AMD pLans externaL graphics moduLe for Laptops AMD on its part is looking at a rather radical solution to combine higher perfor¬mance needs of laptop users as well as be power efficient. AMD and Fujitsu Siemens Computers are developing an external graphiCS module, that can be plugged into the laptop when the user is at his desk and needs more performance, while the rest of the time that the laptop is on the move it makes does with its power efficient onboard graphics chip.
The external graphics module is basically a graph¬ics card with its own power supply.

Thus when the user is at his desk or otherwise has access to a power point, he can benefit from faster graphics, without eating into the battery life. If suc¬cessful, this technology will be available for the Puma laptops. To make this work, AMD had to develop a new con¬nector for an eight-lane PCI¬Express link, Bergman said. USB 2.0 and IEEE1394 (Firewire) do not have the bandwidth required for the external graphics module.