AMD’s Puma To Draw Blood Soon
AMD has been quiet on the mobile front for quite some time now, but it seems that this could very well be the calm before the storm. Rumors have it that AMD and partners are planning on showing off Puma-based notebooks at Computex, which is barely a month away.
So what makes Puma special and how will it compare to Intel’s latest Centrino technology?
“According to [AMD’s John] Taylor, notebook manufacturers are recognising Puma’s key advantages over competing notebook platforms (read: Intel Centrino), particularly in the area of graphics.AMD has devised a system called “hybrid graphics” where an integrated GPU does the low-powered 2D and 3D work (for example, Vista’s GPU-accelerated windowing system) while a discrete GPU chip can be fired up instantly to take on the heavy lifting 3D tasks when a demanding app like a game or Google Earth is loaded.”
Puma platforms also include numerous other improvements such as HyperTransport 3, and enhanced power management. It certainly sounds great on paper, and we’re eager to see the real world performance of Puma-based laptops.
If AMD does gain a performance advantage, it might only be for a short while as we expect Intel to release a Nehalem-based mobile platform before the end of the year. Nehalem's mobile variant versus Fusion is certainly something worth pondering, but it seems that Fusion-based notebooks aren't likely to hit shelves this year.
