Advanced Micro Devices Inc. launched its previously announced Puma chipset for laptops. The company has integrated graphics technology from ATI, which it acquired for $5.6 billion in 2006, with its own successful CPUs. The specs released are quite impressive.

AMD claims that in leading 3D performance benchmark 3DMark 2006, its AMD Turion-X2 Ultra solution is 1.7 times faster than rival Intel's equivalent solutions, both using integrated graphics and with an additional dedicated graphics chip. This allows for better battery life at the same performance level, up to 90 minutes longer, or an overall 2.4x increase in graphics performance at the same battery life using the ATI PowerXpress technology.

AMD said that its early partners include Acer Inc, Asus, Dell Inc, Fujitsu Siemens Computers BV and Hewlett-Packard Co, which will put out mid-range laptops with prices between $700 and $2000. Advanced Micro Devices offers three versions of its platform, all featuring the company's latest Turion-X2 Ultra, a 64-bit, dual-core processor. The fastest CPU runs at 2.4GHz.

Although far behind Intel in market share for as long as it competed with the CPU leader, AMD has always managed to come up with these innovative solutions which proved that its strength is primarily in its research and development. With far less resources than Intel, AMD managed several times to surpass its much larger rival in terms of technological advances and even processing speed.

This proves to skeptics, once again, that AMD may be embattled for now, but it's definitely not dead.