Fusion: the anathema of an Atom
If you didn’t know already, the Dell Inspiron m102z is the first netbook to have the newest Fusion chips by AMD, but only today did AMD officially launch the new C-60, E-300 and E-450 chips, all designed to be the highest-end netbook chips.
These high-performance chips will all be dual-core and have a discrete graphics processor from the Radeon family. It promises enhanced performance and better battery life when compared to the older generation.
According to Liliputing, the specs of each chip is as such,
AMD C-60
- Clock speed: 1 Ghz to 1.33 GHz
- GPU clock speed: 276 MHz to 400 MHz
- TDP: 9W
AMD E-300
- Clock Speed: 1.3 GHz
- GPU clock speed: 488 MHz
- TDP: 18W
AMD E-450
- Clock Speed: 1.65 GHz
- GPU clock speed: 508 MHz to 600 MHz
- TDP: 18W
The chief benefit of getting a later-gen C-class or E-class AMD CPU lies in having more power, Turbo Core, DirectX 11 support and a bit more processing power while retaining the same TDP. AMD promises greater battery life and guarantees that this is a good choice for people seeking mobility as the E-series will give a user up to 10.5-hours of unplugged rest-state battery life, while the C-60 will provide up to 12-hours of unplugged rest-state battery life.
In addition, the update will provide certain new advances such as the ability to use DDR3 1333 RAM, as well as an updated HDMI 1.4a output on the E-series. DisplayPort is also something new that will be supported by the new Fusion chips.
Thinking about AMD and the netbook category of portable computers reminds me of the days when AMD used to dominate the desktop market. Indeed, that was a time when Intel was not favoured by gamers. To be exact, I would point to the year when AMD decided to leave the “more megahertz” race. Back then, if you were a serious gamer, you would have an AMD. What is happening here is exactly reminiscent of the days when AMD was dominating high-performance computers, only this time, it applies to netbooks. Perhaps this is because Intel is pursuing an alternative strategy, after all, a netbook sells well because it is cheap, but for anyone who requires HD-capability and moderate gaming abilities on a netbook, the way to go is the AMD way.
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