AMD Prepping Triple, Quad Core Mobile CPUs

News
By Marcus Yam
published

Make way for a ménage à trois of AMD mobile CPU cores.

Laptops, with their strict power and heat restrictions, typically feature dual-core processors. But AMD is looking to crank things up beyond Intel's Arrandale chips that have just two cores.

AMD's Bob Grim, director of client product marketing, said that triple core mobile chips will be shipping by the end of the first half of this year, reported PC World. Grim poses that triple core chips sit in a unique spot of performing better than dual-core processors while not incurring the power penalty of having four cores. It's simple logic, but true nonetheless.

The new chips from AMD will be a part of the 45-nm Danube platform, which will support DDR3 memory. AMD expects Danube to extend battery life by more than an hour.

Both dual and quad core AMD chips can also be integrated into Danube, leading some enthusiasts to ponder whether or not some chips will simply be crippled quad core parts. If so, then may the core unlocking take place on laptops too!

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.
See more CPUs News
29 Comments Comment from the forums
  • rjkucia
    Hopefully this will help AMD compete in the mobile space, where it has always struggled. As long as they can keep the thermals and power usage down, of course.
    Reply
  • jay236
    Horray for competition!

    If mobile AMD processors are able to actually tack on extra half an hour on battery life...this may push consumers to actually be steered towards AMD mobile processors (instead of the market dominated Intel processors).
    Reply
  • Upendra09
    Intel actually has i7s and core 2 quads for many laptops it's about time for AMD

    AMD really can benefit from this if they can help extend battery life compared to the core 2 quad

    now they just need a netbook segment and they can kick intel out
    Reply
  • warmon6
    jay236Horray for competition!
    good thing there finally getting some quads out.
    Reply
  • this is what ive been waiting for. those new core i3 and i5 in my opinion are nothing compared to these true multi core solutions. now couple these with the mobility 5000 series and you have a truly kick ass gaming pc.
    Reply
  • masterjaw
    Nice one. Looking forward in seeing laptops offering more AMD cpus.
    Reply
  • CrashOverride90
    This would be amazing to see! I currently own a triple core Phenom (720 BE). Totally love the desktop triple core.

    If AMD ships out triple core mobile processors which can improve battery life by an hour I will say bye bye to my current intel laptop!!!
    Reply
  • DjEaZy
    ... have somebody done some crazy stuff, like CPU OC in laptops? My Aspire's 8530G CPU runs @ 3300Mhz... when plugged in of course... have gone til 3500Mhz, but that waz unstable... K10STAT dues wonders...
    Reply
  • maniac5999
    Well, I've done minor OCs (2.2 to 2.31ghz) with my old 130nm K8 lappy. unfortunately most laptops are so locked down that just managing to control clockspeed is an achievement and stability goes away quick. To be honest, I'd want to know that my laptop's overheat protection is working well before even trying ANY OC, but luckily my laptop is so old, that I'd shrug it off if I blew it up.

    Now the idea of AMD bringing affordable quad core laptops to the market is pretty cool, but what I'm really interested in is AMD's 3rd gen Ultrathin platform.With Intel you have a choice between powerless netbooks, and expensive ultrathins that have neutered MHD4500 graphics. AMD's current (2nd gen) ultrathin can punch in at $500 with decent power (1.6ghz K8 X2) and graphics that can bitch anything but Ion. The third gen should switch that 65nm K8 out for a faster and much more effecient 45nm K10.5, dramatically increasing battery life, while hopefully the new 8 series chipset IGP will increase AMD's lead over Intel with IGPs. (remember, intel's highest clocked desktop IGP is competitive with the 3200, the mobiles are all 20% OR MORE slower)
    Reply
  • maniac5999
    Well, I've done minor OCs (2.2 to 2.31ghz) with my old 130nm K8 lappy. unfortunately most laptops are so locked down that just managing to control clockspeed is an achievement and stability goes away quick. To be honest, I'd want to know that my laptop's overheat protection is working well before even trying ANY OC, but luckily my laptop is so old, that I'd shrug it off if I blew it up.

    Now the idea of AMD bringing affordable quad core laptops to the market is pretty cool, but what I'm really interested in is AMD's 3rd gen Ultrathin platform.With Intel you have a choice between powerless netbooks, and expensive ultrathins that have neutered MHD4500 graphics. AMD's current (2nd gen) ultrathin can punch in at $500 with decent power (1.6ghz K8 X2) and graphics that can bitch anything but Ion. The third gen should switch that 65nm K8 out for a faster and much more effecient 45nm K10.5, dramatically increasing battery life, while hopefully the new 8 series chipset IGP will increase AMD's lead over Intel with IGPs. (remember, intel's highest clocked desktop IGP is competitive with the 3200, the mobiles are all 20% OR MORE slower)
    Reply