NetbookTech

Hoping AMD will enter the netbook processor market? Well you might have to wait a bit longer.

The company held their 2008 Financial Analyst Day today where they unveiled their upcoming 2009 and 2010 processor roadmap. On the roadmap, the company unveiled several new platforms and processors targeting the ultra-portable notebook market. This market is basically one represented by ultra-portable, ultra-light, slim, small form factor notebooks such as the MacBook Air and Voodoo Envy 133 notebook. According to AMD spokesman John Taylor (via News.com):

“The target is the slim form factor with a larger screen. Not a 10- or 11- or 12-inch screen”

The two platforms coming out in 2009 are the “Congo” and “Yukon” platform which, according to AMD, will provide a “full PC experience” – something that, according to AMD, is not possible with a netbook system.

The Congo platform consists of:

• “Conesus” CPU
• 2 CPU cores
• RS780 + SB710 chipsets
• ATI Radeon HD
• ATI Avivo HD
• BGA packaging for slim designs
• 802.11n and 3G support

The Yukon platform consists of:

• “Huron” CPU
• 1 CPU core
• RS690E + SB600 chipsets
• ATI Radeon
• ATI Avivo
• BGA packaging for slim designs
• 802.11n and 3G support

AMD is shooting to offer sub-25 watt processors platforms (CPU + chipset). For comparison purposes, the current Turion processors operate at over 30 watts, the mobile Core 2 Duos operate somewhere between 10 and 17 watts, and the Intel Atom is sub 8 watts. For comparison purposes, the Atom + accompanying chipset is roughly 11.5 watts (the N270 is rated at around 2.5 watts). Thanks to Paul for the clarification.

Now down the road in 2010, AMD will be introducing the “Nile” platform which consists of a dual core Geneva CPU in a BGA packaging.

So what does this ultimately mean for the netbook market? For now, it appears AMD is still on the outside looking in. Their focus remains on more capable system designs which makes sense from a financial standpoint. They stand to gain the most revenue/gross margins from that category as opposed to the lower margin netbook market. The company does acknowledge that there’s “tremendous interest and excitement about the mininotebook category”. However, AMD also points out that the main growth drivers for this market are the “High Growth Markets” and the “Mature Markets” – both of which are arguably covered by AMD platforms.

For the High Growth Markets, AMD claims that people want to buy the best system they can with the money that they have. The claim here is – netbooks are not that best value – but rather a system based on the AMD Kite Refresh Platform is ideal. If you’re not familiar with the Kite Refresh, it consists of a Turion 64 X2 dual core or Mobile Sempron single core processor, 802.11n Wi-Fi, DDR2-800 memory etc.

For mature markets, individuals are purchasing netbooks as secondary or their nth device for “basic web access”. AMD again has their market covered with their upcoming “Yukon” platform which aims to deliver a full PC experience.

Thus based on the provided slides, it certainly appears AMD is focused on delivering the best platform experience for ultra-portable notebooks and for now ceding the netbook market to Intel. This isn’t to say that we won’t see netbook like systems based on AMD processors. Hardware vendors could certainly get creative enough with their offerings and bring out 13 or sub 13 inch systems featuring the Congo or Yukon platform. The ultimate determining pieces to that would be a combination of price and power efficiency. The thermal envelop on the respective processors for these platforms are still higher than respective ULV Core 2 Duos and Intel Atom processors.

Finally, please don’t be fooled by other articles in the press like PC World’s “AMD Jumps Into the Netbook Fray” article or PC Mag’s “AMD Answers Intel’s Atom with Conesus”. First, Conesus addresses the ultra-portable market that Intel Core 2 Duo ULV processors address. You’ll never see Atom processors for the ultraportable market – they’re simply not powerful enough. As for the PC World article, they have it all wrong. Again – just read the roadmap slides and you’ll see the emphasis is on larger scale systems. Again – this makes sense because quite frankly it makes the most financial sense for AMD.

In the meantime, it’s still pretty much a wait and see approach with AMD. It looks like the Intel Atom processor will be the shape of netbooks to come for the near future.

[Check out AMD’s client processor slides]

[Check it out]