Tech Blog

With Intel’s tiny, low powered Atom turning out to be a smash hit in bargain-priced, small-sized netbooks, and even upstart Via getting in on the netbook/low power with the Nano, it was a matter of when, not if, chip maker AMD would release its own competing part. And low-and-behold, the struggling processor manufacturer chose CES to unveil the Athlon Neo, a low power, low cost part aimed at cheap, but thin notebooks.

AMD is quick to argue that it is not targeting the netbook market cornered by Intel, but instead is looking to bridge the gap between small and thin notebooks, like the MacBook Air and Thinkpad X300, and the lower cost, mainstream systems. As evidence of this, AMD was showing off the HP dv2 an ultra portable “notebook,” with a 12.1 inch wide-screen, discrete graphics processor (albeit an aging one), and an external Blu-ray player. The first machine to use AMD’s 1.6GHz Neo MV-40 is priced above the netbook range at $899, but comes with many more features than your Eee.

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