AMD has released a new mobile processor platform that will challenge market leaders Intel for a piece of the action.

Named “Puma” for no apparent reason, AMD’s latest offering includes Turion X2 Ultra Dual-Core Mobile processors with ATI Radeon HD 3000 Series Graphic and wireless networking hardware from Atheros, Broadcom and Ralink.

Nathan Brookwood, research fellow at Insight 64 said, “Puma is the first major effort AMD has made to develop a mobile chip. In the past, AMD took its desktop chip and just made minor tweaks. [With Puma], they started to tackle some of the problems so that they could improve battery life and the capabilities of their system.”

The chip will do battle with Intel’s Centrino 2 mobile processor. According to AMD computer makers Acer, HP and Toshiba will include the Puma platform in their notebook designs. Puma will also back up AMD’s new initiatives; the AMD Business Class, AMD Game and AMD Live Solutions.

AMD is pushing the new mobile platform as a combination of components designed to provide better high-definition performance on a mobile computer, and is available in three configurations.

Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group says that the chief accomplishment of the Puma is its battery life.

“[It is the] first truly mobile part from AMD. Up until now, AMD couldn’t compete on battery life, and Puma is much more competitive on spec,” he said in an interview.

Enderle says that AMD could use Puma to regain the ground they lost to Intel last year. Currently Intel dominates the market with an 85 percent share, leaving AMD with just 15 percent of the market.

There is a glimmer of hope for AMD. Intel’s Centrino 2 release has been pushed back to July 14th which could give AMD a chance to wedge their foot in the door.

“It isn’t an Intel killer, but with the delay of Centrino 2, it does give AMD a window of opportunity they wouldn’t have had otherwise. It really depends on the design wins they get, but it should help them in the mobile market significantly,” Enderle noted.

However, Brookwood is keen to defend his brands smaller market share.

“Over the last two years, AMD has gone from being a nobody in terms of mobile networks to having something in the 13 to 15 percent range of market share. They did that with products that were clearly inferior to products Intel was selling. Now that they actually have products that close that gap with Intel - I don’t think they surpass Intel - AMD has narrowed Intel’s lead, and the integrated graphics in these Puma platforms are clearly superior to the integrated graphics in the Intel platform,” he explained.

“That is significant because nearly 75 percent of notebooks sold today are sold without any additional graphics hardware aside from what has been built into the integrated supporting logic,” he added.

“AMD’s graphics are superior to Intel, especially in regard to high-definition and watching an HD movie. The AMD products are differentiated in positive ways,” he noted, adding that “this should help AMD gain a portion of the laptop market.”

To be honest its too early to say how well the new AMD Puma will do against Intel’s Centrino 2, but Enderle was keen to point out,

“Intel will probably sustain an advantage in battery life, but I’m expecting Puma to do better in graphics performance. We are all waiting for good benchmarks from Centrino 2 and Puma and will likely not get them - thanks to the Centrino 2 delay - for a month or so.”