There’s A New AMD Processor In Town

The AMD Turion 64 X2 is designed for thin and light notebook PCs and will begin appearing in various manufacturers' models later this quarter.

AMD yesterday introduced a new family of 64-bit dual-core processors designed for thin and light notebook PCs. The new AMD Turion 64 X2 mobile processors are initially expected to appear in laptops from Acer, ASUS, BenQ, Flocity, FSC, Fujitsu, Gateway, HP, MSI, NEC, Packard Bell, Sotec and TongFang this quarter.

AMD’s Turion 64 X2 mobile technology, said the microprocessor company, is optimized for the 64-bit versions of the upcoming Microsoft Windows Vista operating system and based on the same “Direct Connect Architecture” featured in the AMD Opteron and AMD Athlon 64 X2 processors. Features of the Turion 64 X2 include multi-core power management for reportedly longer battery life; accelerated image processing, audio and video encoding and decoding and 3D graphic rendering; and enhanced “performance, reliability, and security” for virtualized environments.

“AMD is first to market with the only 64-bit dual-core mobile processor, driving the wave of next-generation mobile platforms that are ready today to run the upcoming 64-bit version of Microsoft Windows Vista,” said Chris Cloran, vice president, AMD Mobile Division, in a statement. “This is advanced mobile technology for the office or home, packing dual-core processing for extreme multi-tasking, 64-bit computing, extended battery life and cutting-edge technology from industry leaders in wireless, connectivity and graphics.”