AMD's taking a different approach to ultra-portable systems by offering ultra-thin 12in+ notebooks based on its Yukon platform - announced at CES '09 earlier this month.
Promising truly-portable systems that don't skimp on functionality, AMD hoped to have found a near-uncontested area of the market. Intel's Atom is ruling all in the sub-12in form factor, but at around 12-14in, there aren't many low-cost and low-power options. Unfortunately for AMD, Yukon - and its associated 1.6GHz Athlon Neo processor - won't hit the European market until April '09.
By then, there could be a steady wave of fierce competition. NVIDIA's ION platform appears to be the missing ingredient in Intel Atom systems, and its GeForce-based architecture could, we feel, easily provide the oomph required to strip Atom-based netbooks of their seemingly "limited functionality".
Perhaps more worrying, though, is Intel's own CULV (consumer ultra-low voltage) platform - revealed earlier this week as an undeniable threat to AMD's Yukon - CULV will utilise a low-power Core 2-derived processor, along with a shrunken Intel chipset. Nonetheless, despite the always-present threat from Intel, AMD's Yukon still has its merits, and provided it reaches the market before the competition, it might just have the legs to stay one step ahead in the 12-14in portable space.
In order to keep ahead, though, it'll need to combat Intel's low-power Core 2-derived parts with a dual-core derivative of its own, and that's now expected to arrive later in 2009 as part of AMD's Congo platform. According to eweek.com, AMD has for the first time confirmed that the expected dual-core successor to its yet-to-be-launched Athlon Neo processor will arrive later in the year.
Details remain few and far between, but we're led to believe that a dual-core Athlon Neo could retain a 15W TDP and be paired with some form of Puma-derived M780G-based chipset. Throw in a discrete Mobility Radeon GPU, and on paper the Congo platform as a whole is starting to look mighty impressive.
Be it Intel, NVIDIA or AMD-based, we're in store for a wide range of impressive ultra-thin and ultra-portable systems later in the year. They might just be sporting Windows 7, too.
