1. Low-Voltage Athlon XP-M: The Alternative For Thin And Light Notebooks?

The standard version of the Athlon XP-M mobile processor has already shown its power and energy efficiency (PowerNow! technology) in several tests of all-in-one notebooks (Compaq Evo N1015 v, IGP320M, Vaio NVR-23).

However, what are known in AMD jargon as the "mainstream Athlon XP-M models" have not been able to make any inroads into the 'thin and light' category, because their maximum thermal power is 35 watts (V CC =1.45 v). On the other hand, the low-voltage models of the Athlon XP-M available now only require a maximum operating voltage of 1.25 v. Because of the lower input power, it has been possible to reduce the maximum thermal power loss by almost 30 percent, to 25 watts.

This has two positive side-effects: first, with this type of CPU, longer battery life can be achieved with the same battery capacity; and second, cooling systems can become leaner and lighter, which allows them to be used in ultra-portable notebooks. To date, the ultra-portable sector has been clearly dominated by mobile processors from Intel. Among the most potent players in the Intel camp is the Pentium-M (Banias), launched in association with Centrino MobileTechnology. At least the Fujitsu Corporation is guessing that the low-voltage Athlon XP-M presents an alternative to the Pentium-M. It is using the AMD processor in its Lifebook S2000 series "value" thinand light models, and is starting - as of right now - to equip the "high-end" thin and light models of its Lifebook S6000 series with Intel's Centrino MobileTechnology. As the two series do not differ in anything but the platform (AMD or Intel), this provides the best possible basis for a fair comparison.