The trend toward cloud computing and virtualization dovetails with AMD's enterprise computing strategies, according to an executive.
NEW YORK-Enterprise
computing increasingly will hinge on cloud computing and virtualization, and
Advanced Micro Devices' server chip road map dovetails nicely with that trend,
according to a company executive.
In
a recent interview with eWEEK here, Vlad Rozanovich, director of North America
commercial business for AMD, noted the
various trends-mobile computing and social networking, increasing amounts of
data, the consumerization of IT, and enterprises' need to get more done with
fewer resources-that are playing to the demand for cloud and virtualization,
which promise lower costs, higher utilization and better management.
There's
also that issue that while half of the world's population currently has no
access to Internet-connected devices, the gap is being bridged, which will only
add to the data being generated out there.
That
data will need to be handled-moved, stored, backed up-by fast, efficient and
powerful servers, Rozanovich said. "All that content still needs to be
created and distributed," he said.
And
it's in this environment that AMD-with its
Fusion initiative and straight-through computing strategy, as well as its mix
of GPUs (graphics processing units) and CPUs-expects to flourish, both in
servers and enterprise PCs, Rozanovich said. AMD's
Fusion APUs (accelerated processing units) feature the CPU and GPU on the same
piece of silicon. The company introduced its
first Fusion chips during the Consumer Electronics Show in January, with
those APUs aimed at desktop and notebook PCs.
With
the growing amount of online video content being produced-via such technology
as video conferencing and video downloads-having chips with compute and
discrete-level graphics, including DirectX 11 capabilities, improves the
overall user experience, he said. That DX 11 support is also a key difference
between AMD's "Brazos"
chips and rival Intel's "Sandy Bridge"
offerings, which also include the CPU and GPU on the same die but don't offer
DX 11 support.
When
talking about notebooks these days, it's impossible to avoid the issue of
tablets. Intel executives say the company will be aggressive in the burgeoning
tablet market through its Atom platform, with Intel-powered tablets hitting the
market later this year. AMD is taking a more
measured approach, particularly in the commercial space. Rozanovich, pointing
to numbers from market research firm Gartner, noted that by 2015, less than 10
percent of commercial PCs will be using a touch interface, such as those found on
tablets.
"It's
a market that's taken off in the last year, but when you look at commercial and
enterprise customers, will they really use it?" he said. Users in an
enterprise setting "are still going to need the notebook type of form factor."
Email
Print
