Dueling Dual-Cores: 2006 Mobile CPU Forecast

AMD Turion 64: Year 2
There isn't any way to pretty up the fact that AMD trails Intel by a substantial margin in the laptop market share wars. This doesn't mean that the company's Turion 64 mobile line — launched in 2005 to rave reviews — is inferior to Intel's mobile processors.

In fact, the Turion 64 is quite capable and held its own with Pentium M processors in 2005. However, Intel's earlier entry into the market and the popularity of Intel's Centrino platform has heretofore proved insurmountable.

It's clear that in 2006, AMD will become more aggressive on two fronts in the mobile CPU category: improving the technology and resulting performance in the Turion 64 brand, and continuing the effort to push its CPUs into the systems of major resellers.

Deals with Compaq and other major resellers, including rumors swirling around a possible mobile processor deal with stalwart Intel partner Dell, indicate that AMD is making inroads in the all-important latter category. Unfortunately, AMD has been reluctant to divulge specifics regarding its 2006 mobile roadmap. But we were able to scrounge up some early details that could indicate the company's overall direction for the coming year.

		Mobile CPUs In 2006
		•  Introduction •  Intel Fires First: Core Duo •  Intel Ups The Ante: Merom •  AMD Retaliates: Turion 64 •  What And When To Buy

Dual-Core Turion
This much we know for sure: AMD will release a dual-core mobile processor sometime during the first half of 2006. Interestingly, the only information our AMD contact would give us is this: "We plan to begin offering dual-core processors specifically designed for thin and light notebooks during the first half of 2006."

Performance-per-watt improvements would be extremely welcome in the lower voltage thin-and-light category, and this interesting statement appears to indicate that AMD considers this mobile subcategory ripe for the picking. Still, it's likely that AMD will also fabricate dual-core Turion 64s for the less sexy but more utilitarian not-so-thin-and-light category.

While AMD declined to comment for this story beyond the above statement, considerable speculation by industry watchers indicates that a new dual-core line of Turion 64 processors will likely feature the following:

DDR2 support: Support for faster DDR2 memory will certainly increase performance.

Dual-channel memory: Similarly, the move to support dual-channel memory will double the overall memory bandwidth, which should result in remarkable performance gains.

Virtualization: This is one of AMD's key emphases across all its CPU lines. Virtualization is a way to run multiple operating systems, or multiple instances of the same operating system, on a single computer. As an example, imagine running both Windows and Linux applications at the same time. This allows for increased data security as well as computing flexibility.

	AMD Interview
	For a glimpse at AMD's plans for 2007 and 2008, don't miss EE Times' interview with Phil Hester, the chip manufacturer's chief technical officer.

We're particularly interested to see what impact the move to DDR2 (which Intel's Core Duos already support) and dual-channel memory will have — particularly in the context of a dual-core environment. While AMD has confirmed the pending arrival of dual-core processors, it has not specified what clock speeds these CPUs will operate at, or whether or not this line will carry the same "X2" designator as its desktop counterpart.

New S1 Socket In Store
One other rampant rumor regarding AMD's 2006 mobile roadmap is that AMD will release a brand new "S1" mobile socket in the second half of 2006. However, details regarding the specific improvements this new socket will provide are unavailable. Based on this information, we expect to see a new Turion dual-core architecture at the very end of 2006 or possibly in 2007.