AMD says post-Phenom CPUs will be "completely different," 100 laptops to launch with Puma

Although most of the attention in the increasingly-competitive CPU market has been focused on Intel and newcomer NVIDIA lately, AMD's still in it to win it, and it looks like it's taking some bold moves. First up, the company says over 100 laptop designs based on the new Puma mobile platform are being developed for delivery in June, over twice as many as it's had in the past. AMD's touting Puma's Hybrid Graphics mode that allows the system to intelligently switch between a Radeon HD3400 and integrated graphics for max power-savings, so it'll be interesting to see how the system stacks up against Intel's Atom and VIA's Isaiah -- like NVIDIA, AMD seems to be betting that consumers care more about graphics than raw horsepower.

That bet might also explain why AMD's technical director of sales and marketing Guiseppe Amato also recently told CustomPC that its next generation of chips will look "completely different" than Phenom, and that it will be capable of solving "problems that today we think can never be addressed by hardware." That's a pretty bold claim -- the whole processor market is getting pretty boastful lately, have you noticed? -- but we're at a loss to explain what it means. Any ideas?

Read - 100 laptops to be based on Puma at launch
Read - AMD's next CPU architecture will be completely different

[maxz @ Apr 29th 2008 2:51PM]

"And now for something completely different."

[tom @ Apr 29th 2008 3:03PM]

"Keeping my fingers crossed"

I really like to see AMD to stay in the CPU game, they have done a lot for the consumers.

Keep it up!

[Low Ranked @ Apr 29th 2008 3:07PM]

AMD isn't going anywhere...

[oGMo @ Apr 29th 2008 3:36PM]

How about a slightly faster chip with motion sensing? That'd be *completely* different.

[initialxy @ Apr 29th 2008 3:44PM]

'will look "completely different"'

nah they are just gonna paste a different sticker on it.

[chris fredette @ Apr 29th 2008 5:15PM]

I'm glad they're getting something, caus they have a hell of a time.
Just like the meek.

Actually the fact that they can keep up with Intel at all is impressive. They have less cache and last gen manufacturing and they still hold their own. Intel is mostly beating them with Fab's. 45nm allows for more cache and higher clock speeds while using less power. The basic AMD design is very old now. It's still going to be 6 months before Intel adopts AMD's integrated memory controller design from 6 years ago.

[Mark @ Apr 29th 2008 10:13PM]

@Chris
Because 65nm Core 2's don't beat the Phenoms clock-for-clock, and they can't ramp em up to hire frequencies. Oh wait...

[kal326 @ Apr 30th 2008 1:24PM]

Something differant like "it looks like a big cat or something.....what like a Puma?.....Yeah there you go...."

[Araxen @ Apr 29th 2008 2:53PM]

I hope this pans out for them because I'm really dreading Intel being the only CPU maker again. We all lose if AMD goes under or fades away.

[A-D @ Apr 29th 2008 3:07PM]

Seriously CPU technology has grown leaps and bounds with their constant fight for first place, without AMD i would fear that R+D would slow down and prices would go up.

[BigD145 @ Apr 29th 2008 3:03PM]

1st person shooters with bad AI will run fine on these laptops. RTS's and their ilk will be slow as molasses. Thanks for not understanding, AMD.

[melloncollie @ Apr 29th 2008 4:38PM]

What the fuck are you smoking?

[Alex P. @ Apr 29th 2008 3:04PM]

AMD has it wrong.
Cheetah comes out before Puma, then it goes Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, Leopard.

[bartoron @ Apr 29th 2008 3:04PM]

C'mon AMD, win some market share for the good guys!

[Brendan @ Apr 29th 2008 3:37PM]

Are these the same good guys who lied about Phenom outperforming Intel's Core Architecture, then to hide their BS gave reviewers only a few hours to grade their POS true-quadcore before launching it to an unsuspecting public?

[Phoenix @ Apr 29th 2008 3:08PM]

In before Quantum Computers

[techFTW @ Apr 29th 2008 3:08PM]

Fingers-crossed AMD can pull something amazing out of the hat!
It's boring having intel being the only one to provide great CPU's, i know AMD's Phenom is great but still a bit so-so compared to intel's Core 2 Quads :)

It'll be interesting to see where they go with this :D

C'mon AMD woop woop!

[Jay @ Apr 29th 2008 3:16PM]

So let's see.....when AMD first got good it was a new hope

then the empire struck back

Hopefully this will be return of the Jedi

[Munkcy @ Apr 29th 2008 3:26PM]

So which AMD product will be the equivalent of the Ewoks?

[applepye @ Apr 29th 2008 3:29PM]

I think you have it all wrong.

In the beginning Intel invented the IC and all was good in the world. Then when they wanted to sell their chips to IBM, they required a second source supplier who was later revealed as the Phantom Menace. As Intel released new chips, it found that it was faced with an Attack of the Clones as AMD also released 286, 386, & 486 microprocessors. Then Intel struck on an idea that gave them A New Hope and released the Pentium line of processors. For whatever reason (debate all you wish) AMD gets the upper as it's Empire Strikes Back. So any Return of the Jedi would have to be the Core microprocessor returning from it's early roots as the Pentium Pro to revolutionize computing.

I'm pretty sure that's how it went down.

[Silverfrog @ Apr 29th 2008 4:09PM]

Um, nope. The vacuum tube came first for electrical binary computing. Try again fanboy.

[toxicpiano @ Apr 29th 2008 3:23PM]

A good start would be to break even.

[Pochi @ Apr 29th 2008 3:27PM]

"We're struggling now (and have been for quite some time), but we're about to do some really cool stuff. No, seriously!"

Right guys. Right.

[Ryan @ Apr 29th 2008 3:40PM]

Um, this "completely different" stuff isn't news. We've known this for a LONG time.

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=436

It's called Fusion people and was announced and discussed right after the AMD/ATI merger.

[beoirluvsbeer @ Apr 29th 2008 3:51PM]

I'm with you Ryan.
Not very ground breaking...unless there was an earthquake when you mentioned it.
But, one would hope there is something more to it. Maybe a Phyx, GPU, and CPU integrated board? Since we're in Fantasy land I might as well "shoot the moon"

[frankXchange @ Apr 29th 2008 3:43PM]

Yeah, they've all been acting cocky since the Sarah Conner serial murders a while back, when they found that new chip. BTW, hows the Skynet defence project coming along?

[lao.soup @ Apr 29th 2008 3:47PM]

Why put a shoe inside a laptop?

[JCRides @ Apr 29th 2008 4:32PM]

One word... "Ultramobile"

[Dean @ Apr 29th 2008 4:33PM]

you know a puma is an animal right?

[Urnamma @ Apr 29th 2008 5:07PM]

The Intel and AMD fanboys both understand very little about the CPU business... or business in general. Personally, I have tended until my last build to use AMD, though a Core 2 Quad is in my current machine (reasonably priced and better than phenom, for only $60 more... yeah, I'll take that)

However, all the juvenile comments and posturing is getting a little tiring on these comment posts... Seriously, if you want to act like aspergered out flame warriors, at least take a couple of business classes.

Most of the market is in the middle. The vast majority of the market is in the middle. High end workstations and gaming pc's make up less than 1% of the processor market. Both companies having higher end processors is a pure r&d move. They need the powerful models to be able to scale them down and make them fit the mid range as the technology improves.

We've been goin 45nm Intel lately largely due to power drain concerns, but I can see AMD coming back and giving some good competition. I think that a large amount of their current problems may well be exacerbated when Intel gets rid of the antiquated FSB in the next gen processors, but everything really depends.

So, to sum up, posts like 'AMD is done for' and 'Intel are monopolizts!!' (intentional misspelling) don't add anything to the conversation. Go home and take your meds.

[Brendan @ Apr 29th 2008 5:29PM]

What did your pompous long-winded gasbag of a post teach us?

[iofthestorm @ Apr 29th 2008 7:01PM]

@Brendan:
"So, to sum up, posts like 'AMD is done for' and 'Intel are monopolizts!!' (intentional misspelling) don't add anything to the conversation. Go home and take your meds."
Urnamma is pretty much dead on correct, and idiots like you just prove him right.

[Brendan @ Apr 29th 2008 7:46PM]

Iofthestorn to be taught something the messenager needs to bring new information to the table, Urnamma did not. His haughty attitude about having superior business sense then the average engadget user was laughable. Urnamma sounded like a high-school freshmen who had just cracked his Econ 101 book for the first time.

[Pochi @ Apr 30th 2008 9:04AM]

I like this part.

"(intentional misspelling)"

Intentional misspellings kind of lose their flair when you point them out.

[tekdroid @ Apr 30th 2008 2:44PM]

Good post.

According to most enthusiast-related posts here, the p4 should have been the death of Intel because it was really an underperformer for too many years. And we all know only enthusiasts and benchmark nerds buy computers and make decisions for big companies. They're also the OEMs/ODMs who understand the customer wants nothing but the highest-performance bundled with 512MB ram and Vista, and they are certainly these same OEMs who build millions of laptops and PCs that reach mum & dad in big box stores.

"no nooo, you gotta get da wun dat clocks da highest..." is forefront in the minds of management and average customers alike.

Nobody has any other priorities than looking at raw performance. Not performance per dollar. Not case design. Not after-sales service. Not overall system performance. Just raw performance of the CPU in their computer. After all, it is the be-all and end-all of computer purchases.

AMD is clearly on its death bed for 'trailing' Intel (again).

[NXTwoThou @ Apr 29th 2008 5:22PM]

Well, let's look at it this way, the iPhone has a 600 something Mhz processor in it, but has accelerated graphics. It certainly doesn't feel how slow the thing really is.

Maybe they are thinking its time to focus on customer usability/looks rather than horsepower?

After all, things like the Eee are being eaten up and they are so last-last-last generation when it comes to speed.

[iofthestorm @ Apr 29th 2008 7:03PM]

Uh, that's a totally different kind of processor (ARM) doing totally different workloads compared to a desktop processor. Great comparison.

[Bobbo @ Apr 29th 2008 5:26PM]

While a more media/game oriented consumer probably sees a bit of potential with this move, I'm under the impression that the largest group of potential buyers for a PC are in the business sector. If that's the case, I'm not sure this shift towards graphics (away from raw horsepower) will necessarily be winning AMD back any share in the overall market.
That aside, I know I'll still be interested to see how it turns out.

[Dear Leader @ Apr 30th 2008 1:57AM]

That's 100 more laptops I'm not considering.

AMD's presence in the mobile arena is acknowledged, but not appreciated. The Puma/Turion Ultra/whatever cack marketing name they come up with is so far behind Penryn, even in power/efficiency, it's not even funny. Come back when you're all grown up, kid.

[ethana2 @ May 1st 2008 12:57AM]

*cough* wait, what? When you're all grown up? Don't be so quick to forget that window of time during which AMD was totally crushing intel on nearly every metric there was.

AMD schooled Intel, and the reason this is happening now is that Intel was a better student than we all thought.

[Ivan Ičin @ Apr 30th 2008 5:13AM]

It will solve global warming by reducing consumption to less than 1W!

[ethana2 @ May 1st 2008 12:53AM]

Cancer takes precedence to global warming, I'm sorry. F@H needs me to have the most powerful, most insanely awesome chip on the planet. You know, for the sake of humanity and stuff.

[mark @ Apr 30th 2008 7:05AM]

Asymmetric multi-core baby!

[ethana2 @ May 1st 2008 12:52AM]

Absolutely-- and you don't hear that very often, but I think great bounds in IT can be realized by tuning core archs to varying degrees of arithmetic intensity.
AMP FTW

[Nick @ May 1st 2008 1:09PM]

Talk all you want, but I'm always broke and it was AMD that saved me a few bucks for the last 7 years of computer parts shopping. AMD alternatives always wind up cheaper and I can't wait to get me a new Puma based lappy this summer. Good luck to all fanboys with fat wallets.

[rkane @ May 8th 2008 8:23PM]

I think AMD has the right idea. Let's focus on graphics!!! Why you say?
Cause Vista is a graphics hog, and you can get that user experience score up by concentrating on graphics more. Wow I can't believe I just wasted 15 minutes reading all this, but anyway. How many people care how fast their machine is, if Vista says, "You're Vista Experience Score is 8.0" The average user would be ecstatic no matter what hardware was behind it.
I really hope AMD survives, cause I can't afford a monopolized CPU market when I'm spending all my money on gas.