AMD Hopes Puma Chip Will Provide a Competitive Edge
Intel Corp’s biggest rival, Advanced Micro Devices, is trying to win over parts of the chip-making market with the release of its Puma line of chips for notebook PCs.
The chip was announced just over one year ago at a conference in Tokyo, Japan, and AMD says it represents the firm’s largest-ever launch for notebook personal computers.
Currently, there are more than 100 different notebook PCs designed to use versions of the Puma platform. PC makers using Puma chips include Acer Inc, Asus, Dell Inc, Fujitsu Siemens Computers BV and Hewlett-Packard Co.
"This is double the design wins over any previous mobile launches," said Leslie Sobon, director of product marketing at AMD.
The PCs using Puma will range in price from about $700 to $2000, and most will be in stores just in time for the back-to-school shopping season. Some will be available this week.
Sunnyvale, California-based AMD hopes Puma will help it regain a competitive footing against the world’s biggest chip maker, Intel. AMD posted its sixth consecutive quarterly loss in April.
But the addition of the Puma related products could be a step in the right direction. Market research firm IDC predicts that consumers will buy more mobile PCs than desktop PCs by the end of this year.
"It is a good platform and I think the design wins are a testament to that fact," IDC analyst Bob O’Donnell said. "Everybody wants a serious competitor to Intel, you can’t ignore that. But people aren’t going to randomly take an alternative if it’s not any good."
Three versions of Puma will be released: a collection of the microprocessor, wireless chips to connect to WiFi, and related chips. Puma uses AMD’s Turion X2 Ultra Dual-Core processor as its brain.
At the cheaper end, AMD’s new platform will use graphics technology integrated in the chipset, allowing video-gaming and also good enough to play back digital media seamlessly.
For those who want better graphics, AMD will sell another platform to PC makers for about $50 more. That will use both a graphics processing unit, from AMD’s ATI graphics unit, as well as the integrated graphics functions of the chipset.
At the pricier end, AMD will include a high-end discrete ATI graphics chip for more intense gaming as well as working with high-definition home movies and the like, Sobon said.
"What we’ve heard clearly from our customers is that consumers have enough productivity power. They don’t need to open Excel or Microsoft Word any faster," Sobon said. "What people need more performance on is ripping CDs, watching high-definition movies, editing and creating home movies."
The focus of the new chip rollout is primarily on consumers, but AMD will also be marketing their products to small and midsized companies.
Puma’s processing engine will not be the Barcelona core, which is in AMD’s latest chip used to power servers, but had a small design flaw that delayed volume shipments. AMD has since fixed the problem and aims to ramp up production of Barcelona.
"Barcelona is another bet they have," said Roger Kay, president of market researcher Endpoint Technologies Associates. "I had initially thought that Puma would not do that much for them simply because (Intel’s mobile chip) Centrino has so much momentum."
"But as it’s unfolded it looks like Puma might be quite successful for AMD," Kay said. "In mainstream notebook computing, this is a very viable alternative to Intel."
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