AMD Unveils Turion 64-Bit Mobile Processor

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has officially unveiled its latest chip for mobile computing, a 64-bit processor aimed squarely Intel's Centrino product, which currently dominates the notebook PC market.

Based on the AMD64 architecture, the Turion 64 is touted as providing extended battery life, security and compatibility with the latest graphics and wireless technology for lightweight PCs.

To date, Intel has owned the lucrative notebook-computing segment. Some analysts have questioned why AMD apparently had ignored the field, which has provided a robust revenue stream for Intel. Then, earlier this year, the company announced plans to create a research facility in Japan to develop mobile chips and attending technologies. It also rolled out a Mobile Athlon 64 microprocessor.

Among those expected to adopt the Turion technology are notebook manufacturers Acer, Fujitsu Siemens and Packard Bell. The more power-hungry Mobile Athlon 64 will remain as a microprocessor for the larger "PC replacement" notebooks.

"The Amazing Race 7" Week 2 Thoughts

Week 2 of "The Amazing Race 7" aired last night, and I'm still feeling out all the teams.

Of course, one of the teams I was starting to like got the boot last night.

I was liking the chemistry that was just starting to flow between the team of Megan and Heidi, who of course got the boot last night after coming in last, and the brothers team of Brian and Greg, who are currently my favorite team in the race. Add in the fact that these two teams were the last to check in and were battling each other to stay in the race and it made things interesting, although bittersweet as I was looking forward to seeing what might brew between these four.

My personal laugh-out-loud moment of the night came when the Roadblock stated, "Who loves shoes?" I poked fun at the boyfriends team of Lynn & Alex to my girlfriend by saying "We both love shoes!" in a Lynn & Alex sort of way. Not two seconds later did one of them utter those exact words with the same exact inflection I used... "We both love shoes!" It's like they're parodies of themselves.

Rob and Amber are showing theyll be a force to be reckoned with, and even though I'm still of the thought that a team that HASN'T won a million bucks on a reality show should win this race, I do like them so far.

Meredith and Gretchen, the old retired couple, are very very sweet, but I don't see them competing the way last season's old-folks team, Don and Mary-Jane, did. At one point these two were wandering around looking like they'd escaped from their retirement home, and any second the good folks from the home wearing the white coats were going to come and bring them back.

Not much else to say about this episode right now, that I can remember... other than thinking Brian & Greg are really cool, I haven't latched on to one team that I really really want to win... but it's still early, so we'll see how it plays out.

And just for the record, I would have pulled the books. Kudos to Rob and Amber for doing it all in one trip... what were the others doing wrong that they all had to go back?!

National Lampoon's Amazing Race Vacation

Imagine a car trip to grandma's... kids whining "Are we there yet? Are we there yet?!" on a two hour drive.

Now envision a flight from Mexico to Thailand. "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" Better make sure the door to that plane is bolted shut, because if the parents don't toss their kids out, their fellow passengers will... next season on "The Amazing Race"...

TAR has lowered its age restriction to 8 — and that's not a typo. It's the first time contestants under 21 are being allowed to compete in the globe-trotting reality show. The new rules are for its upcoming "Family Edition" — in which families of four will compete for a $1-million grand prize.

"We don't know what it's going to reap, but we've already received a lot of really good tapes" with contestants as young as 8, says "Amazing Race" casting director Lynne Spillman.

"I was really hesitant about this at first, but we've received some really cute tapes from people who absolutely love 'The Amazing Race.' "

The original cutoff age for "Family Edition" contestants was 12, but they feared eliminating entertaining parents and an older child because they have a family member who is younger.

The "Family Edition" of "The Amazing Race 8" will tape this summer, eliminating the problem of having to take a child out of school. And, since it's a family-oriented edition, the places to which the contestants travel will be family friendly and appropriate for the age range, which I guess eliminates pit stops at some of the seedier locations we've come to expect from TAR. (Cue Kendra from "The Amazing Race 6" saying the people in "ghetto Africa... just keep breeding, and breeding, and breeding...")

Says the casting director: "I hope we're going to have a mixture of nuclear families and non-nuclear families. I'm dying to find an engaged couple with mothers-in-law-to-be, and I'd love to do a 'Brady Bunch' family with two newly married people and their kids. And we always love inter-generational teams."

The deadline for filing applications for "The Amazing Race 8" is Friday, March 11 (go to cbs.com now to sign your dysfunctional... er, loving family up).