AMD yesterday announced its M690 mobile chipset family, formerly known as RS690M, for AMD Turion 64-based notebooks – M690V and M690T. The new mobile chipsets take the previously announced AMD 690G desktop chipset and pairs it with mobile-centric power saving features. AMD integrates the new power saving features into the ATI Radeon X1200 integrated graphics core.

New to the integrated ATI Radeon X1200 graphics core is a power-saving dynamic video memory allocation scheme. With the new scheme, system memory is automatically allocated to the graphics processor on the fly, at the GPU’s request. Intel implements a similar scheme in its graphics core since the fruition of the Intel Extreme Graphics core.

AMD has also integrated a new side-port memory feature in M690T chipsets, which allows notebook manufacturers to provide dedicated video memory to the ATI Radeon X1200 graphics core. AMD supports up to 128MB of video memory connected to the side-port bus.

The rest of the graphics core is identical to its desktop variant. AVIVO video processing features are available for enhanced video playback. The ATI Radeon X1200 graphics core features MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and WMV9 hardware accelerated video playback. There is also an integrated TV encoder for component, composite and S-Video outputs.

An integrated dual-link 24-bit LVDS interface provides connectivity to displays while a TMDS interface provides support for DVI and HDMI outputs. As with the desktop AMD 690G, the M690 features an integrated high-definition audio controller for HDMI audio functions. HDCP 1.1 content protection is also supported.

The AMD M690T chipset features additional output capabilities via internal DVO port. Manufacturers are able to add additional output capabilities using DVO compatible chips. However, a manufacturer can only take advantage of the DVO port or side-port memory, not both at the same time.

Other notable features of the chipset include one PCIe x16 interconnect for external graphics, four PCIe x1 links for other devices, 10 USB 2.0 ports, SATA 3.0 Gbps, ATA133, TPM 1.1 and 1.2, high-definition audio and PCI v2.3 support.