AmdC-50
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Acer's Aspire One 722 kitted with HSPA+, sold by AT&T
Sleek and svelte Ultrabooks and tablets might have stolen the limelight from ye old netbook, but that doesn't mean the less glamorous category is completely bereft of all signs of life. Take for example, Acer's Aspire One 722. Sure, the 1GHz AMD C-50 powered, Radeon HD 6250 wielding netbook's internals got more pizzazz in an updated Europe-only edition, but that didn't stop AT&T from taking the original and giving it a new beginning thanks to shiny new internal WWAN module. Up-to-date silicon it is not, but it could be yours for just $40 a month -- provided you sign your life away on a two-year, 3GB per month, contract. Or alternatively, the HSPA+ redux can be had for the unsubsidized price of $450. Decisions, decisions. Pull the trigger at the source link below.
Early Atom N2600 benchmark, can't cedar wood for the trails?
It goes without saying that benchmarking something pre-release requires a cavalcade of sodium-chloride, but our curiosity was piqued at the prospect of some Cedar Trail sneak-peeks. Netbook Live has been at it again, pitting a 1.6GHz Atom N2600-touting ASUS Eee PC X101CH, against machines sporting 1.66GHz Atom N570 (ASUS 1015PX) and 1.0 GHz AMD C-50 (ASUS 1015B and Tosh NB550D) chips. The initial reports suggest that the 32nm-based N2600 is a touch behind the N570 in general CPU terms, but forges confidently ahead when it comes to graphics. The C-50 showed mixed results in CPU tests, with the N2600 falling behind on graphics this time round. The take-away being if you need more CPU oomph go for the meatier 1.83 GHz N2800. Hit the source link for the blow by blow breakdown.
AMD has a 5W Fusion APU to put in your future tablet of choice
The same Singapore event that brought us our first look at AMD's humongous Radeon HD 6990 has also served as the stage for the company's first showing of a new, even lower-powered Fusion APU. The regular dual-core Ontario (C-50) variant requires a 9W power budget to operate, but AMD's managed to shrink that down to 5W in a chip designed specifically to be used in tablets. Clock speed remains at 1GHz and the core count hasn't bee touched, but the memory controller has been dumbed down and peripheral ports have been reduced to one of each type. This streamlined C-50 has already found a home in Acer's 10.1-inch Windows 7 tablet and should prove decently popular among manufacturers looking for an x86 alternative to the coming tidal wave of ARM-based devices.
Toshiba NB550D with AMD Ontario denied entry to the US
So, this sort of sucks. Remember the AMD Fusion Toshiba NB550D with its Harman Kardon speakers? Well, according to Toshiba it won't be landing in the US anytime soon. According to Liliputing, Tosh has no plans to release the Ontario-powered 10-inch laptop on this side of the pond. Yep, it seems that Toshiba US would prefer to keep Intel's Atom powering its 10-inch NB520 and NB505 netbooks and save AMD's higher end Zacate E-Series for larger systems like its 15.6-inch Satellite C655D. Of course, there's always the Acer Aspire One 522 for those seeking AMD's Bobcat core and ATI Radeon 6250 graphics in a 10-inch chassis, but there's just something about those HK speaker grills that have us wishin' Toshiba would change its mind about this one.
Toshiba NB550D netbook spills specs, including 1GHz AMD Ontario APU and Harman Kardon sound
Looks like the AMD Fusion netbook strategy may be to supplant Intel's Atom wholesale in the leadup to CES, as Toshiba has just become the second manufacturer to swap out an Atom chip for a 1GHz AMD C-50 Ontario APU while leaving the rest of the design practically untouched. Notebook Italia just spotted this 10-inch Toshiba NB550D having a grand old time on the company's German website, leisurely flexing its Harman Kardon speakers and newfound HDMI port, all the while dreaming about ways to upgrade its scant 1GB of DDR3 memory and 250GB of magnetic storage. Interestingly, Toshiba's actually forecasting only 9.5 hours of battery life for the AMD version (compared to 10 hours with Intel's 1.5GHz Atom N550 CPU), but we suppose that's the price you pay to have Radeon HD 6250M graphics on board. We'll try to get pricing and availability when we inevitably spot it at CES next week.
AMD teases Bobcat Fusion APUs again, delivers Atom-busting performance (video)
A quick refresher: Bobcat is AMD's low-power Accelerated Processing Unit that can handle both computational and graphical duties, Ontario and Zacate are the chips built upon that core, and Brazos is the overall platform that they'll be doing their work on. Clear enough? We hope so. AMD has finally allowed a few tech pubs to get their hands on Brazos-based systems and, along with feedback about their experience, the guys have come back with some added spec notes. There'll be two initial Zacate options, the dual-core E-350 running at 1.6GHz or the single-core E-240 clocked at 1.5GHz, while Ontario will offer 1GHz dual-core and 1.2GHz single-core variants. Let's not forget that both are intended for netbooks and lithe desktop computers before writing them off as too slow -- which would be a mistake anyway as the sites that got a chance to play with the E-350 reported very respectable performance. HardOCP dared to try out Crysis and managed to get it chugging along at a resolution around 720p, whereas Hot Hardware witnessed a 1080p video clip being played back perfectly smoothly alongside an instance of Hyper Pi maxing out the CPU load. Benchmark results will have to wait for another day, but feel free to peruse the links below for a more detailed breakdown of the new architecture.
