News

AMD embeds new Geodes for fanless systems

May 24, 2004

LONDON--AMD has extended its range of low-power Geode x86 processors, according to an article on ZDNet UK.

The Geode series, used primarily as an embedded chip in stand-alone products such as kiosks and control systems, now includes productivity components such as Winbench 99 and consumer-oriented tests involving instant messaging, Web browsing, Flash display and video playback.

The new chip is called the AMD Geode NX 1500@6W, which runs at one volt and consumes six watts at one GHz: a faster version, the Geode NX 1750@14W runs at 1.4 GHz and uses 14 watts.

Aimed at fanless systems, the Geode NX includes a 266 MHz front side bus, 384KB of cache and is fabricated in a 130nm process optimized for low leakage currents.

Despite the name, the Geode NX does not include AMD's 'NX' code protection technology, recently introduced with its Athlon 64 to limit the ways malicious software can run on a system.

Last year, AMD bought the Geode product line from National Semiconductor.  This is the first product based on AMD's own Athlon core. The old parts use a completely different architecture and have been renamed Geode GX 533@1.1W

The company is positioning the Geode NX against Intel, Transmeta and Via's Centaur low power x86 products, and says it supports Windows XP, XP embedded, WinCE and Linux.