Advanced Micro Devices is getting ready to put Neo chips in low-power desktop products, upping the ante in its battle with rival Intel, which offers processors for similar devices.
AMD originally designed Neo for products like ultra-thin laptops, thin and light laptops that can deliver full functionality at affordable prices. However the chip designer is now expanding the chip’s use to all-in-one PCs and nettops, which are small, low-cost desktop PCs the size of a hardcover book. Intel offers Atom processors that are already being used in similar systems.
The main target for the Neo chips remains ultra-thin laptops, but some PC makers are putting the processors in nettops and all-in-ones, said Bob Grim, director of client marketing for AMD. Neo chips are on motherboards, so they are small enough to incorporate in desktops that draw less power.
Desktop users demand better performance and graphics compared to laptop users, Grim said. Desktops with Neo chips will allow users to watch full high-definition movies and play graphics-intensive games like World of Warcraft and Quake, Grim said.
AMD introduced a Neo line of chips with a single core in January, and in May added dual-core versions. The chips are only available in Hewlett-Packard’s DV2Z ultra-thin laptop, with laptops from other PC makers due in September. The dual-core chips run at 1.6GHz and include between 512KB and 1MB of L2 cache. The Neo chips come with a platform that AMD plans to upgrade to improve performance and graphics.
AMD’s Neo platform may hold an advantage over Intel’s Atom platform when it comes to graphics capabilities due to a more advanced graphics core, said Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Mercury Research. But Intel plans to move the graphics core from the chipset into the Atom chip in the future, which could improve overall graphics capabilities.
PC makers — like Acer — are also experimenting with Nvidia’s Ion platform, which couples the Atom processor with Nvidia’s advanced graphics core, allowing users to view high-definition movies on Intel-based nettops.
AMD’s choice to put Neo in nettops and all-in-ones plays to the chip designer’s strengths, McCarron said.
