For years, a lack of processor performance doomed AMD to the value notebook space with its A-series processors. Now, the tables have turned: AMD is taking its powerful Zen 2 architecture and launching a “Mendocino” processor for notebooks under $700, AMD executives said at the company’s virtual Computex 2022 keynote from Taiwan Sunday night.
Mendocino will contain four older Zen 2 cores and eight threads—current Ryzen 6000 laptops use newer Zen 3+ cores—alongside the Radeon RDNA 2 graphics that also appears in the Ryzen 6000 processor lineup. AMD will use TSMC’s 6nm process to manufacture it, and it will begin shipping during the second half of 2022.
“Mendocino” notebooks are also projected to have battery life exceeding ten hours, Robert Hallock, director of marketing for Ryzen CPUs at AMD, said during a recorded pre-Computex briefing. “People are used to…