"If you look at the performance that the AMD Athlon architecture has been delivering to the desktop, you'll have an indication perhaps of what you'll see in the notebook space. We have the highest performing solutions out there today in the desktop marketplace and AMD Athlon 4 brings that to notebook computing."
Compaq is offering the processors in its Presario 1200 series at prices starting at about 19 hundred dollars. And while the processing power may be up... .Wright says... power consumption is down. AMD is using what it calls PowerNow technology to extend battery life. Intel offers similar technology called SpeedStep, which users can turn on or off. The difference is PowerNow offers an automatic mode... ..
"You can set it in automatic mode and it's almost like having an automatic transmission in your car. It automatically switches gears based on the needs of the engine and the needs of the application that the end user is performing."
The company claims batteries should last about thirty percent longer. AMD skipped over the Athlon two and three designations... and went straight to four. The name game puts it on a par with Intel's Pentium 4... which isn't expected to be available for notebooks until sometime next year.