Posted on Wednesday, December 05 2012 @ 16:57 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
ExtremeTech speculates AMD has a good chance at winning some much needed marketshare in the notebook and tablet market with the upcoming next-generation Bobcat APU. The site says Kabini and Temash could achieve a "Goldilocks" position between Intel's Atom and Ivy Bridge, but only if AMD manages to ship the products on time. Full details
at ExtremeTech.
Intel will never support AMD, but Chipzilla likes its high margins. If AMD can ship a product that forms its own bulwark against ARM’s encroachment at the bottom of the market, Santa Clara will likely let it stand. The marginal gain from slashing Clover Trail prices or increasing clock speed to drive up performance (and power consumption) are tiny, and Valleyview is already on the roadmap.
The flip side to this is that Kabini and Temash have an optimum window that’s 12 months wide at most. Tegra 4 and Cortex-A15 designs will increase pressure from the ARM segment, while Haswell (and eventually Valleyview) narrow the x86 opportunity. Maximum effectiveness means getting these parts into hardware as soon as possible.
