Intel and AMD have been fierce rivals for many years. Intel almost always had the upper hand over AMD until the launch of AMD's K8 architecture which saw the Sunnyvale, California-based company basking in the spotlight (and in enthusiast praise). Intel shoved AMD into the backseat with the launch of its Core architecture and AMD has been pretty much stuck in that position ever since.

While AMD may be having problems tackling Intel in the high-end desktop and notebook markets, the company is looking to go toe-to-toe with Intel in the emerging Mobile Internet Device (MID) and netbooks/nettop market. Intel is currently having a lot of success with its Atom processor which will be in short supply until the end of Q3 2008.

AMD is countering with a low-power AMD64-based CPU design of its own according to leaked slides obtained by HEXUS. The unnamed processor features an integrated memory controller, 16-lane 800MHz HyperTransport link, 256KB of L2 cache, and a 1GHz core clock. Considering that this new chip is to be used in low-power applications, power consumption is a critical talking point. Intel's Atom N270 -- the most popular Atom variant for netbooks -- features a 2.5W TDP at 1.6GHz. However, we can't forget the i945GSE Northbridge which adds another 4W -- more than the Atom processor itself.

You can read the entire article at DailyTech.