AMD mobile plans in the wild

GERMAN SITE Computerbase.de has got its hands on an AMD Mobile roadmap. Lest we forget, AMD has one of those, although mobility seems to have taken backseat to the desktop platform lately - AMD has always been very discrete about the mobile platform whether by choice or by force of circumstance, but this roadmappery tells us AMD threw the old one out the window.

In the documents, we can see that AMD is planning to release 2 platforms - Lion and Sable - for its upcoming Griffin processor. The Griffin will remain a derivative of dual-core Athlon CPUs and will make extensive use of the Athlon and Turion branding.

The Zed family will be branded Turion Ultra, the Rs are Turion-branded, QLs are Athlons and SIs (single cores) are branded Semprons. The high-end of the CPUs, the ZM-86 SKU, will have roughly the same power envelope as Intel’s 45nm Penryn-based Montevina platform , 35W, and will be clocked at 2.4GHz and downwards in 100MHz steps. These will come out under the Turion Ultra brand and feature a larger cache, faster HT link, deeper power saving states and integrated DDR2-800 memory controller. By Yule, AMD should have the 2.5GHz high-high end on the market under the name Turion Ultra ZM-88.

Plans for 2009 are split two ways. From H2, the artist... uhm... core formerly known as Swift, is now designated as Black Swift and White Swift – these both use the “Stars” core but White Swifts will be trimmed down to a single core. These will eventually bring about 1066MHz buses, DDR3 memory controllers, 45nm processes and the much-expected integrated GPU (Falcon).

The document reveals nothing of a Bobcat, which could’ve become extinct, or morphed into an entirely new species, but was expected to populate the subnotebook range of the ecosystem with a 10W TDP.

Have you ever wondered why AMD names its mobile platforms after endangered species? You know: Puma, Falcon, Griffin, Sable, Lion, Black Swift, White Swift, Dodo...

L'Inq
Computerbase