News Bits: AMD Turion Sales Up, New Asus Gaming Notebooks, Intel $300M Centrino Push

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AMD Turion 64 sales up 50 percent

AMD Q3 earnings and results were very positive; total sales reached $1.3 billion, and net income totaled $134 million. The earnings represent a 9 percent increase from Q2 2006.

A major contributor to AMD's third quarter was its Turion 64 mobile processor. Demand grew over 50 percent, and average selling prices increased. AMD's Opteron server processors also did well. AMD's chief financial officer, Robert J. Rivet, said in a statement:

“Third quarter sales increased nine percent from the prior quarter, and 32 percent year-over-year, due to strong demand for all AMD processor brands. Microprocessor unit shipments grew 18 percent sequentially as customers continued leveraging AMD’s open platform approach. Demand for AMD Turion 64 mobile processors was especially strong, resulting in record mobile processor sales and unit shipments coupled with increased average selling prices (ASPs). Record AMD Opteron processor sales resulted from continued adoption of dual core processors, record unit shipments and improved ASPs.”

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Intel to spend $300 million in Centrino Pro push

Intel's Centrino technology will be updated to Centrino Pro with the lauch of the Santa Rosa mobile platform in 1H 2007. Its launch will also come with the availability of Microsoft's Windows Vista OS. Intel will spend $300 million USD in the promotion of Centrino Pro.

Centrino Pro technology will center around the dual-core 64-bit Merom (Core 2 Duo) processor. The new Core 2 Duo lineup will be launched in Q2 2007 with T7300, T7500, and T7700 models, all of which have an 800MHz FSB and 4MB of L2 cache. The lower-end T7100 will have 2MB of L2. All of the new Meroms use Socket P and Intel 965 series chipsets.

Taiwan notebook makers commented that pairing the Santa Rosa platform with Windows Vista will bring the most efficiency to the worldwide notebook market. Acer and HP are two first-tier makers who have revamped their product design roadmaps for 2007, including ultra-small notebooks with 10.4, 12.1, and 13.3&quot; displays. Worldwide notebook shipments in 2007 could surpass the 100 million mark, up from an estimated 80-85 million this year.

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Vista could be a notebook killer

The Inquirer is running an interesting article stating that although Windows Vista may be a battery life killer. Nathan Brookwood of Insight64 states that Windows Vista's graphical demands will suck the life out of most batteries too fast. When unplugged, many may find themselves disabling the eye candy because of the high battery drain. Brookwood points out that Vista is the first Microsoft OS that has required such large amounts of computing power.

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Averatec dual-core notebook runs for $849

The Averatec 2300 is the company's latest notebook, weighing in at a svelte 4 lbs and featuring a 12.1&quot; display. Processing power is provided by AMD's Turion 64 X2 TL-50 (1.6GHz, 2x 256k L2 cache). Other features include a dual-layer DVD burner and 100GB hard drive.

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New Asus gaming, Lamborghini notebooks

Asus fanatics might as well start dreaming now - here are a few new Asus notebook designs. None of the below systems even have a production date, let alone an ETA for the US. The only model we will probably see this year is the Lamborghini VX1 &quot;Golden Edition&quot;, which may come around Thanksgiving. The remaining models will most likely come next year as Santa Rosa Centrino Pro notebooks.

G1P

The Asus G1P appears to target Dell's XPS gaming notebook. There are no set specifications, but it will most likely be a 15.4&quot; model. The W, A, S, and D keys are specially colored, an indication this notebook will be aimed at gamers. Polished and exposed carbon fiber and black anodized brushed aluminum make up some of the build materials. The G1P will come with a matching backpack and Logitech gaming mouse.

G2P

The Asus G2P is a 17&quot;notebook based on the A7 chassis. It has the look of a high-end gaming notebook and the design is clean and simple. Given the amount of vents it has, this laptop clearly has a need to dissapate a good amount of heat so the internal components are probably quite powerful.

S7Fm

The S7Fm looks like a product of the S6F, W5F, M5N, and S5N put together. It features an 11.1&quot; widescreen display and swiveling 1.3 megapixel camera. It does not have an internal optical drive, and could end up weighing less than 2.5 lbs.

Lamborghini VX1 Golden Edition

The &quot;Golden Edition&quot; Lamborghini VX1 will hit the US in the largest numbers. The coloring differentiates it from the Yonah-based Lamborghini VX1's as it features a Merom (Core 2 Duo) processor. Specifications are similar to the original VX1:

• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo T7400 (2.16GHz/4MB L2/667MHz FSB)
• RAM: 2GB DDR2-667
• HDD: 160GB 5400RPM
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce Go7400VX, 128MB dedicated
• LCD: 15&quot; SXGA+ w/ special crystal level hardness LCD cover

Read More &amp; Discuss it here in the forums.

Interesting Links

Having issues with your Dell Latitude D620's display? Take a look at this discussion in the Dell forums regarding the model.

 

That Averatec ultraportable looks like a dream. Dual-core, 1Gb, WXGA, and DVDRW-DL for 4 lbs. and less than $900 (and $789 at Office Max)... Wow. I hope it's not a lemon. Sounds almost too good to be true.

C.

 

*Cough*Rebranded MSI MS-1058*Cough*

That is absurdly cheap though.

 

That Inquirer article is pretty silly. I think they might still be running a pre Beta CTP version of Vista, lol. RC2 with good drivers gives great battery life.

One of the more nonsensical articles from the Inquirer.

 

Like always a great article Chaz!

Battery life is going down with Vista? Well I will be using XP SP3 the coming 1.5 years anyway. Aero is great but more power consumption is not really something for me.

Great to hear that Santa Rosa is going to hit the market with a new name, Centrino Pro. The processor supports 800 MHz FSB, but does it also support 800 MHz DDR2? If the answer is yes, then that's just great. Running your FSB at the same speed as your DDR is a good combination.

I think Intel is going to hit the market very very hard with this new processor. It could be a real Turion killer.

Charlie

 

SP3? I hadn't even heard of that yet. When will MS put that out?

Unless of course you meant SP2...

 

SP3 is due out next year. It gets mentioned once in a very great while, but it's on Microsoft's road maps.

That Averatec is freaking FOXY. I'm liable to go check that out in the store, that's a really attractive machine for the price, and it has nVidia's very spiffy Go 6100 IGP. That's a lot of power in such a tiny package. I figured at that price they'd be putting POS SiS Mirage graphics in there like Acer does on their cheapo machines.

 

Too bad battery life only barely breaks 2 hours like the other Turion Averatec models >_<

 

I'm rather impressed by that Averatec offering. Definitely a nice budget offering.

 

Wow, that too? Heh. I hope it doesn't get too hot. That's one impressive machine, indeed. You can even play WoW well on a 6100 (assuming WoW is your thing, that is...)

C.

 

centrino pro? macbook pro? hmmm... somehow i begin to doubt that the macbook will include the full blown santa-rosa.

centrino pro sounds ridiculous for my taste btw.

ooh that G2P looks delish! the screen lid is looks a bit tacky though... is that a 16:9 res screen i'm seeing? wow 16:10 haven't been introduced that long and now they change to 16:9?!?!

 

I for one might be able to confirm the battery life loss...at least for now. Seems like I'm loosing between 20-30 mins out of around 3-3.5 hours.

 

Sure, Vista will be using more power at the moment. But XP has been around for almost six years and they've been improving battery efficiency for a while. Vista isn't even RTM yet and they [the Inquirer] are harping on about some extra requirements of Vista as if it is the end of the world.

Meh, the Inquirer are the tabloid of the IT world, so I don't tend to heed their high pitched yelping.

Now, if Gartner were to come out and announce this as a [significant] problem... arf!

 

I'm interested at Centrino Pro's campaign. Hopefully, this will push the prices of the Core Duo down to a sweet deal. Personally, I think if I bought the Core Duo next year I will be able to use it for several years to come. The next two years will probably come with a ton of changes to the notebook sector. I can't wait for more innovation.

 

What amuses me is the Lamborghini laptop. Those things are a joke. At least the Ferrari laptops had pretty decent video cards and performance. I'll bet that my laptop cost less than those Lambo's will, too (and every spec on it is better except the hard drive, which I can fix trivially)

 

the lambos selling point isnt mad power, its an upgrade to another asus model (dont remember off the top of my head which) basically with a lambo painted lid (thats where most of the expense is) and an overclocked graphics card. the things to remember is alot of the price of that notebook is that it is very well built, pretty, has the lambo name, and it is considerably sleeker then yoru compal (thats not an attack im typing on my beloved s96j, which is essentially the same thing)(and yes i know the diff between teh compal and asus, but their the same size, roughtly the same power, and very similar build)

that being sad, id still never buy a lambo, i want my notebooks to be famous as a notebook, not as a car, pack more power then the lambo and be a better value, hence s96j or hel 80

on a side note, the new asus notebooks make me drool.