Today AMD announced the availability of their next-gen Puma notebook platform. The platform includes new Turion X2 Ultra CPUs as well as AMD's RS780M chipset, essentially the mobile equivalent of 780G on the desktop.
AMD Puma notebook IMAGE
The new Turion X2 Ultra is largely based on AMD's older K8 CPU architecture, only its been tweaked to support Hyper Transport 3.0 and integrates power-saving tech similar to Phenom. AMD will initially offer three X2 Ultra processors, the ZM-86, ZM-82, and ZM-80. The ZM-86 runs at 2.4GHz and features a 2MB L2 cache (1MB cache per core), while the ZM-82 and ZM-80 each contain a 1MB L2 cache and run at 2.2GHz and 2.1GHz respectively.
As we've already learned, Puma will couple new Turion X2 Ultra processors (code-named Griffin) with 780-series chipsets and Radeon HD 3000-series integrated graphics. They adds that the package will include Wi-Fi chips from Atheros, Broadcom, Marvell, and Ralink as well as optional Radeon 3450, 3650, and 3850 discrete graphics modules. AMD will even add solid-state drives to the mix, but "in a very limited fashion"—the chipmaker reportedly thinks SSDs are too pricey for Puma's target markets.
AMD Puma notebook PHOTO
IT has also mentioned that Puma will appear in all popular notebook form factors, including 12.1", 13.3", 15.4", and 17" models. Such diversity shouldn't be too surprising considering that AMD recently announced 100 design wins for the platform, and that Puma notebooks can include relatively potent discrete graphics options.
It’s taken more than 18 months, but finally the increased graphics power demanded by Windows Vista has encouraged hardware vendors to offer notebooks that can deliver not only a decent Vista Aero experience, but which can also offer the consumer a great gaming and high-definition platform. Another reason to say goodbye to XP.
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