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Looking beyond PCs, to such mobile devices as Web pads and PDAs, the Alchemy Au1100 processor has emerged from AMD's recent acquisition - in February 2002 - of Alchemy Semiconductor.

AMD sees a convergence of technologies (such as wireless broadband communications, low-power but high-performance processors and innovatively-designed mobile devices) as the future beyond personal computers sitting on desktops. And it wants to have a slice of that market.

'This market is in its infancy, but we believe it is our highest growth segment,' said Billy Edwards, AMD's general manager for Personal Connectivity Solutions. 'Industry analysts say this market has the potential to reach

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$26 billion and 1.3 billion units shipped by the year 2007. We're excited to be here at the start to foster competition and offer outstanding solutions for our customers. In the next decade, we believe there will be a shift from voice centric to data centric mobile information appliances. We are positioning ourselves to be a major player as that shift happens.'

AMD claims a reduction in power consumption of up to 50 per cent for the new processor over previous offerings, such as the Au1000 - an important factor for small mobile devices that incorporate the processor.

The new processor will run with a range of operating systems - including Windows CE.NET, Linux and VxWorks - and the performance and power consumption of the Au1100 ranges from 333 MHz at less than 200 mW to 500 MHz at 500 mW.

The full technical spec for the Alchemy Au1100 can be found here and Samples and evaluation boards for the Au1000, Au1500 and Au1100 products by AMD are available for designers here.

The 400 MHz version of the processor will be priced at $29.50 (£20.55) based on 10,000 unit quantities.