AMD to 'ship' mobile Athlons, Semprons in Q3
 

AMD is set to promote take-up of its Athlon CPUs in notebook PCs next quarter with the launch of four 754-pin low-power mobile processors. Two will be offered as Athlon 64 parts - the others will carry the chip maker's new Sempron brand.

So suggests a low-power processor roadmap posted on amd64notebooks.com, and market 'AMD confidential'. The roadmap also reveals a slew of new AMD core codenames.

According to the slide, next quarter will see the arrival of Low-power Mobile Athlon 64 parts rated at 3000+ and 2800+, along with 32-bit 2600+ and 2800+ Mobile Semprons. All four chips will be offered as Socket 754 parts, suggesting the Semprons contain cut-down Athlon 64 cores.

AMD already offers a Low-power Mobile Athlon 64 2800+. The new version is based on a new core, 'Oakville', with 512KB of on-die L2. It's not clear whether this is a 90nm part. Current LP Mobile Athlon 64s are based on the 'Odessa' core, originally roadmapped to appear in H2 2004 as a 90nm part.

When the current 2700+ and 2800+ were launched, AMD admitted that Odessa had effectively been pulled forward and issued as a 130nm part.

It now looks like Odessa's successor, Oakville, has similarly been brought forward from its original H1 2005 timeframe.

Come Q1 2005, and AMD will launch a new LP Mobile Athlon 64 core, dubbed 'Lancaster', the slide says. Lancaster will have 1MB of L2 cache and a Socket 754 interface. Oakville, like Odessa, has 512KB of cache.

Lancaster almost certainly will be a 90nm part. The extra cache counts for an extra 200 points on its rating, despite running at the same speed as the 3000+ Oakville, 2GHz. The slide indicates that AMD will launch a 2.2GHz 3400+ part in Q2 2005.

Almost all the LP Mobile Athlon 64s listed on the slide consume 35W. The first 3200+ Lancaster does, though it will be rated at 25W in Q3 2005 - a core revision perhaps?. The 3000+ Lancaster will consume 25W from day one, the slide says.

At the Sempron level, 2600+ and 2800+ parts will ship next quarter, both consuming 25W. These will be 130nm 'Dublin' cores - mobile Athlon 64 technology pared back to provide only 32-bit processing - and offer 256KB and 128KB of L2, according to the slide.

We suspect the 128KB Dublin will be branded as Sempron, the 256KB version as an Athlon XP-M, but this distinction is not made clear on the slide.

In Q1 2005, AMD will apparently roll out Dublin's successor, 'Sonora', as a 3000+ Sempron. It will rise to 3100+ in Q3 2005, the slide says. Sonora is also a 25W part offered in 128KB and 256KB L2 versions.

Again, Sonora may be a 90nm part, given its timeframe. AMD's current public roadmap lists 'Trinidad' as the 90nm Athlon XP-M, shipping in H2 2005.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06...power_mobiles/