AMD Eyes Corporate Clients - Mobility, Graphics and Security (
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With the new platform, the company is hoping to appeal primarily to small
and midsize businesses, but Speed said AMD
also plans to target a number of verticals such as education and government as
well as the overall enterprise market.
This shift to a desktop focus comes at a time when reports
from IDC, Gartner and other research firms say business buyers are moving
toward more laptops and other mobile computing devices.
However, there remains a large market for commercial desktops, and AMD
is looking for a way to balance out its consumer offerings, which are subject
to ever-changing spending habits, with the stability that comes with the
commercial client market.
"The commercial desktop space is still an important segment and there's
a still lot of business there," said Roger Kay, an analyst with Endpoint
Technologies Associates. "If AMD, given
its current market share, can get a point or two out of any market … almost any
effort is worth something."
To start, AMD will offer seven
microprocessors with the platform. These include the single-core Athlon
2.7GHz 1640B; four dual-core Athlon X2 chips running at 2.3GHz,
2.6GHz, 2.7GHz and 2.8GHz; a tri-core 2.3GHZ Phenom X3 8600B model; and a
Phenom X4 quad-core 9600B running at 2.3GHz. The chips have thermal envelopes
ranging from 95 watts for the quad-core model down to 45 watts for the
single-core Athlon.
The new platform supports Microsoft's DirectX 10 API
for graphics.
Although AMD is supplying its own chip
set and discrete graphics, the processors will work with Nvidia chip sets. AMD
is also working with three ODMs (original design manufacturers)—Asustek
Computer, MSI Computer and ECS (Elitegroup
Computer Systems)—to create motherboards for the white-box desktop market. About
half of AMD's desktop business comes from
OEMs and the other half from white-box designers.
The platform also adheres to several security and management standards,
including the TCG (Trusted Computing Group)'s standard for security and the
Distributed Management Task Force's new DASH (desktop and mobile architecture
for system hardware) standards for management. Speed said he believes these
standards will give AMD's desktop platform
an advantage over the AMT (Active Management
Technology) features that Intel has developed for its own platform.
Although AMD is
releasing its desktop platform April 28, the company also plans to introduce a mobile
platform, called "Puma," later in the second quarter. The platforms
will share some of the same management features and technology. Together, these
two platforms will form AMD Business Class, which should strengthen the company's
enterprise business as it looks to return
to financial stability later in 2008.
Desktops & Notebooks 
