AMD Congo Detailed: Dual-Core Neo Plus Radeon HD 3200 GPU

AMD may have convinced HP to slap their new Congo into the updated dv2 ultraportable, but if you've been waiting to hear a little more about the dual-core chipset then we've some more detail for you.  Targeted at thin-and-light notebooks rather than taking on Intel's Atom N-series chips, Congo is a combination of the new dual-core AMD Neo processor, updated ATI graphics and an improved chipset.

The chipset is the M780G, while the graphics side of things is handled by the ATI Radeon HD 3200 IGP.  That pairing brings with it HDMI, DisplayPort and eSATA connectivity, plus HD video hardware decoding and DirectX 10 for gaming.

There's also support for hybrid graphics setups, where the Congo system is augmented with a selectable higher-spec GPU for more hardware-intensive applications.  That's an approach which has served NVIDIA well in the case of the GeForce 9400M/9600M offering available across many of Apple's MacBook and MacBook Pro models.  AMD expects Congo to arrive later in 2009, with system prices ranging from around $499 upward.