AMD's never been much for keeping to the roadmap, and it looks like the curious launch of its
Congo platform is evidence of that very fact. If you'll recall, we actually saw a
Congo-based netbook launch way
back in June, and it was expected that a
flood of other ultrathin machines would follow shortly thereafter. According to
DigiTimes, the demand in the market just wasn't there (thanks, recession!), so everything was pushed back until November. Lo and behold, our Gregorian calendar has that very month on deck for next, and according to mythical sources at laptop makers, the platform should make its super-duper official
debut within a matter of weeks. The dual-core Turion Neo X2 L625, Athlon Neo X2 L335/L325 and / or single-core Athlon Neo MV-40 should be front and center, and AMD is apt to announce progress on its Nile and Brazos platforms -- both of which should help carry the chip maker through the next two years. Look out
Atom, you've got some delayed competition coming your way.
Update: Seems as if this may all just be a "second wave" of sorts when many PC makers choose to launch machines based on this platform alongside Windows 7's debut. AMD informed us that the November delay notion was also false, and we get the feeling that Congo's just been waiting for Win7 to really get itself out there.
posted Oct 18th 2009 8:14AM
About time AMD. Intel was getting lonely and not to mention complacent with the mediocre Atom...
Hopefully these will live up to expectations, if there are any.
Bout time Atom has some more competition.
They really need to stop announcing them so early. I've been hearing about this for almost 2 years now, and I think it's already old.
The title should have been:
AMD's Congo to officially fail next month like every other AMD project since Intel's core duo chips.
Intel to pay one more billion penalty, cause it's ok for monopoly companies.
It should have read: Intel killed another superior AMD product with its strong arm and blackmail tactics.
Or just by having a bigger marketing budget that turns people into mindless drones that will buy anything with their logo in it, and defend it even if it is evidently worse (wait, where did I heard this before?).
Thing is, just because AMD doesn't have the top of the top in performance, doesn't mean AMD can't excel at mainstream or budget prices or even surpass the competition at the same price range.
And they would have had top performance CPUs too if more people bought their chips when they were the cheaper, cooler, and faster product, but intel managed to somehow make people buy their shitty Pentiums instead
The big advantage of this platform is the ATI chipset that's required for this platform. It simply blows away any Intel Atom offering in graphics performance.
So true
Die!
But aren't thin notebooks (super netbooks?) limited by MS' refusal of allowing Windows to run on low-power dual-core laptops (Atom/Neo CPUs)? Or are 11-12 inch devices not legally considered netbooks per se, and don't need to comply with that legal constraint?
Lets just say, big computer makers can put.... "pressure" to go above the limit...
They aren't going to be running Windows 7 Starter, so there is no limit. That's why it's important to know the difference between a netbook and a "thin and light". The former is supposed to be extremely cheap, the latter will be around $400-600, take some sacrifices in performance compared to a normal notebook, but come in a very compelling form factor.
It's not a 'legal' requirement, it's just a qualification you must meet to get Windows Starter.
These ultraportables will either run Home Premium or Professional. They are not netbooks, I believe they are a inbetween full fledged performance chip and the weaksauce that Atom is. Something to compete with the Core 2 Duo ULV CPUs. They will be cheap, much faster than an Atom an should have low overall power consumption.
This is pretty much what I have been waiting for, a cheap C2D ULV in an 11-12" form factor.
iirc to get the low cost "netbook" oem price on XP .. i.e. Microsoft gives it to you for free to stop you installing Linux on it, the machine had to be single core, and there may have also been a screen size and HDD size limit too.
I think all this "lack of consumer demand" is a smokescreen and the real reason is all about Windows 7. These ultrathins would not qualified for the netbook XP oem price, and putting Vista on them would have been expensive and given relatively poor performance. Once everything from netbooks on up run Win7 and scaling properly in price/performance, the 11" dual core "super netbook" makes much more sense.
Isn't the Acer Ferrari One based on this platform? They plan on selling their laptop on Oct. 22nd!
So once again we have a choice between terrible performance(atom), and terrible battery life(anything by AMD).
Intel, would you launch Arrandale already?
Is it just me or is Engadget about 5 months late? I own an HP dv2-1100z, and have owned it for little less than four months. It has the Turion Neo X2 L625. I also bought my wife an HP dv2-1100z with the Athlon Neo X2 L335. I wanted to buy the original with the Athlon Neo MV-40, but decided to wait for the X2 versions. Bought it for $700 after a %30 discount.
Here's my specs:
HP dv2-1100z
4 GB ram single DIMM
200 GB Seagate HDD 7200 rpm ( aftermarket, original was a 320 GB WD 5400 rpm )
12.1" screen
ATI Mobility Radeon 3300 HD Discrete GPU wit HDMI
Bluetooth and Wi-fi
I play "The Witcher" (low gfx details but plays nonetheless) and web development on it.
I didn't get the Blu-Ray player because it's complete overkill on this size of a screen, but now am considering it since the HDMI works beautifully. So yeah. . . . Engadget is about 5-6 months late. But i absolutely love my laptop with the Turion Neo X2 L625 and my wife couldn't be happier. They are portable, powerful, and light.
And as far as the "Congo" AMD renamed it to "2nd Generation Ultra-Thin" due to controversy. Just FYI Darren.
Hate to break it to ya, but it won't be in a couple of weeks, it's already out.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9556358&type=product&id=1218123847359
Well that does say pre-order not order, but the estimated arrival says 10/22-10/30
I'm pretty sure no one makes a CPU with 512 MEGABYTES of L2 cache. Also, not even HP offers a 1366x768 option in their CTO of the dm3.
see comment above
how would they compare to Atoms (just a cpu comparison, not chipset)?
SET YOUR CAPTCHA ON REVOLVING FREQUENCIES - THEY'RE ADAPTING!
The Acer Ferrari One 200 is a myth, I swear. It's Oct 22, the supposed release date, yet I can't find a single retailer inside the US who has one available OR has it on order in their systems. Not a single website either. It's like this netbook exists in some bubble only Acer knows about. You see coverage about it from a month ago and that's it. Not a peep about it now that it is supposedly "released" what gives, Acer? I want to buy one already, geez!