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AMD stayed out of the netbook market, dominated by Intel's various Atom processors, for at least a year, though Raon Digital's little Everrun Note made its debut in August 2009, based on an AMD Turion 64 X2 CPU. The first bonafide AMD netbook, the LT3013u, was released by Acer in June under its Gateway brand, featuring a single-core, 64-bit Athlon L110 CPU.
Now, Acer has put AMD inside another netbook, the Ferrari One, revealed earlier today by U.K. website TrustedReviews. The device is said to use a platform that was previously code-named "Congo," but is now described by AMD as its "second generation ultrathin platform."
In a blog posting yesterday, AMD marketing VP Patrick Moorhead outlined the company's second generation ultrathin platform as follows: "Take the first generation, give it a second CPU core and take nearly the performance of the first generations discrete card, shrink it and place it into the chipset decreasing energy consumption."
Providing more specifics, TrustedReviews says Acer's Ferrari One employs an AMD Athlon X2 L310 processor, with dual cores running at 1.2GHz plus 1MB of second-level cache. The CPU is reportedly supported by AMD's M780G, which, according to the chipmaker, includes ATI Radeon 3200 graphics, with support for HD video playback and DirectX 10 gaming.
Intriguingly, the M780G is said to be capable of working in parallel with a separately installed discrete graphics processor. According to the TrustedReviews item by Andy Vanderwell, the Ferrari One leverages this fact by including an XGP (external graphics platform) port (pictured at right). As described by AMD, XGP provides devices with an external PCI Express 2.0 connector, allowing connection of docking stations that can include discrete graphics, HDMI outputs, USB ports, and a variety of other facilities.
In addtion to an 11.6-inch display, the Ferrari One also includes a VGA port, audio I/O, Bluetooth, Dolby Home Theater technology, and an optional HSDPA (high speed downlink packet access) cellular modem, according to TrustedReviews. It's said the device will also offer a six-cell, 5600mAh battery.
Further information
To see the TrustedReviews item announcing Acer's Ferrari One, go here.
To read the blog entry by AMD's Patrick Moorhead describing "Congo," the second-generation ultrathin platform, see here.
For details of AMD's "Vision" branding program, which is employed on the Acer Ferrari One, see our sister site eWEEK.com, here.
