Slashdot Mirror
Two New AMD Mobile Chips Launched
to_kallon writes "Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has unleashed two new mobile microprocessors today. One processor belongs to the company's 64-bit Mobile Athlon64 line while the other one comes from the 32-bit Athlon XP-M product line. According to CNET News: 'Like other Athlon 64 chips, and Intel's Prescott, the new Athlon 64 3400+ will block many security threats automatically in conjunction with Windows XP Service Pack 2. The delayed SP2 is slated to come out in August. The Athlon 64 3400+ will also run a 64-bit version of Windows, due now at the end of the year.It runs at 2.2GHz and comes with 1MB of cache. Gamer-PC maker Alienware will insert the chip in a notebook later in the month. Meanwhile, the Athlon XP-M 2200+ comes from the company's older line of chips. It runs at 1.6GHz and is built around an older processor core and comes with a 512KB cache. Averatec, a small computer manufacturer, has put the chip into a notebook that can convert into a tablet PC, marking the first time AMD's chips have been used in a tablet'."
This is news? This isn't some sort of new processor design, or a new socket, it's not even a new speed grade, it's just two minor additions into a (relatively) less significant product line. Name a processor launch in the past few months, *any* processor launch, and chances are it's more significant than this one. Not that any of those would (should) be news, either...
Work is punishment for failing to procrastinate effectively.
Don't get all paranoid. The processor supports the NX flag, which SP2 will use to help prevent buffer overflow attacks. Any other operating system can impliment this as well (and if i'm not mistaken, Linux either has this or its in test kernels already - but I could be wrong there).
It's not OS-specific, but the majority of users aren't likely to see a benefit until SP2 arrives, because that's the first time Windows will impliment the function. NX support is coming eventually from Intel as well.
That used the be the case many years ago, but these days, AMD = superior quality
Luke-Jr