AMD and VIA take aim at netbooks

[FarCry]

While VIA shifts the battleground to more advantageous terrain, AMD intends to take the fight to Intel’s turf. Having previously dismissed netbooks as something to use “around the house”, AMD is now readying a processor designed expressly for these devices.

 

Details of the new chip are expected to be revealed this week but the company says it will address both video performance and battery life, citing the later as the reason for its previously lukewarm approach to the market.

 

“You would expect 8 or 9 hours out of a netbook... for some of the ones that I’ve tested, probably the hottest one has an 1 hour 45 minutes of battery life. You’re not going to take that with you as a road warrior” said Pat Moorhead, AMD’s vice-president of Advanced Marketing. (We presume that job title means he markets advanced technologies rather than being a heck of a lot better at his job than, say, the VP of Pretty Basic Marketing).

 

Moorehead has also criticised ‘price creep’ in the netbook segment, where the first Asus Eee PC launched at $499 but the average price of netbooks now hovers around $699 and in some cases soars past $1000 due to their larger screens and storage.

 

“We do have strategies together with our OEMs for pushing our solutions both down into smaller form factors and lower notebook price points” says Dirk Meyer, AMD president and CEO.

 

AMD is expected to leverage its ownership of ATI to beef up the video performance in its forthcoming netbook platform and will likely seek to have the chip included in its transition from the current 65nm production process to the smaller and more power-efficient 45nm stage. Intel’s Atom is already built to 45nm, while the Nano is available in both 65nm and 45nm packages.

 

http://apcmag.com/amd_and_via_take_aim_at_netbooks.htm