A look at AMD’s 2009 mobile strategy

Robert Hallock 23 Jun, 2009 at 1:49pm ET Article published in Tech

Welcome to the jungle

With the Yukon platform off striking gold, AMD is already lining up the next-generation Ultra Thin platform known as Congo. The firm has once again tapped the Athlon Neo to headline for the new kit, but it will arrive with a slew of new tricks to fend off contenders.

Filling in the blanks

The minty fresh Conesus-based Athlon Neo will be fabbed on a 45nm process node for increased L2 cache, higher frequencies and a second core– a feature notably absent from Netbook CPUs like the Atom N270. The natural performance advantage of the Neo married to a second processing core should offer a significant performance lead over competing Netbook products.

AMD has rounded Congo out with the AMD M780G chipset and a Hybrid CrossFireX configuration using the Radeon HD 3200 IGP and an OEM’s choice of Radeon HD 2400 or 3400 parts. The entire package should start appearing in products early in the second half of 2009.

Value Ultra Thin platforms by the numbers

What about Turion?

While all the love seems heaped upon the new class of notebooks, AMD has not left full-sized notebooks out in the cold.

Big green’s solution for the current crop of plain old notebooks is dubbed Puma. At Puma’s heart lies a mobile-optimized processor, the Turion X2 Ultra. Codenamed Griffin, the X2 Ultra has been inspired by desktop Athlon 64s, but contains numerous architectural enhancements to improve its mobile capabilities: Memory throttling and shutdown, HT bus throttling, memory temperature control, and AMD’s most granular clock throttling are amongst the notable features.

The Turion X2 Ultra's robust power management architecture

As another reminder that today’s premiere parts are tomorrow’s cost-conscious power sippers, the Puma uses the same M780G and Hybrid CrossFireX solution destined for Congo.

Turion of tomorrow

Looking forward, AMD has sadly shelved their plans to offer a so-called Fusion APU in 2009, which means that the Shrike platform is off the table. With GPU+CPU chips pushed back into 2011, AMD has informed us that their revised approach to 2009 includes a transition to the 45nm Caspian CPU as a part of the Tigris platform.

As the slides in AMD’s 2008 investor day presentation indicate, the Caspian processor will be paired with the RS880M northbridge and the SB710 southbridge. With availability starting in the second half of 2009, the Tigris platform should offer HDMI, SATA 2.0, extensive USB connectivity, robust Hybrid CrossFireX, better battery life and improved multimedia acceleration.

Evolutionary progress through 2010

Looking ahead

The breakneck progress — and growth — of AMD’s fledgling Ultra Thin market is a prosperous sign. By the time Congo launches to succeed the well-received Yukon, big green will have used just six months to significantly enhance their new platform.

The rapid pace and indeed the very philosophy behind the Ultra Thin appear to be working. Not only are products like the HP Pavilion dv2 receiving rave reviews, they have prompted a certain archrival to take an unplanned defensive posture.

On the notebook front, we are disappointed that process troubles have significantly delayed AMD’s ambitious plans for Fusion. While gradual progress will keep a healthy volume of notebooks moving in retail, a 2009 Fusion launch would have been a huge design win and done much to close the process gap with Intel.

Though 2009 appears to be something of a mixed bag, it should end as a fairly inspired year for the Sunnyvale processor company. A new market and the promise of new products mean we’ll have plenty to consider when we revisit the issue in 2010.

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Comments

23 Jun 2009 ~ 2:01pm MiracleManS Great writeup Rob. I think the mobile market, specifically the lack of entries in the $400-$700 range (with ample computing power) are really going to provide AMD with the boost they need.

We've already seen how successful these subnetbooks have been, I can only imagine a cost conscious shopper seeing a 13"-15" notebook with horsepower for under $600.

I know I'd be tempted if I needed the power and mobility and wasn't interested in spending $1400+.
23 Jun 2009 ~ 2:14pm Cliff_Forster An AMD Ultra Thin is high on my list of consumer desires. Perhaps after Expo I will rub my coins together and get one on order.
23 Jun 2009 ~ 2:14pm drasnor Are we ever going to see an AMD mainstream notebook performance part?

-drasnor
23 Jun 2009 ~ 8:27pm Komete You can't argue with Hp's dv2. Slick little setup.I'm really liking what I'm reading about Congo too.

One thing that I'm wondering about is if these netbooks/ultra portables are going to push the prices up for full fledged laptops. I'm thinking manufacturers will have to raise prices on more powerful laptops since the demand for them will decrease with these good enough ultra portables and netbooks flooding the market.
23 Jun 2009 ~ 9:10pm Komete I also got to say the new gateway ultra thin net book blows away the netbook competition.

I just bought my 7 year old an asus netbook for her birthday but now I'm thinking about returning it and grabbing one of these.
http://www.gateway.com/systems/product/529668268.php
24 Jun 2009 ~ 2:12pm Garg

AMD is already lining up the next-generation Ultra Thin platform known as Congo.

The platform formerly known as Congo.
24 Jun 2009 ~ 2:22pm Thrax AMD PR officials were/are still quite happy to refer to it as Congo by email and on Twitter. It seems manufactured outrage isn't all that.
24 Jun 2009 ~ 5:39pm Garg Good. The outrage was ridiculous. I had noticed that they claimed to be phasing it out in their letter to the Daily Kos, but reading it again, it sounds like they're just talking about the fact that codenames aren't the names that products are sold by.