AMD Bringing 3 Cores To The Laptop

For ostensibly the same reasons that someone would pick a three core processor for the desk, better performance than two cores, not as much power consumption as four cores, AMD now is giving the user that choice in the laptop form.

Most people will never fully use a four core processor on a laptop, both due to the peripherals attached, with their lack of speed, and because most laptop users always have a careful eye on the battery life. However, those same users might really look forward to a bit more than a dual core processor almost constantly pegged at 100% CPU usage.

AMD says they have chips for that, and InfoWorld tells about it -

Advanced Micro Devices will put triple-core processors into laptops to fill a power and performance gap, the company said.

Laptops today contain either dual-core or quad-core processors, and offering a triple-core CPU could bring laptops that are faster than the dual-core chips but more power-efficient than quad-core processors, said Bob Grim, director of client product marketing, at an AMD event during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The chips will ship by the end of the first half.

AMD’s offering would be the first triple-core processors available for laptops. AMD has been offering triple-core processors for desktops and offers only dual-core chips for laptops. Intel offers dual-core and quad-core chips for its laptops and desktops.

Laptops with dual-core processors offer good performance, but adding an extra core helps boost application performance, Grim said. For example, the third core can take on resource-heavy tasks like antivirus scanning while freeing up the other two cores. The chip could also be a power-efficient option to Intel’s quad-core chips, which usually go into power-hungry enthusiast systems.

AMD is also offering triple-core processors to PC makers as a way to differentiate from the usual dual-and quad-core offerings, Grim said.

The chips will be offered as part of the next-generation laptop platform code-named Danube and manufactured using the 45-nanometer process, which helps the company achieve higher levels of integration. The platform will also include dual-core and quad-core chips.

Danube processors are designed to boost laptop battery life by more than an hour, Grim said. The company is also launching a new platform for ultrathin laptops called Nile. Danube chips will support the faster DDR3 form of memory.

The company displayed the first laptop with a Danube chip at the event. The chip offers an improvement in speed and graphics compared to the current Dragon platform, Grim said. AMD is upgrading the integrated graphics capabilities in the platform.

AMD also displayed a desktop running on the next-generation Leo platform. The platform, which is based on processors with up to six cores, will include new integrated graphics and a chipset.

So, while breaking no new ground, these three core processors will make life easier for many who must live a life on the road with a laptop, or make things nicer for that person used to a fast machine at home, and wanting most of the performance when not there. These chips and the machines built around them should do that nicely, and after all, isn’t that what computers are supposed to do?