AMD to introduce dual-core Turion 64 in first half of 2006

The journalist crowd at IDF is not just a tool for Intel to deliver the latest information to the media. It’s almost a tradition that AMD also comes to San Francisco during an IDF, rents out a hotel suite in one of the hotels in the vicinity of the Moscone Convention Center and offers a brief update on its current and sometimes future product lines.

As in spring, AMD did not have much to talk about and this time the information was even less and was offered on a first-come-first-serve basis. As a result, we can only confirm what some of our colleagues already have reported : Yes, according to company officials, AMD plans to introduce a dual-core Turion 64 system with support for DDR2 memory and Pacifica virtualization technology sometime in the first half of 2006. Spokespeople declined to elaborate on any further details, but vaguely indicated that the new processors will fit into the same product classes as the single-core product - thin and light systems. This may be a sign that AMD is on track keeping the power envelope of the dual-core Turion at least in a 35 watt range.

There was also no announcement of a possible model name of the Turion 64, but AMD said that it will continue to use the ML- and MT-like scheme it introduced with the single-core product. While AMD’s spokespeople declined to comment, we would expect the dual-core to appear in a third "M"-family to allow a differentiation of the chip from its single-core siblings.

Performance-wise, there wasn’t much information either. Besides the claim that the dual-core Turion 64 "will shine" if compared against Yonah, AMD did not reveal any details. (THG)