AMD is expected to announce a new CPU as soon as this week that is meant for use in netbook PCs, as per a Monday report. With the new CPU, the chipmaker wants to address two key issues, namely battery life and video performance. AMD's VP of Advanced Marketing, Par Moorehead, promises between 8 and 9 hours of battery life out of a netbook utilizing the company's CPU, instead of the sub-two-hour lifespan he has personally experienced from an unnamed, top-rung netbook.

Exactly how AMD hopes to quadruple battery life in the segment remains to be seen, but the chip itself is likely to play just one part of the equation. AMD should more easily achieve its second goal of improving video-processing performance. The company will no doubt turn to ATI, which it recently purchased, to endow the chip with integrated video processing capabilities.

To compete with Intel's widely-adopted Atom CPU, the new AMD chip is expected to be smaller than current AMD processors as well.