AMD's 2000 Roadmap - The Facts

The Corvette will put AMD's PowerNow! technology to good use.  You may remember PowerNow! technology from last Comdex when we referred to it as AMD's Gemini technology, which was talked about around the same time as Intel released their first mobile Pentium III processors with Speedstep.  AMD really wants to illustrate that their PowerNow! technology is dramatically different from Intel's Speedstep, and it actually is.

Intel's Speedstep technology allows a Speedstep enhanced processor to switch clock speeds/voltages when plugged into a wall versus when running off of battery power alone.  For example, Intel's mobile Pentium III 650 with Speedstep technology runs at a core voltage of 1.60v when plugged into a wall outlet (i.e. not running off of battery power).  When the laptop switches over to battery power,  the clock speed drops from 650MHz down to 500MHz while pulling the core voltage down to 1.35v in order to conserve power. 

AMD's PowerNow! takes this one step further.  Instead of simply decreasing the clock speed and the voltage of the CPU when running off of battery power, the PowerNow! technology in combination with the motherboard's BIOS allows for the dynamic adjustment of clock speed/voltage of the CPU during actual program usage. 

For example, say we have a 600MHz mobile AMD processor equipped with the PowerNow! Technology.  Upon launching a program such as MS Word, the processor will most likely operate at close to its full speed, but immediately after the loading process is complete, the CPU will drop to a slower clock speed and lower voltage.  During this time, if you decide to start up another application or begin doing some very CPU intensive calculations (ok, maybe not in Word) the PowerNow! technology will increase the CPU's operating frequency in order to compensate. 

We will see PowerNow! used in AMD based notebooks this summer, but these notebooks will be using K6-2+ or K6-3+ processors, not the Corvette.