SDP, or Scenario Design Power was used in lieu of TDP. Of course, SDP is not AMD’s invention. It was introduced by Intel a couple of years ago and used for its ultra low power parts, miraculously shaving off a few watts with the strike of a pen. Intel adopted the new metric to make its chips seem a tad more competitive compared with ARM SoCs.
Now AMD is doing the same in an effort to level the playing field and make Mullins look more competitive compared with Intel chips.
“We had to adapt to using an SDP measure for Mullins so our power did not appear dramatically higher than Intel’s low-power SDP figures,” AMD told us.
AMD pointed out that it's not hiding the TDP of Mullins, it is just playing by the rules set by the competition, as it cannot afford to be perceived as less efficient simply because Intel refuses to use TDP. Unlike Intel, AMD will use both numbers for upcoming ultra-low power parts.
