by Anna Filatova
04/17/2002 | 11:50 PM
Today AMD officially announced a new mobile processor family: Mobile Athlon XP based on Thoroughbred core manufactured with 0.13micron technology. According to the company press-release, the family will comprise 4 models with 1400+, 1500+, 1600+ and 1700+ ratings. Moreover, unlike predecessors called Athlon 4, Mobile Athlon XP CPUs are intended to work with 266MHz bus. It means that the rating of Mobile Athlon XP processors is now calculated the same way as that of desktop Athlon XP. In other words, the frequency of Mobile Athlon XP 1400+, 1500+, 1600+ and 1700+ is equal to 1.26GHz, 133GHz, 1.4GHz and 1.46GHz correspondingly.
I would like to point out that together with the launching of Mobile Athlon XP, AMD removed every mention of Athlon 4 from its company web-site. The only place where you can still find some info about the mobile Athlon 4 processors, is the price list with three Athlon 4 models working at 1GHz, 1.1GHz and 1.2GHz. All other Athlon 4 processors marked with the new performance rating (these were 1500+ and 1600+) have been removed from the price-list. It means that all mobile processors working at the core clock frequency over 1.2GHz will now be based on the new 0.13micron Thoroughbred core.<%BANNER[article]%>
Having announced Mobile Athlon XP, AMD did its best not to disclose the detailed specs of the new processors. The only thing that we can understand from the official press-release is that these CPUs are based on QuantiSpeed architecture and support PowerNow! and 3DNow! Professional (3DNow! + SSE) technologies. MAD promises that Athlon 4 and the new Mobile Athlon XP will be pin compatible, however the new processors will be also made in micro Pin Grid Array (uPGA) package intended for thin and light notebooks.
Mobile Athlon XP 1400+, 1500+, 1600+ and 1700+ cost $190, $250, $380 and $489 respectively. The first shipments of Mobile Athlon XP 1400+ and 1500+ have already been started, and the other two models should be available within this quarter.
As you remember, the desktop processors on Thoroughbred core are due only in the end of this quarter.