AMD has begun shipping a dual-core Athlon Neo processor as part of a new Hewlett-Packard notebook, as well as a new processor, the Turion Neo.
On Wednesday, HP released the dv2z, now user configurable with either the Athlon Neo X2 or Turion Neo X2 processors. AMD confirmed that, at least in the United States, HP is currently the exclusive provider of both processors, according to an AMD spokeswoman.
The Athlon Neo was first announced at the CES show in January, when the Neo-based dv2 was first launched. The dv2 was based on the AMD "Yukon" platform, which AMD defines as a single-core, 15-watt Athlon Neo, paired with an MS690 chipset, as well as a ATI Radeon 1200 graphics chip, according to a slide set of a presentation AMD released at the recent Computex show in Taiwan.
The "Congo" platform, by contrast, uses a dual-core Athlon Neo – the Conesus chip, paired with an MS780G chipset and an ATI Radeon 3200 chip. AMD has also included another feature, Hyperspace, a quick-boot capability. AMD does not disclose the pricing of its mobile processors.
An AMD spokeswoman said Friday that while Conesus will be a dual-core part, the processor AMD provided to HP was a custom iteration, and not technically the "Conesus" processor that will be shipped to the market at large. Other OEMs are welcome to use the custom part as well, she said.
Both the Yukon and Congo platforms are designed for what AMD (and Microsoft) call ultrathin notebooks, a step up from the low-cost netbook platforms that have captured the attention of the industry. AMD has essentially ceded the netbook market to Intel, and classified the systems as based on the Intel Atom microprocessor in its presentation. Both ultrathin notebooks and netbooks compete against ARM-powered "smartbooks", although they will not use Windows, Microsoft has said.
The Turion Neo, by contrast, is positioned as a "top of the stack" processor, sitting above the Athlon Neo. The Turion Neo that HP is shipping is a 1.6-GHz part, the same as the Athlon Neo, available for a $25 premium. The Turion Neo has a larger cache size, however, 1 Mbyte versus 512 Kbytes on the Athlon Neo X2.
Placing the Athlon Neo X2 and Turion Neo X2 is permitted; "we don't restrict our customers and allow them to innovate, so these things sometimes happen," the AMD spokeswoman said.
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