UK Netbook Review

AMD is putting their game on the table, they’ve released a couple of roadmaps outlining their processor plans for the next few years. As expected, efficient lower power chips feature prominently. In the low power and mobile space, the upcoming “Bobcat” will be at the forefront. The first Bobcat chips will include the upcoming Ontario and Zacate chips. Then, in 2012 AMD plans to launch new chips named Krishna and Wichita which will have 1-4 Bobcat CPU cores.

A few weeks ago we heard about AMD’s new low power Bobcat core. Today, Hard OCP got a sneak peak, and test, of a new system with the new AMD Zacate chip . That chip uses ‘less than 18 watts of power, and is based on the platform that also includess the upcoming Ontario chips which are destined for netbooks and other low thin and light laptops. The dual core Ontario chips will top out at just 9W of power and have integrated Radeon HD 6250 graphics. Just like the Intel Atom chips, these “Fusion” chips from AMD, which combine the graphics and processor onto a single piece chip. They’ll support DDR3 memory, 3D and HD graphics, and DirectX 11.

AMD has released some more details about it’s upcoming low power processor called ‘Bobcat’ . Bobcat core is capable of running on less than one watt of power, while offering 90% of the performance of today’s chips on less than half the silicon area,. That also leads to lower power consumption and reduced heat generation. Finally, unlike Intel’s Atom chips, the Bobcat core is a 64-bit chip.

The Asus Eee PC 1201K is an AMD powered version of the Eee PC 1201N. It’s powered by the low power AMD Geode 1.4GHz AMD Geode NX1750 processor. Since it runs Window XP, there’s a good chance Asus is slotting the 1201K as a budget model. First spotted earlier this summer, the laptop is now available for purchase for 328.99 Euros in Italy.

AMD’s new low power, moderate performance chips feature in the new Acer Aspire One 521 and Dell Inspiron M101z.  But, AMD is not content to leave it there.  Today AMD unveiled new details about its upcoming Bobcat platform for small, low power devices such as netbooks, nettops, and tablets. The new Bobcat is the processor [...]