AMD is working on providing processors for thin&light notebooks with long battery life but I've read they won't be around for almost a year yet. At this time the major problem for AMD in the mobile market is that all the way through the Barton mobile there isn't a high performing chipset to take full advantage with. It also appears from what I've been reading that the A64 based notebooks that are coming are mostly targeted at the desktop replacement and universal sectors and will be competing against the P4-M with the P-M still not having any direct competition from AMD in the thin&light market.
The problem with the underclocked 1700+ idea is that although AMD has low power XP's what chipset are they coupled with? ATI 320M IGP and sometimes the ALi M1535+ southbridge like my Compaq 900z uses or the VIA PROSAVAGE KN266? I can tell you from first hand experience that the 2000+ t-bred mobile I have is highly constrained by the limitations of the chipset. Also, how do you get it to use just 7W of power like the Efficeon@1.3ghz is reported to?
The Efficeon 8600 series will have 128KB L1 instruction cache, 64KB data cache and 1MB of L2 cache and the 8620 chip with 512KB L2. It'll use the HyperTransport 800MHz bus with 1.60GB/s bandwidth as PSB be available@1.3ghz on introduction, and have the integrated 3200DDR memory controller. Meanwhile the nForce3 Go 120 features AGP 4x interface, NVIDIA 10/100Mb/s Ethernet controller with StreamThru technology, 2-channel Parallel ATA-33/66/100/133 ports, up to 6 USB 2.0 ports, PCI interface, 6-channel AC?97 audio with S/PDIF output as well as HyperTransport technology. Now, even if the Efficeon's processing power won't be as powerful as a t-bred@1ghz there is still a real good chance it'll be a better overall solution due to the far superior bandwidth at greatly reduced latency the onboard memory controller and nF3 GO 120 will provide. If it doesn't provide superior procssing power then the it'll definitely smoke the present AMD solutions by offering acceptable performance combined with outstanding battery life and be available in very thin&light notebooks if the information being released is relatively accurate.
I'll go on record as saying that I believe if the Efficeon/nF3 GO 120 combo can be offered at the right pricepoint *and I believe it will* and can get some major OEMs to build systems based on that solution that they will sell very well. I should also state that I don't believe the Efficeons processing power will match up to the Centrino by any means but I think it will be fast enough for the majority of consumers looking for a thin&light notebook. In the end I think it'll be all about price/performance with this solution just as it is with most others.
He ads some info and insight I didn't cover/consider, but due to being a reviewer for a major site he isn't in a position that is conducive to making the predictions I have :evil: I do believe this will be Transmetta's coming out party so to speak, but I'm banking more on the expanding market and expected pricepoint as oppossed to success vs Centrino head-to-head 
Facebook
Twitter