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A Forced Foray for AMD into Netbooks? |
| AMD has all of a sudden found itself competing in the netbook segment, though its Athlon processor was initially intended for the ultrathin laptop space
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| Priya Kekre |
| Wednesday, December 02, 2009 |
AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) has laid all speculations to rest on
whether it would in fact go through with its plans of entering the
netbook segment in India. A few days ago, Acer beacame the first major
OEM to introduce the Gateway netbook, LT 3111, based on the AMD
platform in India. AMD went ahead and quietly release its low-voltage
chip - single core AMD Athlon 64 L110 processor which has marked its
foray into the netbook segment in India. Previously codenamed
“Yukon,” the platform is based on the new AMD
Athlon Neo processor, ATI RadeonTM X1250 integrated graphics and ATI
Mobility Radeon HD 3410 discrete graphics for ultrathin laptops which
have larger screens and offer more functionality than netbooks. (The
Athlon 64 L110 chip runs at a clock speed of 1.2GHz, has 512KB of cache
and draws about 13 watts of power.)
Most netbooks today feature Intel's Atom chips. Via's low-power Nano
processor is at a distant second after Atom. AMD in the past has safely
steered clear of the netbook segment, saying that the lack of
functionality in netbooks though they were inexpensive was not an
attractive segment for the company. Though while charting out its plans
for the Yukon platform last year, it did mention that the product has
been designed keeping on mind the ultra thin laptop segment. Initially,
AMD seemed to be learning from the predicament of Intel in the netbook
computer space, particularly in high-growth emerging markets like
India. Intel launched the Atom chip in June 2008 to power small,
low-power mobile internet devices (MID)s.
The first of these devices were the netbooks.But contrary to
expectations of their runaway success and in fact fears in some
quarters that netbooks would cannibalise the laptop market, mainly in
the emerging markets, nothing like that has happened. In contrast, they
are actually a rage in the mature markets like Europe and the US. So
the sudden emergence of an Athlon chip in a netbook comes as a
surprise, especially because AMD has repeatedly said it would not enter
the so called "netbook" space. While the company maintains that it is
not interested in netbooks, Steve Howard, a spokesman softened that
stance while addressing the media recently."AMD has fully anticipated
that our technology would eventually appear at the upper end of the
netbook space," said , an AMD spokesman. Though the chip was designed
for ultrathin notebooks, AMD did not want to restrict the desire of PC
makers to use it in different form factors," he said.
Having found that its chip has attracted the attention of several OEMs,
AMD is baking on Neo's features such as efficiency as well as better
user experience and functionality that has been a miss in the netbook
segment so far. Ben Williams, corporate vice president and general
manager Asia Pacific, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) said in an media
interview, "We are the only company that does both processors and
graphics. If you are talking about the netbook segment, we believe that
that category of users do not get the experience they desire. People
get netbooks because they are free with something else or are cheap.
But they are not happy with it when they start using them. We are doing
the opposite. How do you create a technology platform of a similar form
factor but that gives you the experience of a full laptop or a PC?
Netbooks are 10 inches and below in screen size. We look at screen
sizes of 11 to 13 inches and provide the experience of a traditional
laptop at a price that is close to that of a netbook."
Just two weeks after Acer's Gateway unit announced an AMD-based
netbook, MSI has also announced the availability of the Wind U210 based
on the Yukon platform. Not only has the Neo processor found its way
into the netbook segment. Recently, Medion started selling the Akoya
Mini E1312 netbook, which includes a low-power Sempron 210U processor
(that are low-end chips made by AMD for mainstream PCs). With its chips
now in the netbook space, AMD is forced to compete with Intel and Via.
However, according to an AMD spokerperson, the company would prefer to
focus on developing chips for laptops that deliver better processing
and graphics performance. That's because AMD runs the risk of deriving
lower margins if sales of netbooks with its chip cannibalize
higher-priced AMD chips used in products like mainstream laptops. Intel
faces the same risk of generating lower margins when people opt for
lower-priced Atom netbooks instead of higher-priced mainstream laptops.
In 2010, AMD will release Tigris successor platform code-named Danube
which will feature Champlain, code-name for AMD s first quad-core
mobile processor. The Tigris processors with new chipsets are expected
to enhance high-def video playback, better performance and longer
battery life for the notebooks.
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