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Toward More Processing Power

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DQI Bureau
New Update

Every technological development is met with some support

and some skepticism. The treatment received by the 64-bit processor has been no

different. The evolution of 64-bit in PCs started when AMD announced its Athlon

64 processors in 2003 and created a new market segment. AMD pitched in on both

the desktop and the notebook application scenarios. The company even went a step

further saying that it will totally overhaul 32-bit, in time, and will only vend

64-bit chips.

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While on the desktop side, the battle for 64-bit is being

waged between Intel and AMD, with Intel countering AMDs Athlon with its EM64T

extensions, which has an extended memory space. But, by and large, the 64-bit

computing on the desktop side has remained at the higher end of the spectrum.

Moreover, Microsoft has already rolled out its XP 64-bit edition that supports

both AMD and Intel processors. The battle took an interesting turn when 64-bit

forayed into the notebook market. It opened up a debate about its market

adoption.

Why 64-bit?



With 64-bit on the desktop side becoming a reality, the scenario took a new

dimension when AMD launched its Turion, a 64-bit processor for mobile computing.

This was a significant move. Exorbitant prices have restricted the growth of

64-bit systems on the desktop side and with Turion 64 ushering in new levels of

affordability makes it significant for the notebook market.

But all the while the biggest spoiler is the dual core

processor, which by virtue of two cores, gives more computing power to the user.

So the dual core in a way prohibits growth of 64-bit computing. If we look at

the notebook processor landscape, Intel's launch of Core Duo will also slow

down adoption of Turion based notebooks. But with Microsoft's Vista round the

corner, users will increasingly evince interest on AMD notebooks. AMD pitches

hard that its Turion processor prepares the user for the future computing needs

and players. However, from a buyer's point of view, buying looks extremely

challenging. This is because consumer's options have clearly expanded in the

last two quarters. Some critics argue that we do not need 64-bit notebooks at

this point of time, as there are not enough popular 64-bit applications. But

advocates of 64-bit computing say that it brings enterprise class performance to

the personal computing.

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Power Play





For those power mongers who demand higher processing, new age processors
are up for grabs. A look at the current mobile processor landscape reveals

a pitched battle for power and supremacy: The war right now is between

Intel Centrino Pentium M, Core Duo vs AMD processors such as Turion 64.

And on the horizon is Intel's dual core Merom 64 vs AMD dual core Turion

64, which is expected to hit the market by 2H'06

Changing Processor Landscape



Over the last three years Intel's Centrino has become a default standard

in mobile computing. It created a new premise in power consumption. This is a

major shift from P4, which consumes more power. Intel's recent launch of Core

Duo, further escalated battery life to a minimum of five hours.

On the other end of the spectrum, AMDs Turion also offers a

good battery life and competes head on with Intel based notebooks. For the first

time the notebook market is aligning on definite lines of power, value, and

performance. Here, a new mindset that crept in 2005 was that performance is not

always just processing power; whole of other aspects such as form factor, wide

screen, and above all a good battery life also goes into it. In this new normal

paradigm, where does 64-bit notebooks fit in? Right now only AMD has a pure

64-based processor and Intel claims that its Core Duo will support 64-bit apps.

Looking from a price, performance, and future readiness point, AMD surely has

the edge. But it is a double edged sword as Intel's current Dual Core

processor is seen as more than enough computing power as of now. And the

industry observers say that it can also support Windows Vista. Here AMDs

campaign so far for its Turion is compared only to Centrino, which cannot run

Vista. Hence, the biggest challenge for AMD is to position Turion in such a way

that it remains a step ahead and different from Intel processors.

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AMD's manufacturing faclity

As we look at the expected notebook market dynamics in

second half of 2006, it looks extremely interesting because Intel is already

working on its 64-bit dual core processor called Merom. Observer feel that Merom

will coincide with the launch of Windows Vista, whose exact launch date is yet

to be known, but beyond XP, Vista is a major milestone for Microsoft and PCs

will get an OS that can fully leverage 64-bit processor. AMD is also working on

its dual core Turion and these developments puts notebook market in the

limelight in 2H'06. The Dual Core Turion processors are slated to hit the

market well before Intel's dual core Merom 64. Moreover, AMD as per initial

reports available will launch a slew of Dual Core Turion variants by May 06.

This clearly indicates an impeding price war in 64-bit Dual Core notebooks in 2H

'06.

Need for Apps



The maturing of 64-bit in the notebooks space is a key development, but its

adoption however, hinges on availability of new applications that the users can

really benefit. A look at the horizon shows the trend of 64-bit in entertainment

and gaming industry. But as of now, most of analysts are looking at 64-bit in

notebooks with guarded optimism. But there is universal consensus that 64-bit

will happen soon and in a big way.

Shrikanth G



shrikanthg@cybermedia.co.in

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