AMD Launches Turion Mobile Processor

justforaday writes "Earlier today, AMD launched their Turion mobile processor, which is based on the AMD64 architecture. This is set to compete directly with Intel's Centrino (Pentium-M) line of processors. Chips will initially be clocked between 1.6 and 2.0 GHz. Looks like we should be seeing some nice low-powered 64-bit notebooks in the near future."

I'm Waiting For Benchmarks

[periol]

It's not like AMD has been stellar in the mobile processor world before this. Centrino has been a no-brainer for a while in the laptop world.

Intel / AMD = Microsoft / ???

[Anonymous Coward]

I really wish we could complete that ratio.

No, I'm not saying that Intel is as bad as Microsoft (although those recent anti-trust actions might make one wonder). I'm just saying that look how well things have turned out for the consumer on the processor front because there's a viable alternative.

Wouldn't it be cool to have a competitor for Microsoft the way AMD competes with Intel?

Re:price points

[ackthpt]

Doesn't this seem like a high price for bulk chips?

No. How long have you been following CPU pricing? It's always high for the first offerings. By this time next year you'll see half that line discontinued and the remainder heavily discounted.

Rule #1 regarding technology: As soon as it hits store shelves, it's already obsolete.

Silent computing applications

[apharov]

This should be a very interesting product for the silent computing community (check SilentPCRReview [silentpcreview.com]) if some manufacturer decides to make desktop motherboards for it. People are already using Mobile Athlon XP's and Pentium-M's in desktop computers because of their relatively low heat output.

My own wish would be to some day have a passively air cooled computer. Running an Athlon64 passively with only one big slow (=nearly silent) case fan is already feasible with carefully managed airflow inside the computer case. Turion could be theoretically cool enough to cool with convection airflow if the potential is realized with wellmade motherboards.

Re:Low Power? Better Link

[bani]

that's not too bad, compared to the 25w of intel's pentium-m.

also remember than intel understates their peak power while amd overstates theirs. dont recall who did the test, i think it was the german c't mag who found the discrepancies between claimed and actual power consumption.

Hype64

[itedo]

I just bought a notebook (IBM Thinkpad R51) and I am pretty happy with that (FreeBSD runs on it perfectly).

But why the heck are they putting 64bit in a mobile computer? Well, we are living in a consuming world of almost two types: buy-and-throw-away and buy-although-you-don't-know-what's-it-good-for

How ridiculous..

1MB max of L2 cache - suckage

[melted]

The reason why Pentium-M is as performant as it is is in part because it has 2MB of on-die cache. Don't expect miracles from a chip that has a half or even one fourth of that.

Re:Low Power? Better Link

[doormat]

Better get used to lugging a massive battery if you plan to really get the most out of that 64 bit CPU.

What? Peak use is 25W-35W. Pentium Ms use 22W, but then you also have a northbridge and a southbridge. Whereas most Athlon-64 based (and therefore Turion 64) have only one other chip (other than the CPU). At the least, they're about the same in terms of power usage.

Re:Hype64

[captain_craptacular]

Maybe because you gain more than you lose by going to the 90nm 64bit architecture? It's faster and cooler than the chip it replaces. It just happens to be 64bit at well.

It's not like AMD just said "hey, lets blow some smoke up the consumers arse and put a 64 bit processor in a laptop!". If you hadn't noticed they've been moving in this direction for say, a couple years now.

Re:1MB max of L2 cache - suckage

[drinkypoo]

L1 cache is more important than L2. FAR more important. Pentium-M has 32+32kB. Turion has 64+64kB. In case you didn't notice, that's twice as much. (Your math was ok on the L2 cache, but still...) Don't expect miracles from P-M, a chip that has half as much L1 as the Turion.

Re:Question

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not just about the memory silly. You can run software that can use 64 bit integers.

Re:price points

[Erwos]

I was under the impression that high-end Pentium M's ran in the $600 range. Those prices actually struck me as quite low.

-Erwos

Re:kind of late?

[tomstdenis]

I dunno about peeps like you but I use the battery in a pinch only anyways...The real benefit of a laptop [imho] is just the ability to carry a computer around with you that's less bulky than a desktop.

I don't see the value of cracking a laptop open while walking around or something [even a small one] cuz the likelyhood of dropping it [at least for me] is too high.

So I'm likely to have a plug available [even when I lug my american laptop to france for business for example...].

As for the issue of "amd not being portable" that's just lame. I've taken my AMD XP-M [barton like] based laptop pretty much all over. It's never "too much to carry" and comes in very handy.

I'm not saying pentium-m based laptops aren't cool they're just not that impressive. My brothers Pentium-M Compaq 2200 series laptop gets four hours on battery... so does my AMD XP-M Compaq 2100 series laptop...whoopy

What people still fail to understand that is at idle your motherboard, ram, screen and hard drive still take quite a bit of power.

Tom

Re:Question

[Hack Jandy]

Athlon 64 processors are not really useful because of their 64-bit addressing capability. The thing that makes Athlon64 (and Turion, and the newer Semprons) speed demons is the on board memory controller integrated into the CPU. No other x86 processors do this.

Re:What I'm interested in...

[dago]

All recent AMD mobile processor had the same socket and run in the same motherboard as they desktop version (some may better support the mobile features, some not)

Logically, it'll be the same for the turion, so just take a normal mATX motherboard and that should be ok.

This is contrary to you can do with intel's p-M, which has a nice price premium and requires special expensive motherboards.