AMD Revises CPU Strategy to Chip Away at Intel's Lead in Laptops

[[Coi] Mr.CLuBBeR]

AMD has high hopes for its Carrizo processors

Heading into the new year, AMD's resolution is to increase its laptop market share, and the key to doing that lies in its Carrizzo and Carrizo-L laptop chips. Going forward, the chip maker will take a plug-and-play approach that will make it easy for hardware partners to plug any Carrizo chip into any laptop, regardless of the size of the notebook or what pricing tier it falls into.
To put in the plan in motion, AMD will supply a single motherboard that supports a whole bunch of different Carrizo and Carrizo-L notebook processors, PCWorld reports. This will give OEMs added flexibility since they won't have to juggle different boards, chipsets, and CPU families, ultimately giving them access to a wide range of Carrizo parts.
According to Jason Banta, director of product management for client solutions at AMD, the benefit for buyers is that they'll be able to score a laptop with their processor of choice rather than settle on one they may not want due to compatibility concerns.
Carrizo, if you're unfamiliar, is based on AMD's new Excavator core. The "L" variant is intended for entry-level and mainstream laptops, while the regular Carrizo parts will find their way into mid-range and performance models. Details are fairly sparse at the moment, though perhaps not for long -- Carrizo could make a cameo at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) next month. In the meantime, we know that Carrizo will support next generation AMD Radeon Graphics Core Next, along with Mantle and DirectX 12.
Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook


More...