AMD, ATI Technologies unveil notebook chips

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and graphics chipmaker ATI Technologies Inc. unveiled last week processors for thin and light notebooks.

AMD introduced the Mobile AMD Sempron 3000+, while ATI, based in Canada, launched the Mobility Radeon X300 and X800.

The AMD chip includes built-in virus protection designed to prevent the spread of certain malicious viruses when enabled by Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2. Packard Bell and Gericom are expected to ship notebooks with the latest mobile chip for the holiday season, AMD said.

Pricing for the AMD Sempron 3000+ starts at $134 in 1,000-unit quantities.

ATI's Radeon X300 and X800 are PCI Express-based graphics processors. The X300 has a four-pixel pipeline designed for DirectX 9 games and applications, while the beefier X800 has a 12-pixel pipeline. DirectX is a set of multimedia programming interfaces from Microsoft Corp. for Windows.

Notebook designers Alienware, Eurocom, Rock and Velocity Micro are expected to ship notebooks with the Radeon X800 chip in December, ATI said.

TechWeb.com