14 DAY TRIAL // Intel's Ivy Bridge aren't the only CPUs that Lenovo will use in its upcoming ThinkPad Edge laptops, if a certain report has any truth to it that is.
It looks like the news about Lenovo's laptops not accepting third-party batteries isn't the only thing surfacing about the ThinkPad Edge.
The same report was able to provide some information regarding the design and processor platform options as well.
Obviously, Intel's upcoming and repeatedly delayed CPUs will be used in the creation of the ThinkPad Edge E430 and E530.
What some may not be expecting is for some chips from Advanced Micro Devices to make the cut as well.
If the report is true, then prospective buyers can start weighing the benefits of having an AMD Trinity APU (accelerated processing unit) instead of an Intel CPU.
Alas, those same prospective buyers should be careful not to become too impatient, since they still have to wait quite a bit.
After all, even though the formal laptop launch will happen in May, Trinity processors will make it on the spec sheet only in June.
Even then, only the 15-inch E530 will actually have the Trinity as part of its potential components. The 14-inch E430 will stick to the Ivy Bridge.
On a related note, buyers of the notebooks will get to select one or more of the following design elements” a soft-touch finish, an aluminum lid, an anti-glare screen (gives outdoor/sunlight visibility to the LCD panel). Depending on the choices, the 15-inch E530 may have to renounce the 10-key numpad.
AMD's Trinity was not spared delays, but at least it will have visible performance advantages over Llano (about 25%, give or take). If nothing else, the graphics performance will be better than the one enabled by the Intel chips, since 4th-Level On-Package Cache won't become part of them until Haswell.