AMD to Intro New Notebook Platform

AMD to Intro New Notebook Platform

A report from a Chinese paper on DigiTimes states that AMD is planning to introduce its new notebook platform, Tigris, at the Computex 2009 electronics show. Tigris will include a 45nm dual-core "Caspian" processor, RS880M chipsets, and 40/55nm ATI Mobility Radeon graphics cards based on the M9X core.
AMD may also show off its next-generation notebook platform for next year, which will have a 45nm quad-core processor, DDR3 RAM, USB 3.0 support, and AMD's next-generation "Manhattan" graphics.

Full Story (DigiTimes.com)

 

Tigris? Caspian? Interesting naming choices.

 

The names are interesting.

I will definitely consider this platform for my next notebook (assuming I am in the market then of course); from the specs we have so far it sounds promising.
As a matter of fact, I would have an AMD-based notebook right now if NBR didn't already have a review for it when I was buying last year.

 

I thought AMD has historically used city names (Shanghai, Barcelona, etc), not bodies of water. Sounds interesting.

 

I hope so much that AMD rises again....

 

those were processors, not platforms. Maybe they changed naming convention for platforms?

 

ohhhh snap

 

i hope that they use some high end GPU's

 

Well I can't wait. AMD's pretty far behind with 45nm, but I'm hopeful. And the HD4xxx series should give the platform an extra kick.

But then again, it's hard to wait, given the fact that it takes a while for stuff to get implemented, and the fact that no one will probably make a high end professional workstation (read: EliteBook) with an AMD processor, and given the fact that 16:10 is moribund...

So depressing... I'll never find a perfect laptop for me.

 

With Intel tied up in lawsuits, the time is ripe for AMD to gain some market share. I hope that this notebook platform isn't a disappointment.

 

Yeah, it sounds pretty interesting. Given how well their 45nm desktop processors turned out, I'd love to try out a 45nm dualcore notebook. (And yeah, I want a 15" WUXGA but odds of finding that are dwindling fast...) Hopefully this will use less power and so run cooler and longer than the Pumas...

 

That's an understatement, because it would be a step backwards if it didn't run cooler with less power. This is the main benchmark for AMD to hit with this new platform. The real question is how much less power and how much cooler, while having how much more performance? Ideally, it would leapfrog Centrino2 and have a solid lead over C2D systems, but realistically, if the pattern follows the same as the past couple of years, AMD will merely manage to close the gap without actually taking the lead.

Either way, I hope AMD is successful here so we can see some stimulation in the notebook segment. There has been too much focus on improvement in thin and light/netbooks.. we need to have thinner, lighter, cooler, faster desktop replacements in the 15, 16 and 17 inch+ range.

 

Finally a Quad-core respond from AMD. Intel, you can start lowering the prices now.
As much as I like to use Intel's CPUs, go AMD! the better AMD will be, the better prices for us consumers
and "Manhattan" graphic? I hope it's as big of a graphic as its name sounds.

 

Don't hold your breath, the AMD quad-cores aren't scheduled for release until at least 2010, and I would be very surprised if it is the first part of 2010. I would very gladly eat my words though.

 

The Deneb architecture seems to pretty clearly beat the Penryn on most areas, so this should be a real winner. A quadcore would be useful sometimes; if it can keep all idle cores powered off when they're not needed then I'd go for it.

 

amd is finally making its big comeback???

 

A few years down the road we'll be saying the same for Intel. It always goes back and forth between the two. And all along the way, Intel and AMD fans aggressively defend the failing/winning product.

 

It's always better that way. No company should have the upper hand too long. If it's a tug of war, each one has to lower their prices and come up with newer and more competitive products which benefits the consumers.

Intel has a grip on the notebook CPU market for a very very long time so I say it'd be a positive thing if AMD would be able to give them a toggle

 

It's not just the product that matters though; if AMD came out with a substantially better notebook platform than Intel tomorrow, it could easily fail if not marketed right and if AMD was unable to make deals with notebook companies. The performance is what matters to us elite computer users but to the typical notebook consumer it doesn't; they are concerned with price. With better marketing and management, I think AMD could have significant market share.

 

I think "easily fail" might be a slight stretch but you are pretty on the mark. AMD has been pretty successful with the products that they have which are superior, although to my recollection this has almost never been in the notebook segment.

The second part of your statement, "make deals with notebook companies" is the most important part in my opinion. There is a hidden factor here though: it has now been proven that Intel has coerced companies to delay/cancel the launch of AMD products.

I personally have seen evidence. Asus told vendors in the case of the K51AB and K70AB that "they are focusing on selling Intel products in the U.S. market at the moment." If that doesn't smell fishy, neither does my tuna-salad.

If AMD does manage to make deals with notebook manufacturers (which they did with PUMA and yet we saw little to no releases and I wonder why), AND the manufacturers actually supply the retailers with the products, then the retailers will handle marketing.

Case in point:

When AMD launched the PUMA platform, it was widely published that it had over 100 design wins (meaning over 100 different laptop configurations with the PUMA platform, from different manufacturers).

We have only seen small amounts of these actual laptops make it to retailers.

The few PUMA platform laptops that actually made it to retailers are marketed and sell well. If you look at a Best Buy weekly flyer, you are likely
to find several AMD notebooks on sale advertised along side the Intel models.

To conclude my point, I believe that if AMD makes a superior notebook platform (superior meaning faster, more efficient, and cooler):

1. They will have no problem getting a record number of design wins from laptop manufacturers across the board if they can show their design's superiority

2. There will be no problem with the manufacturers actually shipping to retailers, so long as they aren't paid off by Intel.

3. The retailers will make a solid effort to market the products they sell, and they will sell well.

Now this scenario, including the three factors listed above may not have ever existed yet. Although AMD had a considerable performance crown for some period of time, it has been proved that #2 was the broken link in the chain.

It's a shame if you take this into account in thinking about how much healthy competition we have lost out on in the past ~10 years or so because of Intel's anti-competitive practices.

 

IIRC, Intel has been blamed in the past for practices verging near monopoly in quite a few countries right?

I mean, in the notebook sector, they DO have a pretty large grip over most companies.

 

Blamed, found guilty of, and fined.

 

If this actually launches with success in the next couple of weeks and we see it in retail stores I'll be surprised, but very happy.

 

Time to see if they can be competitive with Intel again.

 

Tigris could be great if..........................

1. the 45nm dual-core is Phenom (Regor) based
2. the RS880M GPU is an 80 shader 4xxx series chip fabbed at 40nm

the current platform was amazing on release if only because it had a powerful GPU aggressively manufactured on a brand new fabrication process.

they could do the same again GPU-wise, but this time they will need to provide more than a refreshed A64 CPU!

 

What does 12 Months of stability and longevity mean, not what I think, or?

 

Yeah that didn't make sense to me either.

Another post in the K series Asus thread referred to a German site that says September availability.

I hate when something is "paper" launched. I mean the freaking Tigris was announced a long time ago only for them to now finally "paper launch" it at Computex so we can wait another 3 months to purchase one..

 

Clock for clock, Phenom ll is still behind Penryn, and Penryn as we all know is pretty old. In the notebook market, AMD will have to play how they always have, in the budget realm. It will be nice to see AMD making performance gains with a larger cache and tweaked architecture, and better thermals from advancing to 45nm, but clock for clock they're still behind Intel's aging core.

The main advantage AMD has is a much better integrated GPU solution and of course their in-house dedicated GPUs. So the budget minded consumer looking for some entertainment power would be better off buying an AMD notebook with AMD integrated graphics, rather than a more expensive Intel notebook with the shoddy GMA. And if they can pull off something like Intel will in the near future by integrating the PCI bus with the CPU, they'd have an even bigger upperhand with integrated GPU's.