Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

AMD's New Low-Power CPUs

Posted by timothy on from the you-fools-you're-helping-people dept.

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."

74 of 321 comments (clear)

  1. imagine... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    A Beowulf cluster of these...

    Hey, at least the power bill wouldn't kill you.

    1. Re:imagine... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Already done: http://www.orionmulti.com/ 12-node cluster built on Transmeta chips, feeds on only 200 Watts altogether. A little larger than a desktop case in size.

    2. Re:imagine... by Max+Romantschuk · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Actually low power chips are gaining popularity in super computer environments. A major cost of operating a huge cluster is power and getting rid of all the heat.

      Low power chips are therefore much cheaper to operate, and can be packed more densely as they require less cooling. The future of computing lies in massively distributed low power solutions, it simply makes much more sense than the alternatives.

      --
      .: Max Romantschuk :: http://max.romantschuk.fi/
    3. Re:imagine... by eh2o · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It seems to me that its about high efficiency, not low power. Merely having a low power chip does not help a supercomputer if you need that many more of them to get the same performance.

    4. Re:imagine... by IHateSlashDot · · Score: 2, Funny
      The future of computing lies in massively distributed low power solutions

      Thanks Nostradamus. I think I'll file this opinion in the same file as the classic "Computers will never need more thean 64kb of memory".

  2. PDA's by SlongNY · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Wonder if these will pop up on PDA's and stuff soon..

    --
    My Blog
    1. Re:PDA's by cnettel · · Score: 4, Insightful

      OTOH, the current crop of Pocket PCs are able to decode DivX in 640x480 with ARM-based chips from Intel, even without video acceleration. It's not like this kind of performance is a revolutionary breakthrough.

    2. Re:PDA's by tmasssey · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Given this formfactor, I'm really suprised they didn't create a Mini-ITX format board. Then they'd have a whole slew of ready-made periphials: cases, power supplies, etc.

      --
      Linux IT Consulting and Domino Development in Michigan
    3. Re:PDA's by yope · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I doubt they'll become very popular.
      They Alchemy family is not that new actually. AFAIR they have been around for at least 2 or 3 years now, and have barely gotten some attention from the embedded developer world.

      AMD has made inroads in the embedded processor bussiness before, with their Elan and embedded-K6 processors. Those have been moderately popular by those seeking x86 compatibility, since the Elan is a mocked-up 486 with chipset functionality and some periferals in one chip: Expensive, extremely power-hungry, slow and very modest on-chip periferals, but x86 compatible. They are mostly forgotten now.

      The Alchemy on the other hand is based on a 32-bit MIPS core (remeber SGI? Guess where their chip developers went?). That makes the Alchemy more powerful, less power-hungry, cheaper and able to include some more amount of periferals on-chip, but they are not x86 compatible.

      That leaves them pretty much out in the cold, because there are IMHO far more attractive alternatives of non-x86 embedded processors, like those based on the ARM family of cores, built by Samsung, Atmel, Philips, TI, Cirrus-Logic, Intel and many more, as well as the PowerPC based embedded processors from Motorola and IBM. Specially the Power-QUICC I and II families from Motorola cover an impressive price and performance range, offer modest to very high processing power, and unprecedented flexibility due to their second integrated RISC based communications processor and programmable bus controller.
      Those are the two most popular embedded processor platforms around these days. If you need power-efficiency, there's no better than ARM. If you need high computing performance or high-bandwith data processing, go for PowerPC. AMD's Alchemy is somewhere in the middle, but until now they only cover a narrow range of applications.

    4. Re:PDA's by LuSiDe · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I was thinking: Perhaps its good for competition (and hence price)?

      Last time i checked, the Sharp Zaurus was pretty expensive, especially the newer models. What was it again, like $700 for the newer model in Japan. I know PDAs sell like baked bread in Japan but still, why are these toys so expensive? A friend of mine has a CL 5500 and while its a very nice PDA it was also pretty expensive when he bought it. And, newer versions are more convenient.

      I hope to see more competition / prices going more down since i'd love to see the GSM (as in, a telephone) integrated with the PDA (as in, basic simple office work, e-mail synced, WiFi/UMTS) with a multimedia player (preferably also Vorbis-compatible). I want 1 device which is small enough but also gives me the features i want to have without using a beast such as a laptop and without having 1 device like e.g. the GSM which can phone (what i actually want), SMS (expensive!), play retro games (boring!) without the features i also would like to have.

      --
      WE DON'T NEED NO BLOG CONTROL.
    5. Re:PDA's by iamhassi · · Score: 4, Informative
      "It's not like this kind of performance is a revolutionary breakthrough."

      No, it's not, but the fact that AMD is creeping into a market that Intel currently dominates, and AMD has already declared dominance in the gaming and server microprocessor market in 2004, so this could cause serious problems for Intel if the AMD chips turn out to perform better with less power than Intel's current offerings. Sure the processors are running at slower mhz speeds but as we all know a a slower mhz AMD processor can perform at the same level as a much faster mhz Intel processor

      --
      my karma will be here long after I'm gone
  3. Obviously not for Canadians by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

    1. Re:Obviously not for Canadians by DrEldarion · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I live near Chicago, and my room used to be the coldest in the house. During the winter, frost would form on the walls.

      Then I got an Athlon-650 computer in there and a 19" CRT monitor, and from then on, it was the warmest room in the house, even in the winter.

    2. Re:Obviously not for Canadians by __aamkky7574 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Even in Ireland (far more temperate than Canada) the bedroom is a lot more toasty in the morning if I've left the PC on downloading movies^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hperforming important calculations all night. I'd love to know how it works out cost-wise using a PC to heat a room than an actual heater.

      P.

    3. Re:Obviously not for Canadians by InvalidError · · Score: 3, Informative

      If your primary heat is electric, the only cost difference is in computer repairs since computers are far more likely to fail than an electric radiator.

      During summer though, I keep only the PCs I need turned on and I take a break from SETI&all.

    4. Re:Obviously not for Canadians by honestbob · · Score: 2, Informative

      Well, excepting the cost of buying and maintaining the hardware, the pc should consume just as much power as an electric heater that consumes the same power. This is a thermodynamic inevitability. I have always understood that electric heat is something like 2-4 times as expensive as gas heat. This makes sense, since oil-fired coal plants operate somewhere in the 40-50% efficiency range (whereas, if you burned it in your heater you'd only give up the small amount of heat in your exhaust gas). Admittedly, natural gas is more expensive than the oil that power plants burn, but you could probably offset that with the losses due to the transmission on electrical power lines.

  4. Not x86 processors by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Informative
    These are based upon the MIPS32 RISC processor. Remember the R4000? These are 32 bit, how about that MIPS64 ;-)

    upgrade from your SGI workstation to a tablet today!

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    1. Re:Not x86 processors by OverlordQ · · Score: 4, Informative

      If you want x86 processors AMD already realesed their Geode line for low-power mobile solutions.

      --
      Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
  5. One catch by Quasar1999 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I bet they aren't x86 compatable... cuz if they were... HOLY CRAP!

    --

    ---
    Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
    1. Re:One catch by Zutfen · · Score: 4, Informative

      Realistically, it doesn't matter much that they aren't x86. To me at least. I'm sure Linux will be running on it in no time.

      Besides, they're aiming for the PDA market, which doesn't have x86 compatibilty as it stands anyhow.

      I wonder if this technology will be adapted to the PC market in any way, shape or form. With such low power consumption, they are a fanless CPU, and a fanless power supply would probably be feasible I imagine. True silent computing sounds good to me... or is that doesn't sound...?

      In any case, it is very cool tech, literally, and figuratively speaking.

      --
      I'm too lazy to enter a sig. Hey wait a second! You tricked me!
    2. Re:One catch by truesaer · · Score: 4, Informative

      They aren't. However, AMD does have a line of x86 embedded processors known as Geode. For example, I see here a 400Mhz Geode consumes 1.1 watts of power. This is part of their more general x86 everywhere plan...with x86 chips as cheap as $1.

  6. FLOPS per Watt? by DumbSwede · · Score: 5, Insightful
    It'd be nice to see how these stack up in FLOPS per Watt.

    Perhaps these are the chips Supercomputer manufactures should be building machines with. Sounds to be low in cost to build AND low in cost to run.

    --
    Letter To Iran
    1. Re:FLOPS per Watt? by Ewan · · Score: 4, Informative

      bluegene is based on that concept, 700mhz per cpu, 12 watts, i believe it achieves something like 6watts per gflop.

    2. Re:FLOPS per Watt? by ivan256 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Probably zero.

      There's no evidence there that the MIPS32 core they used implements the (optional) floating point instructions. Of course you have to sign up for details so I can't say for sure...

      Since the video capabilities are handled by an accessory processing unit, and since they were trying to cut power consumption, I'd be surprised if there was an FPU in the general purpose core.

    3. Re:FLOPS per Watt? by abigor · · Score: 3, Informative

      You're entirely correct. There's no FPU in these chips, right up to and including the au1550. If you want floating point, you have to do it in software. It's gross and slow, by the way.

  7. How about laptops by I_am_Rambi · · Score: 2, Interesting

    with processors that create that little heat. That would be nice if they could clock them faster also.

  8. How fast are they really? by jandrese · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The writeup says you can run DivX, etc... but they don't say at what resolution or framerate. I've got PXA-255 based PDAs that can run DivX/WMV...as long as it is no larger than a postage stamp and encoded at more than 15 fps. The processor is still dog slow at stuff like compiling though. The writeup nor the articles give a good impression of exactly how fast these guys are, and that's a little worrysome. I don't mind energy efficent processors, but the last thing I want is something underpowered in my media center (oh, it can't handle 640x480 DivX, yay!).

    --

    I read the internet for the articles.
    1. Re:How fast are they really? by GuyRiley · · Score: 2, Interesting

      On the subject of PDA's, I have an iPAQ 2210 (PXA255/400MHz), and it can run XviD videos of varying bitrates at a full 320x240 @ 29.97fps. I imagine the same would be true of DivX. But for some reason, my PDA will not get more than 15fps out of a WMV encoded at any bitrate or resolution. I think that's more a result of shoddy coding than processing power though.

  9. how long.... by no+reason+to+be+here · · Score: 5, Insightful

    until we can get that kind of low power consumption on desktop chips? is there something inherent in desktop applications that prevent some chip maker from making a really low-power, high-performance (~1GHz) processor?

    --
    my pet machine
    1. Re:how long.... by Ironsides · · Score: 5, Informative

      Please look at the Crusoe Processor They consume under 2 watts and I believe they have broken the Ghz barrier.

      --
      Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
    2. Re:how long.... by Junks+Jerzey · · Score: 4, Informative

      until we can get that kind of low power consumption on desktop chips? is there something inherent in desktop applications that prevent some chip maker from making a really low-power, high-performance (~1GHz) processor?

      Super low power consumption and ultra high speed are inherently at odds with each other. It's like the memory/speed tradeoff that programmers have to deal with. (Crusoe is up around 1GHz, but they're already at twice the wattage of these chips.)

      Remember, all CPUs had this kind of power consumption back in the day. You never saw heatsinks on CPUs until the mid 1990s. And processors in 8-bit home computers used milliwatts of power.

    3. Re:how long.... by mjm1231 · · Score: 2, Informative

      You mean like these?

      --
      Ideology: A tool used primarily to avoid the bother of thinking.
    4. Re:how long.... by Queer+Boy · · Score: 2, Interesting
      is there something inherent in desktop applications that prevent some chip maker from making a really low-power, high-performance (~1GHz) processor?

      Well, that depends on what you consider to be low-power. Clearly these are super low but also have relatively low MIPS compared to current processors. PowerPC has always had low power consumption. The G5 is probably the most power hungry and consumes 42 Watts at 1.8 GHz, the G4 at 1 GHz consumes 30 Watts. Compare that with x86 processors coming from Intel and AMD and they are low power by comparison (a 2.8 GHz P4 consumes 68.4 Watts). Look at the MIPS to see the advantage.

      I am assuming that you think desktop chips are just x86.

      --
      Not since Marie-Antoinette played milkmaid has looking simple and honest been so fake and complicated.
    5. Re:how long.... by magarity · · Score: 2, Funny

      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...

    6. Re:how long.... by evilviper · · Score: 2, Insightful
      is there something inherent in desktop applications that prevent some chip maker from making a really low-power, high-performance (~1GHz) processor?

      HAHA!

      What you obviously don't realize, is that Intel's LV P3 933MHz (1.15v) processor was very low power. Under 12watts, the lowest spec chip since they made 486s. Even if you can't find that specific chip, P3s and Celerons of about that speed are only a few watts more.

      If you are an AMD fan, the Sempron 1GHz proc is only 20watts, and there are plenty of AMD64 procs with nearly as-low power specs.

      In addition, run fvcool on your AMD system to get the S2K support, and the processor will be using a fraction of that power when it is idling. Intel has the advantage of not needing stupid hacks like S2K bus disconnect, and doesn't require certain special motherboards. But if you have the right motherboard, AMD is just as good.

      So, what the hell are you complaining about?

      What I want to know is when motherboard manufacturers are going to stop keeping their specs secret. After buying a couple very high-power motherboards, I've tried to get that information from all the major manufacturers like MSI, Asus, Gigabyte, etc., and they all either promise it they'll send me those (but never do), or they ignore my request completely. I'd buy from PCChips at this point, if I could just get the power specs from their site for each motherboard.
      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
  10. for the record: by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Informative

    These processors are new but the Alchemy name is not. AMD has been selling alchemy processors for at least a year.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  11. Mini-ITX replacement... by B5_geek · · Score: 3, Interesting

    While I love the size and versatile nature of Via's Mini-ITX line, I have found their systems to be very unreliable.

    These AMD systems would be perfect for many linux applications;

    firewall, file servers, dumb-terminals, HTPC boxes, hell make a cluster out of 100 of them and they still waste less energy then a P4!

    It would be cool to see how a cluster like that could handle mpeg4 encoding/decoding.

    You also have CarPC's and many other options.
    I want some, can ya tell?

    --
    "The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~Plato (427-347 BC)
    1. Re:Mini-ITX replacement... by aristotle-dude · · Score: 2, Informative

      There is the fink http://fink.sourceforge.net/ project, Gentoo for Mac OS X http://www.metadistribution.org/macos/, Darwin ports http://darwinports.opendarwin.org/ or you could just install linux.

      Also check out versiontracker.com for a lot of Open source software with pretty GUIs.

      --
      Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
  12. Good chips are not the problem by LittleLebowskiUrbanA · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Getting these things into some decent laptops is. I only issue IBMs at my company and for good reason: the Stinkpads are built like tanks.

    --
    This guy is way out there
  13. From the Product Briefs linked to in the article: by grommit · · Score: 5, Informative

    # Support for MPEG1, 2, 4, and WMV9 scaled up to 1024x768
    # MPEG2 main profile/main level (720x480, 10Mbps, 30fps)
    # MPEG4 advanced simple profile/level 5 (720x480, 8Mbps, 30fps)
    # WMV9 main profile/medium level (720x480, 2Mbps, 30fps)

    Doesn't look too bad to me. This was for the Au1200 btw.

  14. transmeta by Anonymouse+Cownerd · · Score: 4, Interesting

    dare i say it? this makes transmeta all the more irrelevant. once a cool company with innovative technology, now they are no more than third place runner-up in the processor company race, and falling behind fast.

    --
    http://www.rayn.net . Funny. Stuff.
  15. Yeah, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    powerful enough to ruu DivX, WMV9, and MPEG

    Why on earth would TiVo be running this on the main CPU? I had thought the direction for DVR's was to offload most of the encoding/decoding to the video card/cards, no?

    It's not terribly impressive to say "can run MPEG-2 for video encoding!" when the main CPU's not doing the actual work...

  16. Sharp has something similar by corngrower · · Score: 2, Informative
    These appear to be MIPS based chips. Sharp has some ARM based chips that are geard for similar applications and provide similar functionality. These also, IIRC, run with fairly low power and have 32 bit cores. The high power requirements of x86 architectures is due to their very high clock speeds and all the complexities of a general purpose CPU chip (mmu, floating point, cache, fancy branch prediciton logic, etc).

    http://www.sharpsma.com/sma/products/mcu_soc/LH7A4 04_splash.htm

  17. Wow feal the burn by Mr.+Falco · · Score: 2, Funny

    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.

  18. Well done, AMD by masterOfTheObivous · · Score: 3, Insightful
    This might very well be AMD's next big thing. The Athlon 64 garnered a lot of attention for them, but now they've entered a new market- competing with Via's Mini-ITX series. SFF's that need the power for MPEG-4 decoding so they can be a good home theater PC would do well to be equipped with one of these. In fact, they even mention:
    "AMD Alchemy(TM) Au1200(TM) Processor - is a low-power, high-performance processor solution for Personal Media Player (PMP), automotive and Digital Media Adapter (DMA) applications.

    The implications of a low-power, low-heat solution with a lot power go beyond the home theater. The idea of "ubiquitous computing" (IMHO an awful blanket term that gets thrown around far too often) might become possible with a small but still powerful processor.

    The one last innovation that caught my eye was the on-processor AES encryption/decryption. Anyone have any ideas of practical applications for this?

    1. Re:Well done, AMD by Lisandro · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I was thinking the same - they quote power consumption between 400mW and 1W. *ONE* watt. At 400MHz. It consumes the same as older processors like the Z80 (while smoking it in processing power)! Even Transmeta couldn't get below 5W with their crusoe line - yet, the Crusoe is x86.

      If AMD markets this thing right and performs as promised, they will make a killing out of it. There's a lot of money in the embeeded systems market.

    2. Re:Well done, AMD by SpongeBobLinuxPants · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Why do we need low-power cpu's in a home theater system when an hdtv takes 300 watts or more to have on? What's an extra couple of watts in the cpu going to save?

      --
      hack a day
    3. Re:Well done, AMD by Temsi · · Score: 2, Insightful

      need the power for MPEG-4 decoding so they can be a good home theater PC
      Since most people don't really need a second computer dedicated to TV watching, this could be a great for a WIFI/Ethernet box that reads videos from the main computer in the house, or even from a firewire drive.
      Small enough to put in the living room, and since it has no fan, is completely silent (provided it's diskless as well).

      Having wasted my money on the 933Mhz Mini-ITX that could barely decode mpeg2, this sounds infinitely better.
      Granted, HDTV support would be great, but I think it's only a matter of time before AMD goes in that direction.
      A fanless multimedia front end capable of processing WM9,MPEG4,MPEG2 decoding at full 1920x1080 resolutions would go straight to the top of my list of must haves.

      --
      -- This sig for rent.
  19. Blackfin by arsenix · · Score: 2, Informative

    The Analog devices blackfin is a good chip for such devices as well (it is classed a "hybrid DSP"). It consumes 280mw at 600 Mhz, and also comes in a dual core. uCLinux runs on it as well. Cool chip with similar capabilities, but definetely a different marketing angle.

    --
    (this is offended to the end of comments you post, 120 chars)
  20. overclockers by frankmu · · Score: 2, Funny

    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.
  21. Re:Obligatory Simpsons quote by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Ya know what. It's not obligatory, it's stupid now.

    It was funny for the first 500 stories someone did it on, now it's just dumb. As is saying something is obligatory, give it up people... it's not funny anymore.

  22. These are not new by Weaselmancer · · Score: 5, Informative

    I've had an Alchemy Au1100 devboard on my desk for over a year. The disk that came with the devboard is dated 1-27-2003.

    There is already a very complete Linux port mostly done by Montavista.

    --
    Weaselmancer
    rediculous.
  23. no heat? by AviLazar · · Score: 2, Funny

    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.
  24. Why Tivo would run this on the main CPU... by Moryath · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Two words:

    NO HEATSINK.

    If you can get a video board that works with only a passive heatsink, and then run this thing with a minimal heatsink, you lower your heat problems.

    Lower them enough, and you can get a smaller fan to cool the entire unit, or even get away without a fan entirely (though given how long a TIVO has to stay turned on, it's likely you need some minimal level of guaranteed airflow to avoid overheating the unit the same way you used to be able to overheat an NES).

    But the smaller, and fewer, fans you have to put into it, the quieter it is. And living-room appliances want to be as quiet as possible, to avoid interfering with the quiet moments inside of a game/movie/TV show.

  25. What about *MORE* power? by SmokeHalo · · Score: 2, Funny

    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
    1. Re:What about *MORE* power? by strelitsa · · Score: 3, Funny

      Well, here's your chance.

      --
      No mod points, no meta-moderating/Firehose/all the other free work Slashdot wants me to do.
  26. We use these (they are smokin!) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    We have ported eCos RTOS to Au1x00 and have used Alchemy CPUs in two embedded products. They have outstanding performance, good GNU tool support, and easy-to-understand MIPS risc goodness.

    One thing to watch for: The onboard peripherals are geared more to PDAs (no real watchdog, limited-feature timers, etc). You would want to check your embedded application requirements. On the plus side, the JTAG TAP makes board support and debugging a snap.

    1. Re:We use these (they are smokin!) by scatterbrained · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I wish you guys would have submitted your Au1x00
      patches back to ecos! I wanted to use redboot
      on something we're doing, but wound up using
      u-boot instead, just because I didn't have time
      to get all the scaffolding in place for redboot.

      --
      -- All that's left of me, is slight insanity, whats on the right, I don't know. -- Bob Mould
  27. AMD mucking around in other fields by oboylet · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I'm always pleasantly surprised with what AMD cooks up in addition to their x86 business.

    AMD is a much more interesting company that we geeks often realize. Too often we think, AMD=Athlon/Opteron, but I find their gadgety endeavors really interesting.

    Apple's Airport (and maybe extreme/express, dunno) has a tiny AMD processor , and as the parent points out, now their playing with MIPS archs. A friend of mine worked at the fab in Dresden and said that a third of their operations had to do with flash.

    Call me a fanboy, but I sure do like the AMD kool aid. They make neato products and deserve mucho respect.

    1. Re:AMD mucking around in other fields by iabervon · · Score: 4, Funny

      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?

  28. The Transmeta Factor by The-Perl-CD-Bookshel · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Perhaps this technology comes from their strategic partnership with Transmeta whom has always put great emphasis on energy conservation. Decent Google search here.

    --
    I don't keep a lid on my coffee so when I walk around I look busy -me
  29. VIA Eden Still PC-Compatible King? by BaldingByMicrosoft · · Score: 2, Informative

    So, for a PC-compatible CPU, it looks like the VIA Eden series is still on top?

    VIA Eden ESP 4000 (4.0 x 100MHz)@1.05V: 1.7W typical, 3.0W max
    VIA Eden ESP 10000 (5.0 x 200MHz)@1.05V: 6.1W typical, 7.0W max

    Unlike a previous poster, I've been running a VIA EPIA M 10000, 1.0GHz (Nehemiah) on a workstation, and a VIA EPIA V, Eden 533MHz on a server with no issues.

    1. Re:VIA Eden Still PC-Compatible King? by MarcQuadra · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I can EMULATE x86 on a PowerPC 750 and get better performance/watt than VIA's EDEN chips. Really, VIA chips have always been seriously weak sauce, just because they can't clock them well and they use not-much juice doesn't make them superior in any way.

      The Pentium-M and AMD GEODE NX CPUs produce MUCH more horsepower per watt than VIA's chips. VIA's only advantage is that they mass-produce Mini-ITX boards and sell them to distributors. If someone mass-produced a GEODE NX bMini-ITX board, it would wipe the floor with the EPIA, fanlessly.

      --
      "Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
  30. on-processor AES by thrashbluegrass · · Score: 2, Interesting

    A low-power firewall acting as a VPN concentrator could certainly take advantage of crypto hardware.

    Or, for the pathologically paranoid (join with me, my Pathanoid kin!), quick swap encryption sounds pretty tasty.

  31. Implementations by SumDog · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Does anyone have links to implementations of this MIPS arch? Are there embeded versions of Gentoo or Debian that have been showen to work on this chip? Are there any media players like mplayer that are designed to support its instruction sets. What type of embeded boad solutions are there? Has anyone tried this and what are your experiences?

  32. VIA by phorm · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Looks like VIA will have some competition. I've got a few Epia boards which I mainly use due to the low profile/power consumption.

    Once I see how well the AMD products (including the motherboards for the chip, etc) work with linux I may consider a switch. At 400Mhz equivilent they could do nicely for servers and the video capabilities would make them decent enough for small media units. Wonder how well they would handle DVD, etc playback and TV out... as my M10000 does quite nicely for that with fairly low CPU consumption.

  33. The OCer says... by lateralus_1024 · · Score: 4, Funny

    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 /. comments are bad, check out Digg.
  34. Re:FLASH by corngrower · · Score: 2, Informative

    If you've been paying attn to the stock market, last quarter AMD did not make nearly as much as they were expecting on flash sales because Intel was dumping flash memory in order to depress prices of flash. Thoughts are that this was done specifically to hurt AMD's bottom line.

  35. Cool, but does it fit in a wristwatch? by davidwr · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Wristwatch Linux - cool.
    Wristwatch Linux that can boot Knoppix-on-thumbdrive - cooler.

    --
    Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
  36. Re:FLASH by mkarpinski · · Score: 2, Informative

    Actually, AMD is losing money with their flash business. They may be looking at dumping those products...

    AMD Without the flash?

    --
    As below, so above and beyond, I imagine drawn beyond the lines of reason. Push the envelope. Watch it bend.
  37. AMD's Geode by dfj225 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Also of interest would be AMD's Geode line of processors, found here: http://www.amd.com/us-en/ConnectivitySolutions/Pro ductInformation/0,,50_2330_9863,00.html. It looks like these guys run on about 1 Watt and are x86 compatible.

    --
    SIGFAULT
  38. ex DECcies strike again by Pemdas · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This comes out of AMD's aquisition of Rich Witek's startup (named Alchemy). Rich Witek was one of the original guys working on the Alpha chip (among other projects). Alchemy originally targetted PDA's with their low power MIPS32 processors and on-chip peripheral support.

    Interestingly, Dan Dobberpuhl, another Digital alumnus who was influential in the Alpha project, also founded his own company to make MIPS based processers, though for a slightly different target market. That company was SiByte, and was acquired by Broadcom in 2000 or 2001. He has since moved on to start PASemi, which seems to be in the same general business.

    Digital may be gone, but it's engineers are still making waves!

  39. low power chips often better tradeoff by idlake · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Generally, the relationship between compute power and power consumption for a single chip is super-linear. So, for well-parallelizable problems, using more chips that are individually less powerful helps you with overall power consumption.

  40. Re:Mod down that post! Transmeta is the be-any Arc by crimson30 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Next laptop I get I plan on it being a Transmeta laptop, they seem to be friendly towards linux

    Just a tip