AMD aims to undercut Intel's Ultrabooks on price with new Trinity chips

From InfoWorld: Advanced Micro Devices hopes to provide thin-and-light laptops that are less expensive but equally speedy to Intel's Ultrabooks with its new A-series chips, which the company officially announced on Tuesday.

The A-series chips, code-named Trinity, will enable laptops to be made that are comparable in size, weight and battery life to Intel's Ultrabooks, said John Taylor, director of global product marketing at AMD. Users won't have to pay "premium prices" for Trinity ultrathin laptops, which will be significantly cheaper than Intel's Ultrabooks.

Laptops with Trinity chips will be priced at "mainstream prices," and offer battery life of up to nine hours, Taylor said. AMD has said that Trinity laptops could start at $500, while Intel's Ultrabooks starting prices of $750 to $800. Intel hopes to bring that down to $699 by the year end.

Laptops with Trinity chips will offer around eight hours of battery life, Taylor said. The chips will go into laptops up to 22 millimeters thick, just a hair over the 21-mm maximum set by Intel for Ultrabooks, AMD's Taylor said. The chips will draw around 17 watts of power, similar to the upcoming Intel's Ivy Bridge Ultrabook chips.

AMD will also provide quad-core Trinity chips for ultrathins, Taylor said. Intel has said Ultrabooks for now would be limited to dual-core processors, but quad-core chips could give AMD-based laptops a performance advantage.

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