AMD Outlines Upcoming Mobile Platform Details
News Posted 20/04/07
Author: PV5150
Source: DailyTech
We have some interesting information regarding AMD’s direction on the mobile platform.
According to the source article, AMD’s current 65nm Turion 64 X2 CPU’s (codenamed – Hawk) may appear shortly although there wasn’t any definitive time-frame given for release.
| AMD will reveal its K10 based CPU for mobile markets under the family code name Griffin in 2008. Griffin will be largely similiar to K10-derived chips for desktop and server use. Amato emphasizes Griffin will be a design specifically optimized for mobile use. In the past, AMD only optimized server and desktop CPUs for mobile use, Griffin will differ in some areas considerably. For example, a mobile CPU doesn’t need the full FPU of the K10 architecture… Additionally, Griffin’s design allows the possibility to entirely remove power for the second core, leaving one core active. |
We had heard previously that AMD have introduced independant cores on their Quad-core CPU’s, but it certainly makes a lot of sense within the mobile arena, especially in an effort to keep power consumption at a reasonable level.
Further, a representative of AMD has been quoted as saying that we will begin to see hybrid graphics solutions fairly soon.
| Some time before Griffin is set to surface, AMD will introduce Hybrid Graphics….we should see this exciting combination of integrated and discrete graphics this fall. The basic concept of this technology is the system can run power-saving integrated graphics when using battery power. When the platform is connected to a wall outlet, a discrete graphics card immediately switches on, delivering higher performance. This switching will work without a restart and its behaviour should be user-configurable – at least to some degree. …in 2008, AMD IGP chipsets will receive R600-derived graphics cores featuring native DX10 and Universal Video Decoder (UVD) support. The UVD provides hardware-decoding of H.264 in a more advanced way when compared to current video acceleration technologies from both AMD, in the form of Avivo. While previous methods only accelerated parts of the decoding pipeline, UVD is dedicated logic for all steps so the CPU can more or less rest. . |
It appears that there will be some significant moving and shaking within the mobile platform in the very near future. I guess this is where AMD has decided that it’s over playing second fiddle to Intel.
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