AMD Starts Shipping Mobile Durons 65
HiyaPower writes: "AMD announced today that it has started shipment of its mobile Duron line of processors. While these were supposed to have made it out the gate in 00Q4, it is nice to see that they have finally appeared. Designed around a 1.6V VCore, these processors have a power dissipation of roughly 25W at 600 Mhz, and 29W at 700 Mhz according to the tech specs. Pricing is aggressive as might be expected in this environment. The AMD mobile line has been a good one since the K6-III+
processors. Hopefully, these Durons will live up to the tradition." I bet this release is a spur to the folks at both Intel and Transmeta -- isn't it nice to watch one-upmanship at work sometimes?
NEC Notebook only available in Japan? (Score:2)
I haven't heard or read anything about this LaVie U notebook line from NEC. It is not mentioned on nec.com [neccomp.com]. Will these notebooks only be available in Japan (The press statement only mentions NEC Japan!)?
That would mean a relatively low level of support for the mobile Duron, wouldn't it? It would fit the impression you get when you look at the press statements on NEC's website [neccomp.com]: They still praise the introduction of the mobile PIII 800Mhz but I can't find anything about the new notebooks.
Re:Hmmmm (Score:1)
The price of the processor is the least of your worries. There's so many other expenses when you buy a laptop (like the screen) that a low cost processor won't have too big of an effect...
But any little bit helps, I guess... as long as you can save a couple bucks.
Re:Oh great, this is just great. (Score:1)
If you need help with formatting your hard drive, contact your computer manufacturer's technical support.
Re:Mobile Durons (Score:2)
But as you note it would be sweet.
Re:Oh yea baby, it's very nice (Score:1)
We use the laptop with two Ethernet cards because it provides a single small package incorporating system unit, keyboard, and display. The Duron would be a bit of overkill for us, as the current box is a refurbished unit with 120 MHz Pentium and 16M of DRAM. It's been doing the job reliably for most of the past three years.
Re:Mobile Duron + GeForce2Go (Score:1)
I already play 3D games on my PowerBook... Quake3 runs 65fps using the "fast" settings. Of course, I'll run out of batteries in just 3 hours of playing, since the G3/500 draws 8 watts when utilizing the FPU heavily, and the R128 mobility M3 (with 8M VRAM) draws 2.0 watts.
of course, it's annoying that the Mac versions of games are generally more expensive here in Finland, and usually harder to find a specific title you're looking for. And, you need to bring Linux down and boot into MacOS to play them, this is just as bad as in the intel world where linux guys need dual-boot setups if they want to play games...
Re:Power comparison. (Score:3)
A mobile P3 at 800 uses nearly as much as the 600 Duron...
Btw if your overally concerned with heat makes sure your laptop uses an OS that uses HLT... Especially with the Mobile Duron... that could easily lower wattage of the Mobile Duron by 5-7 W...
Re:HOOHA ALERT (Score:2)
o well, your mother probably committed suicide when she saw you.
Re:Hmmmm (Score:2)
Isn't it a wonderful world we live in where processor selection can lead to anal penetration?
Comment removed (Score:3)
Re:Mobile Duron + GeForce2Go (Score:2)
Power dissapation (Score:1)
Re:Mobile Duron + GeForce2Go (Score:1)
Note to NVidia fans - if you look at the specs you might think the GeForce2Go only uses a little more power than an equivalent ATI M part....except the M's have integrated VRAM and the GF2G's don't...throw in the external VRAM for the GF2G and it's way out of line.
25 Watts, though? (Score:1)
Re:Power dissapation (Score:2)
There's no such thing as a mobile G4. The main reason is that the G4 is already biased towards low-power usage since its main market area is routers and other internet infrastructure stuff. Apple is only a mid-sized player in the chip market. IMO Apple should go for the POWER4 architecture chips from IBM which are _real_ desktop and server CPUs, and can easily outperform any x86.
The regular G4 (7400) eats 11.5W maximum, true, but the part they use in the new PB4Ti is 7450 aka G4+ which is a different chip. Since it has 256K of on-chip L2 cache, it's got lots (lots) more transistors (around 22M) than the old design (6M IIRC)... I saw a figure of 14 watts max somewhere for the G4+, but I'm quite unsure whether it was for the 533MHz part or the 733MHz one.
DDR? (Score:1)
Re:Laptop Broiler (Score:1)
Now this is competition (Score:1)
Re:Mobile Durons (Score:1)
maybe you would make more sense if you ran Windows 2000.
Re:Oh yea baby, it's very nice (Score:1)
Stock (Score:1)
If so I want to buy a few hundred shares when it opens.
Re:Nice and All (Score:1)
X86 power grab (Score:2)
Compare the above numbers with that of the StrongARM [intel.com]/XScale [intel.com] technology:
StrongARM @ 233 Mhz consumes 725 mW @ 2.0v.
Intel XScale @ 400 Mhz consumes 500 mW @ 1.0v.
Intel XScale @ 1000 Mhz consumes 1.6 W @ 1.8v.
Any of these processors would turn in very credible performance on a Linux-based system. We've come a long way in the past couple of years. Might it be time to test the market on a non-Windows general purpose computer? How about one that's portable and has respectable battery life?
The success of the Compaq iPaq 3600 speaks volumes for the market for such a device.
Re:The really cool thing... (Score:1)
I think intel's way is much better than nothing at all.
Re:Mobile durons? (Score:1)
Re:Mobile Durons? (Score:1)
Re:Definition (Score:1)
Re:Power comparison. (Score:2)
Without being very authoritative, various google searches for <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=watts+g4"> 'watts G4'</a> and <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=watts+g3"> 'watts G3'</a>
It speaks of the G4(non mobile) as sucking up <a href="http://macweb.macol.net/~PowerMacG4Central/
Soooo... Is this hype, or are the PowerPC chips *really* that cool, in comparison? And why are we settling for such power sucking PCs? Are we just that cheap? Or that greedy? In terms of ecological effects (heating and noise), PCs are fine room warmers... but still, that's a side effect we can engineer out, can't we?
Geek dating! [bunnyhop.com]
PowerPC alternatives (Score:2)
Here's what *I'm* curious about.
Without being very authoritative, various google searches for:
<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=watts+g4"> 'watts G4'</a>
and
<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=watts+g3"> 'watts G3'</a>
It speaks of the G4(non mobile) as sucking up <a href="http://macweb.macol.net/~PowerMacG4Central/
Soooo... Is this hype, or are the PowerPC chips *really* that cool, in comparison? And why are we settling for such power sucking PCs? Are we just that cheap? Or that greedy? In terms of ecological effects (heating and noise), PCs are fine room warmers... but still, that's a side effect we can engineer out, can't we?
I'm sooo tempted to buy an Apple. It would seem powerful *enough*(of course, not the most powerful), and featured, enough, what with Firewire, USB, ethernet and modems, and cool enough, what with Airport antennas, some systems with CD-R and DVD-R, gigabit, etc...
I guess Mac OS X will seal my doom, what with the strength and stability of BSD, the slickness of Aqua, and display pdf...
Geek dating! [bunnyhop.com]
PowerPC redux. (Score:2)
(second time. I keep forgetting POT!)
Here's what *I'm* curious about.
Without being very authoritative, various google searches for:
'watts G4' [google.com]
and
'watts G3' [google.com]
It speaks of the G4(non mobile) as sucking up 20+ watts [macol.net] as high power. A fast G3 sucks something something like 4 to 5 watts. [zdnet.com]
Soooo... Is this hype, or are the PowerPC chips *really* that cool, in comparison? And why are we settling for such power sucking PCs? Are we just that cheap? Or that greedy? In terms of ecological effects (heating and noise), PCs are fine room warmers... but still, that's a side effect we can engineer out, can't we?
I'm sooo tempted to buy an Apple. It would seem powerful *enough*(of course, not the most powerful), and featured, enough, what with Firewire, USB, ethernet and modems, and cool enough, what with Airport antennas, some systems with CD-R and DVD-R, gigabit, etc...
I guess Mac OS X will seal my doom, what with the strength and stability of BSD, the slickness of Aqua, and display pdf...
Geek dating! [bunnyhop.com]
Mobile durons? (Score:1)
Now making one out of Durex I could understand, but *Durons*?
Mobile i386's are not for me... (Score:2)
Nice and All (Score:1)
Now where the hell are the SMP Athlon boards!!! =)
.technomancer
Power supply (Score:4)
Hmmmm (Score:1)
Re:Hmmmm (Score:1)
I'm also glad that although they missed their 00Q4 deadline, that they got it out the door soon afterwards. I think Blizzard needs to learn from them.
Laptop Broiler (Score:2)
I would consider it well worth the reduced battery life to include some Peltier Devices [everything2.com] just for the underside, so I don't go sterile!
Just the old 'spitfire' core with lower voltage :( (Score:3)
which will have PowerNow and ther power-draw-
orientated enchantments too.
But that chip is not yet ready,
so they just lowered the voltage of current duron
from 1.6 to 1.4 V, and added a "mobile"-sticker on it.
It has too big power requireemnts to be a real good mobile part, and I think k6-2+ and k6-III+
are still AMD's mest mobile parts.
We will have to wait a few months until
AMD releases truly mobile palomino and morgan-cored athlons.
Re:How about Transmeta? (Score:1)
Re:...but not at Apple... (Score:1)
Don't you mean PROPER mouse buttons?
--
Re:Power dissapation (Score:2)
Meanwhile, my Vaio PCG-Z505HS, which I am gladly rid of, ate its battery in 1 hour or less, with 128 MB of RAM, a 12.1" display, and no drives attached. Sony claims 1-2 hours battery life.
Re:Power dissapation (Score:1)
http://e-www.motorola.com/brdata/PDFDB/MICROPRO
The 450MHz G4 uses 5.0W typical, 11.5W maximum, at 1.8V. I'm guessing there is a little lower core voltage in the mobile G4.
Re:Mobile durons? (Score:1)
--
Apparently Intel is fast at work on the P5 (Score:2)
IRNI
SexCow Airlines [sexcowairlines.com]
Problem solved. (Score:1)
--
Re:Oh great, this is just great. (Score:1)
Re:Power comparison. (Score:1)
I'm watching Jet Li on TV (Score:2)
Re:Power dissapation (Score:1)
This said, the next gen desktop should use IBM Power4 and forget Altivec. This would give volume to IBM of what is a apparently a screamer and easily scales to 8 way SMP. Cost for 8 way would be high, but not excesive considering the horsepower; this could be kept as an option, standard would be one chip, i.e 2 way SMP.
Re:PowerPC redux. (Score:2)
I actually do say useful things, generally. It's not like my 3 identical posts got modded up 3 times...
Geek dating! [bunnyhop.com]
Re:NEC Notebook only available in Japan? (Score:2)
Yep, key phrase there, "NEC Japan."
Might be a better idea to try http://www.nec.jp" [www.nec.jp] instead.
Re:NEC Notebook only available in Japan? (Score:1)
Re:Mobile durons? (Score:2)
Well, what else are you going to do with all those chips fried while overclocking them, but hang them above your computer?
--
...but not at Apple... (Score:2)
On the subjet of one-upsmanship, it merits mentioning that the new G4 PowerBooks [apple.com] are a formidable entry into the laptop arena; 5 hours' battery life on a 400-500 mHz ultraslim laptop is nothing to sneeze at.
In fact, it'd be really, really cool and worthy of our notice...if it had more than one mouse button! AW-HAW-HAW-HAW! *snort*
Ahem.
information wants to be expensive...nothing is so valuable as the right information at the right time.
Power comparison. (Score:5)
I'm an AMD fan (and they're hot, so they can use all they can get, HAH! ouch) so I'm glad to see AMD finally getting going on the high end laptop market. For comparison to the 25W and 29W power consumption, here's some Intel mobile power consumption data:
Original Mobile Celeron 266: 5.8 W [intel.com]
Mobile Pentium III @ 650 Mhz 7.9 - 14 W [intel.com] depending on load (speedstep technology)
And previously from AMD:
Mobile K6-II @ 400 mhz: 12 Watts [amd.com]
Mobile K6-III @ 450? mhz: avg. 12 watts [amd.com] probably more.
So again, AMD comes out heavy on the power usage, and probably heat. Unfortunately my Pentium II laptop is already heating my groin area too much when I'm working with it on my lap, don't need another 20 W of power getting transmitted down there.
It's just common sense.
Mobile Durons? (Score:5)
I suppose you -could- always add a hamster wheel in there, to keep them amused.
Re:Nice and All (Score:1)
I think for laptops battery life is much more important than speed. But then again, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe People would prefer to get 3 hours of quake rather than 6 hours of word and excel on an airplane.
This is humor ;) (Score:2)
Spokesman for AMD felt they would really be reaching the type of computer goer needed to get this chip off the ground.
Also launching this very same day is AMD's new marketing campaign... which heralds the slogan a Muron for a Moron.
Immediately after the initial release, several marketing wizards were fired and beaten.
Mobile Duron + GeForce2Go (Score:2)
Exciting.
Re:Just the old 'spitfire' core with lower voltage (Score:1)
Will it be called a Moron?
Re:Oh yea baby, it's very nice (Score:2)
Also, if you are administering Unix machines, X works much better in it's original form than some X clone for win32...
The really cool thing... (Score:1)
- A.P.
--
* CmdrTaco is an idiot.
Re: (Score:1)
29 Watts! (Score:3)
Mobile Duron + Geeks = Instant Unix!
Related Developments (Score:2)
Demo'd at Comdex last November, the KT266 supports AMD's Socket A chip interface, connecting the processor to the rest of the world via a 266MHz frontside bus. The chipset supports up to 266MHz DDR (Double Data Rate) SDRAM on the memory side for maximum data throughput rate of 2.1GBps, but will also work with PC-133 SDRAM. It can cope with 4GB of RAM, according to VIA's press release, but only 2GB if the company's Web site is to be believed. Go figure...
In any case I can hardly wait for this technology to also be available for the mobile world. AMD and Via are probably working closely together on this, and it would be nice to see some of this for the road warriors out there.