Mobile Athlons just days away?
The chips might be, but the laptops apparently are not
Laptops are not built for gaming, but NVIDIA want to change that with their new GeForce GO! graphics chipset. AMD also have aspirations for high performance laptops capable of gaming and other desktop-class tasks, and it seems that they are very close to realising their aim. Ace's Hardware is reporting by way of News.com that AMD's mobile Palominos (the next incarnation of Athlon) are only days away, but that thanks to a shortage of components for the mobile Athlon platform, actual laptops built on the processor could be months away. The article on News.com, Ace's say, indicates that major OEMs such as Compaq and HP have pushed back their schedules to June or July as a result of this lack of infrastructure. Mobile chipsets are apparently to blame. Solutions from VIA and ALi are apparently a quarter away from high volume production, scheduled to ship nearer the middle of the year. AMD's aggressive scheduling has put them way ahead of their market partners, and it could hurt them in the long run. "We plan to have production shipments this quarter in volume," AMD spokesman Ward Tisdale said, but the official announcement of the product won't come until at least one top tier PC manufacturer (e.g. Compaq) is ready to release a laptop based on it. The new mobile Palomino format will debut at speeds of 900MHz, and uses PowerNow! to conserve energy and increase battery life, making it the perfect mobile format. The mobile Palomino is based on the same core that AMD claim will do 1.7GHz in a desktop machine by the end of the year. HP, Compaq and others are thought to be working on laptop designs, but thanks to the shortages announcements could be as much as several months off. The mobile Athlon's little brother, the mobile Duron, is due to be introduced at speeds of 600MHz and 700MHz, but it is unknown how its development progresses. One would assume it does so in parallel. The chip will use a 1.4v core on a 0.18 micron fabrication process, and PowerNow! to help conserve energy. Related Feature - KT133E
