AMD launches laptop-friendly 690 chipset

Variants offer HDMI, Display Cache tech

By Tony Smith • Get more from this author

Posted in PC Builder, 29th March 2007 09:25 GMT

Free whitepaper – Managing desktop software for fun and profit

AMD has rolled out the notebook-centric version of its recently released 690 integrated chipset.

Like the 690V, the M690 incorporates an ATI Radeon X1200-branded, X700-class graphics core capable of driving HDMI and DVI outputs to external displays. It also supports an x16 PCI Express connection for an external GPU.

The GPU implements AMD's Avivo video enhancement technology through the inclusion of an ATI Xilleon TV encoder chip. Since it has the circuitry to feed s-video, component-video and composite-video signalling chips, the M690 could make for highly media centric systems, particularly given the vogue for building compact living room systems out of mobile parts.

Since the M690 is a mobile chipset, AMD talked up the part's power-saving features, including what it calls Display Cache, which allows the CPU to operate in a low-power mode and not access system memory. Connect the M690 to a dual-core Turion 64 X2 processor and you'll get up to half an hour more battery life, AMD claimed.

Display Cache is part of a specific incarnation of the M690, the M690T. It allows up to 128MB of memory to be connected to the chipset for display data. Another variant is the M690V, a lower-cost version that lacks the external GPU link and the HDMI/DVI output.