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Acer and Turion dual-core

post #1 of 6
5/23/05 at 3:47pm
Thread Starter 
I'd like to get a Ferrari 4000 but I am wondering...

Will it be upgradeable to dual-core Turion?

AMD's roadmap calls for no change in motherboards so current AMD64 is upgradeable to dual core by swapping in a dual-core CPU and doing a BIOS upgrade. I called Acer and they told me that their desktops are upgradeable but that their laptops have never supported a change in processors. This seems to mean that no BIOS upgrade for dual-core will be made available for Turion notebooks.

AMD's dual-core processors are widely viewed as better than Intel's, so a Turion dual-core upgrade path could be a big selling point. Not providing one seems like a big mistake on Acer's part since I (and others) could wait 6 months for dual-core Turion notebooks or buy notebooks from others. Any info concerning Acer's plans for Turion dual-core, notebook processor upgradeability, or how I might upgrade to dual-core without an Acer BIOS upgrade, etc. would be appreciated. Thanks.
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post #2 of 6
5/23/05 at 6:40pm
Acer's product life cycle is around 8 months so they will not be looking that far down the road for current products. The dual core will show up in the next product cycle when it becomes available. As far as a good selling point, it doesn't really matter to them as 99.99% of their end user will not upgrade their machine beyond more RAM.
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post #3 of 6
5/23/05 at 9:55pm
there have already been rumors and pictures of the next gen AMD sockets for both desktop and notebook. the future notebook socket is no longer 754.
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post #4 of 6
5/24/05 at 12:30pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the comments. If what you say is true, I am a bit disappointed.

8-month product life cycle...
Well, desktop dual-core is here now and Turion dual-core, I believe, is due by end-of-year. Seems like it should be on the radar screen for a company like Acer.

99.99% will not upgrade beyond RAM
Well, given Acers POLICY thus far, AND the fact that processor upgrades during the average life of a laptop have generally offered only a modest boost in performance, that is not surprising. I believe that the introduction of dual-core is very different. Dual-core will allow a big increase in processing, especially for multi-threaded applications. I think that the average life of a notebook is also increasing, so that many who buy today will find a future upgrade to dual-core to be an attractive option.

rumors...the future notebook socket is no longer 754
Well, I think that if this is true it is very disappointing and reflects badly on AMD. They rushed out a processor that has to be reworked within months of release? AMD seems to be smarter than that (???)
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post #5 of 6
5/24/05 at 12:38pm
Mobile dual core is slated for 2006 according to amd's website. I would guess that would be towards the second half of 2006 rather than the start, but that is just a guess.
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post #6 of 6
5/24/05 at 1:53pm
thats the thing, it's not a rush job. it's not anything really. turion is merely branding for what appears to be the last/second to last revision of the current architecture. the ml line of turion is basically the mobile athlon 64 newark with the mt line being the low power line.

turion, imo, is just a way to get the branding out there in prepartation for the upcoming years. centrino has gained such a name that amd can't afford to rest on their laurels; so they had to pull out this naming trick.

and like in the other thread, taylor is supposedly the first dual core mobile amd processor. don't expect to see that until end of '06.

and don't expect to see the true next gen architecture, not just a stopgap, until 2007.
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