Mobile CPU

Virtually all of today’s notebooks are powered by processors built by Intel, AMD, or Transmeta. In the same way AMD and Intel duke it out in the desktop space, they constantly try to one up each other in the mobile space, as well. Transmeta’s processors, however, have been relegated to low-power niche products, such as OQO’s Model 1, and aren’t as ubiquitous as Intel’s or AMD’s products. Both Intel and AMD have multiple specialized processor lines available for mobile platforms, and each company’s desktop processors are used in some DTR notebooks, as well. But just as the mobile space has been divided into desktop replacement, performance thin, mainstream thin-and-light, and value mainstream segments, so has the type of processor each segment uses. In the DTR space, the Athlon 64 and Pentium 4 are the most widely used processors, with a portion of the market belonging to high-end Pentium M processors. These DTR notebooks are large and heavy and don’t offer much in terms of battery life, but they are high-performance products. Many DTR notebooks are just as powerful as similarly configured full-sized machines, and you could even use them as a desktop replacement. At the other end of the spectrum, AMD’s Mobile Sempron and Intel’s Celeron M processors hold the majority of the value mainstream and a portion of the mainstream thin-and-light market. Both the Mobile Sempron and Celeron M processors share much of the same architecture as their higher-powered counterparts, but they tend to have lower clock speeds, slower buses, or less L2 cache. Yet, the recent influx of inexpensive notebooks is due in part to the widespread availability of the Mobile Sempron and Celeron M processors. As of press time, Compaq/HP, Dell, Gateway, and others have sub-$750 notebooks available, and they’re all powered by Mobile Sempron or Celeron M