Advanced Micro Devices is ready to offer its graphics technology to developers of handheld devices such as PDAs and smart phones.
The worlds second largest producer of chips announced Feb. 13 that it has created a new business unit to develop graphics technology, such as low-power 2-D and 3-D graphics for mobile phones and other handheld products.
The new business division is one of the first offerings from the Sunnyvale, Calif., company to combine some of the technologies it acquired during its $5.4-billion purchase of ATI. The deal was completed in October.
It been a busy week for AMD. On Feb. 12, the company announced that it would begin to offer new multimedia processors for handheld devices, which will now include the Imageon 2298, 2294 and 2192 processors.
The company also announced an expansion of its embedded portfolio, which now includes more dual-core Opteron processors as well as a new Geode LX900 processor that runs at 1.5 watts.
One of the first companies to use this graphics technology from AMD is STMicroelectronics, a company based in Geneva, Switzerland, that produces semiconductors for a number of products, including handheld devices and PCs.
In a statement, the company said it would incorporate AMDs graphics technology—2-D, 3-D and vector graphics core engineering—into some of its multimedia platforms. The technology will also use software that is compliant with OpenGL ES 2.0 and OpenVG 1.0 standards.
The two graphic technology standards are part of the portfolio that AMD acquired during the ATI acquisition. During a Dec. 14 meeting with financial analysts in New York City, AMD executives said integrating ATI technology with its own would be one of the top priorities for the company this year.
