"AMD could re-enter the ultra-low-power-chip space after its fortunes improve, McCarron said. It could shrink down existing low-power chips like the Athlon Neo, which are based on newer designs, McCarron said. AMD earlier in the month launched Athlon Neo for ultrathin laptops.

But company executives say that's unlikely.

"We'll continue to sell the Geode line of products, but as far as are we going to be bringing out a new core microarchitecture specifically targeted at that space -- no, we won't be doing that. It's not a part of our future product road map. You are going to continue to see us offer lower-power processors just like the Neo being offered at 15 watts," said Randy Allen, senior vice president of the computing solutions group at AMD, in an interview earlier this month.

Geode bundles an x86 processor core, a graphics core and other components on a single chip. The Geode LX series of chips runs at speeds of up to 600MHz and draws between 0.9 watts and 5 watts of power.

Without an updated version of the Geode, AMD may struggle to win a contract to supply the next-generation OLPC laptop, the XO-2.

OLPC representatives did not respond to a request for comment about Geode's future. But in an e-mail sent in late December, a spokesman said the group hopes to make some changes with the new laptop. "One challenge with [XO-2] has been to obtain the desired system-on-a-chip, while at the same time avoiding an exclusive arrangement with a single processor vendor," Jim Gettys of OLPC said at the time.

A Wiki page for the OLPC cites Intel and Via among companies that could potentially supply chips for the XO-2.

AMD is working with OLPC on its vision and discussing chips from the product road map that might fit into XO-2, Allen said. "But I don't think we have any specifics in terms of the XO-2," Allen said."


http://www.infoworld.com/article/09/01/2...