The Turion and the Athlon are two brands of AMD's CPU technology for laptops. AMD introduced the Turion in 2005 specifically for laptops, but the older of the two brands -- the Athlon made its debut in 1999 -- is also available for desktop PCs. While similar in many respects, the two brands also have significant differences.
The AMD Turion and the AMD Athlon are similar in manufacture. They are available as single-core or dual-core CPUs. AMD designates the latter with the “X2” suffix, and with their two processing units in one chip, they have twice the processing power as the single-core ones. Each CPU attaches to the motherboard using a 169-pin socket called Socket 1, a component that was manufactured by AMD’s chief rival, Intel Corp.
The clock speed is the frequency at which the processor operates. For the AMD Turion, the clock speed is 1.5 to 2.6 GHz. The AMD Athlon is generally slower, at 1.3 to 2.3 GHz. However, the Athlon is generally faster in transporting data between the computer’s memory. This process is called front-side bus speed or system bus speed. While the Turion has an FSB speed of 1.6 to 3.6 GHz, the Athlon’s is 2 to 4 GHz.
Each AMD Turion and AMD Athlon CPU has two levels of cache for faster access to data. The L2 cache is traditionally the bigger of the two banks. On the Turion, the L2 cache is 512 to 2,000KB; the Athlon has an L2 cache of 64 to 1,024KB.
Designed as a low-power consumption processor, the Turion has a maximum thermal design power of 15 to 35 watts. The Athlon II Neo Dual-Core K325 is the most energy efficient of the Turion and Athlon brands, with a max TDP of 12 watts. Like the Turion, the highest power-consuming Athlon chips have a max TDP of 35 watts.
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