AMD Unveiled Notebook Platform Roadmap

AMD’s current laptop PC platform codenamed ‘Kite’, featuring Turion and Mobile Sempron processors, is to be refreshed starting next year. The refresh will include notebook processors update, as same as use of hybrid graphics and forthcoming wireless 802.11n standard, according to the unveiled company’s public roadmap.

The ‘Hawk’ processors will debut in Q3 next year with an 800MHz DDR2 memory support. The Hawk will be a 65nm CPU, according to the reports. Additionally, in 2008, Griffin processors and ‘Puma’ notebook platform will bring low-voltage computing.

The next inovation which will be introduced in 2007 is hybrid graphics, combining integrated and discrete GPUs. According to AMD, simply plugging in or unplugging the AC adaptor will automatically flip between the discrete and integrated graphics. The battery life is to be saved by using less power-demanding integrated graphics chip, when laptop is unplugged from power supply.

The draft 802.11n wireless standard, which is expected to show up in AMD based notebooks next year, will be replaced with IEEE-approved 802.11n standard in 2008, the CPU and chipset maker expects.

The ‘Puma’ AMD’s laptop platform will support DirectX 10, PCI Express 2, and HyperTransport 3.0, AMD said. The company also mentioned the use of hybrid disk drives, HDD’s with large cache memory, in its 2007 and 2008 mobile PC platforms.

Recently, Intel also announced its forthcoming notebook platform codenamed “Santa Rosa”. The next Intel Centrino platform, scheduled for introduction in the first half of 2007, is designed for use with Intel Core 2 Duo (Merom) processors, and features up to 800MHz frontside bus. It incorporates 802.11n Wireless, the NAND Flash hard drive cache, Graphics Media Accelerator X3000 integrated card and 3G WAN card.

Marty Seyer at 2006 AMD Analyst Day (pdf file containing next laptop platform’s details, around 7MB)

[...] According to the earlier reports, AMD’s and Intel’s new notebook platforms scheduled to arrive next year, will feature chipsets with DDR2 800MHz memory support. [...]

[...] AMD’s plans for Hybrid Graphics, as well as for processors and notebook platforms in 2007 and 2008, were previously announced at Company’s Analyst Day in December last year. [...]