AMD May Detail Netbook CPUs Soon

By Marcus Yam
published

While nothing is yet official, common logic points to AMD revealing more details on its netbook and UMPC processor solution at its annual Financial Analyst Day in Sunnyvale on Thursday.

With Intel currently running away with the netbook market with the Atom processor, basically unchallenged, AMD must certainly be putting a great deal of effort into coming up with a competitive solution of its own.

AMD revealed that a processor codenamed “Bobcat” was underway at the chipmaker, which is expected to be a simplified x86 core with a thermal design power number no greater than 10 W.

Notebooks.com believes that AMD will finally pull the covers off the new processor, citing both previous comments from AMD CEO Dirk Meyer as well as a PR firm’s effort to invite the notebook-centric website to the conference.

Meyer said before in a Q3 earnings call, “We will show at the Analyst Conference pictorially how we think about the notebook market. Clearly the so-called netbook is a new form factor, a new market opportunity and one that we are not participating in right now today.”

Stay tuned.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
8 Comments Comment from the forums
  • afrobacon
    i hope this new processor does the same thing to low power processors as the 4000 series did to graphics cards. intel needs the competition.
    Reply
  • Pei-chen
    AMD might as well as abandoning the PC market and focus on handhelds. Instead of focusing on speed, ALD always found an excuse to build an underpowered CPU for a specific market. What happened to the trashy CPU in OLPC; too powerful? For a company the size of AMD, it actually has more processor lines than Intel.

    Reply
  • smalltime0
    Isn't VIA the only company opposing Intel in the netbooks ATM?
    Definately not a healthy market.
    Reply
  • tntom
    Bobcat was first mentioned years ago. Will we finally see it?
    Reply
  • pug_s
    I wouldn't be surprised that what is unveiled is the 1ghz athlon processor 128kb L1 and 256mb l2, 800mhz hyperlink transport. Besides, it is something that tomshardware had an article on a couple of weeks ago comparing a processor like that with the intel's atom. Personally, these umpc should cost around $200 and hopefully that bobcat jumps on the scene will actually make this happen.
    Reply
  • tipoo
    i hope it B!@$ slaps Atom!
    Reply
  • hannibal
    Does anyone know if there is coming 4000 series mobile GPU's anytime soon? ATI 4000 series has so much adwanteges compared to 3000 series, that it would be nice to see mobile versions like 4350 and 4650.

    But in anyway it's nice to see new mobile CPU from AMD. New shanghai seem to be stable and low power workstation chip, so any mobile entry from AMD is interesting to see!
    Reply
  • fazers_on_stun
    I guess after dismissing the netbook market and then seeing Intel mop the floor with Atom, AMD finally wised up. Makes me think Jerry Yang runs AMD's marketing strategy as well as Yahoo :)...
    Reply