AMD scores over a hundred design wins with upcoming mobile platforms

It seems AMD will be making some important inroads into the notebook market with their latest mobile chips. Following the recent launch of over a dozen AMD-based HP laptops, Reuters is reporting the company has nabbed no less than 109 design wins for a "new generation of power-efficient chips" due next week. This is a two-fold improvement from the "over 50" design wins it expected with the Tigris platform announced back in September 2009.

The report stops short of mentioning the actual platforms being launched, but looking at AMD's roadmap for 2010 these should be Danube and Nile. The first is aimed at the mainstream notebook segment and will feature quad, triple and dual-core 45nm CPUs codenamed Champlain; while Nile will make up for AMD's ultraportable platform with 45nm Geneva dual-core processors , DDR3 RAM, and DirectX 10.1 integrated graphics.

Notebooks with AMD's latest CPUs will start showing up "as early as June" in systems from the likes of HP, Acer, Dell, and Lenovo. Given the timeframe we suspect most will be announced in or around Computex. That said, we already know Acer is getting ready to launch a 10.1" Aspire One featuring a single-core V105 processor clocked at 1.2GHz. This chip is supposedly the slowest member of the Geneva lineup, uses a 512KB L2 cache, and has a TDP of only 9W.

Corsair outs 2533MHz Dominator GTX4 RAM

It took a few months, but Corsair has outdone itself again with the launch of its new 2GB Dominator GTX4 DDR3 memory. In January, the company introduced DDR3 RAM rated for up to 2400MHz, and that topped its 2000MHz sticks, but its latest offering promises to operate at 2,533MHz with timings of 9-11-10-30 and 1.65V -- perfect for P55-based machines.

Just like the 2,400MHz GTX1, GTX4 modules are individually tested by hand at Corsair's Freemont, California lab. The RAM ships with a lifetime warranty for the very special introductory price of only $325. While you're at it, you might as well go the full mile and get the company's Airflow 2 GTL fan, which is recommended for optimal performance.

Archos 7 Home Tablet release bumped to June

Archos' 7-inch Android-based tablet went up for presale last month with an expected ship date of late April, but as you well know, April is behind us, and the Archos 7 Home Tablet has yet to officially launch. According to the company, some people who preordered the bargain-priced slate may receive it by the end of May, but the new US release window is June.

If you're interested, the device is still available for preorder on Amazon at a reasonable $199. The Android 1.6 tablet packs a 7-inch 800x480 resistive touchscreen, a 600MHz ARM 9 processor, and 8GB of storage into a very trim package, measuring less than half an inch thick and weighing well under a pound. It's rated for 7 hours of video or 44 hours of audio and it can handle up to 720p playback.

The Archos 7 Home Tablet is preloaded with a handful of core apps for instant messaging, reading e-books and so on, but it's backed by Archos' AppLib store rather than the Android Marketplace -- though you can install the full store with a little knowhow.