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AMD's New Low-Power CPUs
illumina+us writes "AMD has released a new family of CPUs targeted at the portable computing market. The new CPUs, collectively named Alchemy, consume less than 1Watt of power. The CPUs have already been named the CPU of choice for Tivo's new Tivo-To-Go technology and are powerful enugh to run DivX, WMV9, and MPEG. The AU1550 consumes just 0.5 Watts at 400 MHz and the AU1100 consumes 0.25 at the same clock speed. These processors consume so little energy they don't even need a heatsink."
A Beowulf cluster of these...
Hey, at least the power bill wouldn't kill you.
These new chips are obviously not aimed at the Canadian market, or any market that has severe winters. We use our computers to heat buildings, fry eggs and cook bacon.
And when there's no electricity, we burn them for heat.
Wow these processors are going to fuel greater expansion in pc development. Alchemy has truly come of age. From an old science to modern masterpiece. wow.
Market factors dictate against low-power cpu's.
The male-dominated market likes its computers to be just like its cars and women - hot and fast.
Irrational but true.
i'm waiting to see if the modders will overclock these chips and put major heatsinks on them.
that'll teach AMD!
Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
and on my budget (computer or heat the home) how am i supposed to heat my home?
I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
C'mon, we've done fried eggs on a CPU, but that's not enough. I wanna cook a T-bone on that sucker!
I'm not good in groups. It's difficult to work in a group when you're omnipotent. - Q
Can't wait for ThermalTake to make a Copper Brick heatsink for this bad boy. I'll break the 2Ghz barrier with this. So what if my PDA weighs 15lbs, can yours run AutoCad?
If you think
Am I the only one who thinks it's really funny to see AMD and "no heatsink" in the same sentence?
1998 just called to thank us for the 0.5W CPU revolution we sent them. They promised to use the technology to send us Pentium 4s that don't accidentally fuse hydrogen when overclocked.
It's really the other way around.
The Alchemy silicon was out in 2000 / 2001.
> And processors in 8-bit home computers used milliwatts of power.
Your newfangled 3GHz Processor still uses milliwatts of power - lots of them !
Call me a fanboy, but I sure do like the AMD kool aid.
Wouldn't it be more appropriate this time to call you a nofanboy?
You never saw heatsinks on CPUs until the mid 1990s
The heck you say; my 386-20 in 1989 had to have a 2 inch tall heatsink and fan on it in order to run stably at 33Mhz.
And who claims overclocking kills? I used that rig in a variety of roles til the motherboard went out just a few of years ago. It just wasn't cost effective to buy a 386 motherboard in 2002...