Some details about AMD’s Bobcat have already leaked. It’s a rival to Intel very successful Atom processor. AMD has confirmed that it will reveal its ultra-mobile processor in November and note that “reveal” might not mean “launch” or “available” here. Some are wondering why AMD is so late. There is speculation that ultra-mobile (and cheap) processors aren’t very profitable. In my opinion – it is a good business, especially for Intel, who can manufacture them with an advanced process. Why? because these processors are already extremely small. If you can manufacture them with an advanced process using large wafers the yields must be excellent (that means low defects).
Now, before complaining that AMD is late, think of this: they are under pressure on the desktop CPU side and they are under pressure for their graphics (ATI) business. In addition, they are much smaller than Intel, so their resources are spread very thin. There’s no magic formula, AMD cannot go head to head with Intel on all fronts, and in my opinion they are likely to lose the ultra-portable processors battle. Look at the thermal dissipation of Bobcat: 8W. Intel’s Atom is 2.5W… not good.
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