AMD eyes mobile space thanks to ATI expertise

AMD'S BID to take on Intel's extremely successful Centrino platform will get a boost thanks to ATI's expertise in mobile computing.

The chip maker's Turion 64 and Turion X2 CPUs may be good step forward but AMD's key problem is that the memory controller is on the CPU and it cannot therefore go into an idle state. Nevertheless, our industry sources close to both camps claim that this might be one of the sweet spots of the DAAMIT deal.

The even more severe problem AMD has historically had to face is with its chipset support, as it has always had to work with third-party chipset manufacturers. At many points these could not offer warranties on either software and hardware side as much as the OEM wanted.

ATI knows a lot about mobility and has some very low-power mobile chipsets. It also knows a thing or two about power saving with discrete graphics. AMD will clearly benefit from this acquisition as it might be able to offer a complete platform with its Turion X2 CPU and ATI's integrated graphic chipset.

Interestingly enough just prior the acquisition we reviewed such a notebook here but this is not the final thing from DAAMIT but it sure is step forward to fight the Centrino dominance.

Centrino is a strong brand but AMD should now be able to give it a run for its money in the medium term. µ