AMD answers Intel with 'Congo,' HP laptop

Advanced Micro Devices will bring out its second-generation low-power Athlon chip technology that will debut on an updated laptop from Hewlett-Packard next week.

HP will update its Pavilion dv2 laptop with a dual-core version of AMD's low-power Athlon processor
HP will update its Pavilion dv2 laptop with a dual-core version of AMD's low-power Athlon processor
AMD is aiming its Neo technology at the ultra-thin laptop market. This is the same market that Intel has addressed for a long time with its ULV (ultra-low-voltage) chips. However, until very recently, laptops using Intel's ULV chips were expensive "executive jewelry," as Intel CEO Paul Otellini has described the segment. (Think: $2,000-and-up Sony Vaio TT or Toshiba Portege R600 laptops.)

That was then. Intel now targets its ULV silicon at inexpensive ultra-thin laptops. It's probably safe to say that AMD beat Intel to the punch (and got Intel's attention) when HP announced the 0.9-inch-thick, $700 dv2 laptop at CES in January, sporting the first Neo chip.

And the dv2 was more than a Netbook: it had a 12-inch screen, ran Windows Vista, packed ATI graphics, and came replete with a 320GB hard disk drive and 4GB of memory.

The updated HP Pavilion dv2 is expected to debut on June 10 with the dual-core Athlon Neo.

Other vendors will follow. Code-named Congo, the new low-power Athlon silicon will be used in 24 designs across 11 different PC makers, according to AMD.

Congo also integrates AMD's HD3200 graphics, an improvement over the current technology. The all-important power envelope--that, after all, is what sets the technology apart from mainstream mobile silicon--of the whole package including the graphics is expected to be about the same as the current single-core Neo, according to AMD.

One of the challenges that AMD faces is benchmarks. This CNET review said that though the "1.6 GHz Neo CPU MV-40 has enough processing power to run Windows Vista smoothly, something that has tripped up Intel-Atom-powered systems" when "running multiple apps simultaneously, none of these low-power, single-core CPUs were particularly impressive, and the Neo and Atom were essentially tied in our multitasking test. By way of comparison, a standard Intel Core 2 Duo ULV (ultra-low voltage) processor, as found in more expensive 12-inch laptops, easily beats them all."

So, reviewers (and prospective buyers) will be paying attention to how well AMD's dual-core Neo benchmarks do against Intel's newest dual-core ULV chips and whether AMD offers the battery life of Intel-based ultra-thin laptops, which some vendors say get nine hours from one charge.
Originally posted at Nanotech - The Circuits Blog