AMD Turion 64 Options

[Hartmann]

I am trying to help my brother pick out a laptop and one that we found has this processor. I have only heard a little about it.

What does everyone think of it?

[Rocky]

i wanna say I've read about it raping batteries and being a power slut. But I don't recall specifically

[jonathan83]

I don't know specifically about the processor, but this badass laptop that I've been wanting for awhile has it.

Must check this out:
http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/notebooks/0,3...9093582p,00.htm

[jonathan83]

Here's CNET's article on the Turion 64
http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/hardware/note...39221563,00.htm

AMD makes power play with Turion
By Michael Kanellos
15/3/2005

AMD released its Turion processor for notebooks on March 10, the first stage in an effort to recover ground lost in laptops in recent years to Intel.

The Turion is essentially an energy-efficient version of AMD's Athlon 64 chips for desktops. Turions generally run at slower speeds than their desktop counterparts and contain dedicated circuitry that allows them to slow themselves dynamically to throttle power consumption.

The chips will be integrated into the "thin and light" notebooks that tend to weigh in between 1kg and 2kg and can run for several hours on a single battery charge. Acer, now one of the fastest growing PC makers thanks to its notebook line, will adopt the chip, AMD said, as will Fujitsu-Siemens and others.

In the past few years, AMD has concentrated mostly on the desktop and server market. The Sunnyvale, California-based company has released notebook chips during this time, but they haven't been aggressively optimised for energy conservation. As a result, they mostly ended up in the largish, "desktop replacement" notebooks that can weigh over 3.5kg

Unfortunately for AMD, demand for thin notebooks has grown dramatically in the past couple of years, benefiting rival Intel, which came out with the Pentium M processor and the Centrino chip bundle in 2003.

There are two broad classes of Turion. The ML family sports a thermal ceiling of 35W, while the MT family has a thermal ceiling of 25W. (Existing Athlon 64 notebook chips have thermal ceilings as high as 62W.) Standard AMD desktop chips have thermal ceilings in the 90W range. AMD has said it will also come out with even lower power notebook chips


This diagram shows the key architectural features of the Turion 64. The core of its chip contains technology to extend battery life by changing its voltage and operating frequency based on chip performance requirements.
Still, the thermal ratings for Turion are higher than the rating for Intel's Pentium M, which max out at 27W. Ultralow-power Pentium Ms run on 5.5W.

Four versions of the ML family will come out. The ML-37 runs at 2GHz, features a 1MB cache and costs US$354 (S$575) in quantities of 1,000. The ML-34 runs at 1.8GHz, features the same cache and costs US$263 (S$427). The ML-32 also runs at 1.8GHz, but contains a 512KB cache and costs US$220 (S$357). The ML-30, meanwhile, runs at 1.6GHz, comes with a 1MB cache and costs US$184 (S$299).

Current Intel Pentium Ms come with 2MB of cache and run at speeds up to 2.13GHz. However, Turion comes equipped with HyperTransport, an input-output channel that boosts performance. Third-party benchmarks were not available at press time. AMD, however, claims that it has a performance advantage.

"The performance [of Turion] should be as good or better, but I'm pretty sure the Pentium M will maintain an advantage on battery life for a year or so," said Nathan Brookwood, an analyst at Insight 64.


AMD's Turion processor will be integrated into thin-and-lights that weigh a few pounds and have lots of battery life.
AMD released three members of the MT family: the MT-34, MT-32 and MT-30. They are configured the same as their ML counterparts but cost US$5 (S$8) more.

In contrast to Intel, AMD will not make and promote a bundle of chips to go with Turion. (Intel's Centrino is a bundle that consists of a processor, the Pentium M, a chipset and a wireless chipset.) Third-party providers like SIS and Broadcom will provide those additional chips.

AMD first unveiled the Turion name at the Computer Electronics Show in January. The name is supposed to evoke "tour". The word also refers to vegetative dormant organs in aquatic plants.

[jonathan83]

i wanna say I've read about it raping batteries and being a power slut. But I don't recall specifically

hah! just the opposite

[impala454]

not sure about the turion, but the intel core duo is 31W. i think it's good and low bc it's built on a 65nm process.