On the CPU front, Puma-based notebooks will be based on the AMD Turion X2 Ultramobile processor which uses Hypertransport 3 bus for extremely fast (2.6GB/s) data transfer between CPU and chipset, power management that can turn whole segments of the chip off on a millisecond-by-millisecond basis to save power. Intel is only now catching up to AMD’s use of Hypertransport after many years, with its competing QuickPath technology, which will debut in its Nehalem-class Core 2 Duos later this year.

Around 100 laptop designs based on Advanced Micro Devices' upcoming Puma laptop chip platform are being readied ahead of the chips' scheduled launch in June, according to a company spokesman. "That's twice as many designs as we had at the launch of our last mobile platform," said John Taylor, director of product and strategic marketing at AMD's Graphics Products Group, speaking at a news conference in Singapore.

The Toshiba Satellite P210/J00 comes in the signature Satellite body that fans of the series will instantly recognise. Lifting the blue lid reveals a full-sized keyboard with a number pad, both of which are coloured in gunmetal grey. Although simplistic, the design is also neutral and doesn't stand out, making it suitable for many environments. It has a set of Harman Kardon speakers, which pump out sound that is very good for a notebook. Powering the unit is a 2.2GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-64 dual-core CPU with an 800MHz front side bus speed and a 1MB L2 cache. Also installed are 2GB of 667MHz DDR2 RAM, a 200GB SATA hard drive, which spins at 5400rpm, and an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600 graphics card.

The roadmap is this. AMD's Thunderstorm project, first published on my bog a few weeks ago, will put paid to Intel's Larrabee's plans by being released before the end of 2008. Intel is not ready to talk about Larrabee, but the bus driver said the project is far advanced and uses backward compatibility to achieve the same effects - as in 12 to 16 cores - far earlier than anything Chipzilla has up its corporate sleevies.

Whilst at IDF 2008 at Shanghai, an Intel employee, who wishes to remain anonymous, was reminded of the fact that AMD finally has a compelling mobile platform to put up against the fifth-generation Centrino platform. They responded with the following statement: 'it's easy to hide behind graphics when their (AMD's) mobile processors are rubbish in comparison to ours'.