AMD's new mobile chip platform to conserve power

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) will unveil its next-generation microprocessor for
notebooks along with a new laptop platform that looks to compete with Intel’s
recently released Centrino offering. AMD executives will detail its new mobile
microprocessor, code-named Griffin, along with its ‘Puma’ platform for laptops.
Both the chip and the platform are expected to debut in the second half of 2008, company
executives said.

AMD’s Griffin processor is a dual-core chip, with each core having 1MB of
dedicated L2 cache, compared with the chipmaker’s current offerings of 512KB for each
core. The processors will also be manufactured with the company’s 65-nm manufacturing
process.

The cores will be built on separate power planes, which will help conserve power and
increase notebook battery life by allowing each core to scale clock speed independently,
reducing power consumption when not under heavy loads. Griffin chips will also feature a
revised integrated memory controller, which will improve DRAM efficiency, and will also
operate on its own power plane for additional reductions in power.

By allowing the cores to function independently, AMD is allowing each core to switch
into a ‘deep sleep’ mode if the whole chip is not being fully utilized. This
enables one core to power down if it is not needed, while the other performs at a level
required to complete the functions notebook user needs.

For AMD this announcement marks a major update to its notebook platform, including an
expanded set of power management features within its line of mobile processors.

The details of Griffin and Puma came a week after Intel officially released its own
next-generation mobile platforms called Centrino Pro, which is geared toward enterprise
and business users, and Centrino Duo for consumers.

After AMD releases its quad-core Opteron
processor—‘Barcelona’—later this year to compete against Intel’s
quad-core Xeon chips, the next big market where the two companies plan to clash is the
mobile space. At their meeting with financial analysts on May 3, Intel executives detailed
plans that included an aggressive push into mobile devices.