AMD looks set to challenge Intel's upcoming 'Santa Rosa' Centrino launch with a faster dual-core notebook processor of its own, the Turion 64 X2 Tl-66, it has been claimed.

The mobile part will be clocked to 2.3GHz - the current range leader, the TL-60, runs at 2GHz - and contain 512KB of L2 cache, Chinese-language site HKEPC reports. The TL-66 will connect to 800MHz DDR 2 memory and consume no more than 35W of power.

At this stage it's unclear whether the TL-66 will be a 65nm part or a 90nm one. Certainly, existing Turion 64 X2s are fabbed at 90nm, and the report points to the anticipated arrival of 65nm AMD notebook processors in Q4. However, the report's discussion of the 2.2GHz TL-64, a chip you'd expect to see before the TL-66, implies it's one of the 65nm part intended to supplant today's 90nm models.

The TL-66, like Santa Rosa, is said to be scheduled to appear in May.