AMD brings forward Neo and Istanbul chips

AMD SAID IT WILL ship its low-power, dual-core Neo notebook chips and six-core Istanbul server processors this quarter, somewhat earlier than it had previously projected.

Systems featuring AMD's Istanbul server chips should come out in June, while ultrathin notebooks powered by AMD's upgraded Neo chips should start to appear in the marketplace early in the third quarter, the firm said in a conference call following its quarterly earnings announcement.

The dual-core Neo is a follow-on to the single-core Neo the company launched at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.

Neo chips are energy-efficient and relatively low-cost notebook processors pitched at PCs it calls "ultrathin" notebooks, a category AMD places between powerful expensive ultraportables and cheaper, underpowered netbooks.

The dual-core Neo chip is part of AMD's Congo platform, and will offer faster processors and better integrated graphics performance than its previous notebook models, AMD said. The single-core Neo chip is used in HP's Pavilion dv2 notebook, which features a 12.1-inch screen and a $750 price tag. AMD's updated Neo chips will compete with Intel's upcoming CULV processors.

AMD's six-core Opteron, code-named Istanbul, is an upgrade from its current quad-core Shanghai line of server chips. It has already demonstrated prototypes of the 45nm processors and is talking more about Shanghai later today. µ