Intel said earlier this month at its Centrino launch that it has decided to not focus on separate-plane technology.
As for the upcoming RS780 notebook chipset, AMD said that it will have: Motherboard DirectX 10 graphics processing; energy efficient high-definition multimedia support with the unified video decoder; integrated multi-monitor support with DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort; native southbridge support for NAND flash with HyperFlash; and PowerXpress for dynamic switching between integrated and discrete graphics to extend battery life.
The Puma platform is based on an open platform strategy, AMD said. In addition to the Griffin microprocessor and RS780 chipset, AMD said that the Puma platform includes ATI Radeon graphics, Nvidia chipset and graphics technologies, and unspecified "industry-leading" wireless technologies. That could well be a nod toward a product tailored for use with the upcoming 802.11n wireless standard, as is Intel's latest Centrino chipset.
AMD said it will disclose more details of Puma in the coming weeks.
