AMD's dream of a CPU in every lamp post comes true

The Sempr0n 2100+ eats up only 9W, while Geode LX800 is specced for 0.9W power consumption. This Sempron brings 64-bit compliancy into a sector that predominately used custom processors and different proprietory operating systems.

What makes these two interesting is that AMD is gearing them up for use in telecom infrastructure, single board computing, automotive and transportation systems and industrial control and monitoring.

In my talks with some geezers from the car industry in the past, one of R&D executives said that both Intel and AMD say they are satisfying and addressing the needs of the market, but call people who are claiming that "idiots".

One big company alone could eat over 50 million CPUs per year for the cars they make. Back then, AMD was making less than 50 million processors a year.

At the Opteron launch in New York in April 2003, certain AMD execs claimed that sooner or later, x86-64 or AMD64 will end up in lamp posts and traffic lights. This caused quite a lot of laughter in the audience, but most of the AMD people did not smile. Couple of years after, this indeed is coming true - even though it is coming as a Sempr0n, not much touted Opteron.

These two CPUs are meant to work with AMD's M690T chipset, in a modified Socket S1 (high shock and vibration resilient spec). Working temperature is ranged between -40degC and +85degC, complying with various industry standards and requirements. µ