AMD's Mobile Turion 64 Processor Hits MarketAMD's Mobile Turion 64 Processor Hits Market

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. on Thursday said its latest mobile platform, the Turion 64, is available and will be used in systems by Packard Bell, Fujitsu Siemens, and others.

The Turion 64 is aimed at the "thin and light" notebook market, which is expected to grow from about 47% of the total mobile computing market in 2004 to more than 50% by next year, says Bahr Mahony, division marketing manager for AMD. "The low-power capabilities of Turion 64 are especially important in the commercial market, where extended battery life remains a chief concern of users," he says.

AMD disclosed plans for a Turion 64 brand at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. Turion 64 is being positioned against chief competitor Intel's Centrino mobile platform, which has generated more than $5 billion in revenue the past two years.

A third-party survey commissioned by AMD of about 2,500 individuals who had either purchased a notebook computer in the last six months or intended to purchase one in the next three months indicated that nearly 90% would consider a notebook with a non-Intel processor, Mahony says, and 77% said that the PC brand name was more important than the Centrino brand.

Complete mobile platforms with integrated graphics and wireless capabilities, like Intel's Centrino, are not what all computer makers are looking for, Mahony says. Many notebook manufacturers want the freedom to select the best technologies available on the market and not be forced to use integrated solutions. "They want choice and the ability to differentiate," he says.

Chipsets by leading graphics vendors such as ATI and nVidia, as well as LAN and wireless LAN chipsets from companies such as Atheros, Broadcom, and Marvell, are expected to be introduced in support of Turion 64 in the coming weeks, Mahony says. AMD is introducing both 35-watt and 25-watt versions of the Turion 64, ranging in performance from 2 GHz to 1.6 GHz, and priced from $345 to $184 each in quantities of 1,000.

The Turion 64 will support 64-bit instructions sets and will use AMD's PowerNow technology, which the company says can reduce power consumption by as much as 75%.

AMD plans to introduce a version of its Athlon 64 processor based on its dual-core Toledo chipset for the desktop replacement segment of the notebook market in the second half of the year, Mahony says. AMD has not disclosed when a dual-core version of Turion 64 will be introduced.