ATI announces Xpress 200M chipset for AMD-based notebooks

Markham (ON) - ATI extends its notebook product line with the introduction of the Radeon Xpress 200M chipset, the first integrated PCI Express DirectX 9 chipset for AMD processor-based notebook PCs.

The 200M comes with comparable features of the desktop product with the main differences being that the company added a number of power optimizations for thin and light form factor notebooks. According to ATI, the chipset delivers the visual performance of the onboard X300 solution, but reduces GPU power consumption by up to 30 percent by integrating the Powerplay 5.0 power management functionality.

While the chipset is the first integrated PCI Express DirectX 9 chipset for AMD-based notebook PCs, ATI said it is not sampling the product at this time. Instead, the company decided to wait for a "broader" availability of mobile computers for its chipset. The chipset supports the current Mobile Athlon 64 and Mobile Sempron as well as the upcoming Turion 64 processors.

However, the company said the 200M currently is available in Japan within Sharp’s Mebius PCXG-70H and Mebius PCXG-50H media center notebook PCs. The press release hinted that worldwide availability will increase with the introduction of AMD’s Turion processor for thin and light notebooks. ATI said that Acer, Gateway, HP, Medion, and NEC among others will be integrating the chipset in their mobile computers.