AMD Launches New Vision For Notebooks, Desktops
AMD, headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., extended its simplified Vision message to its desktop line of products about eight months after debuting the red-logoed consumer marketing strategy aboard the U.S.S. Hornet aircraft carrier.
Vision is an extreme simplification of AMD’s old speeds-and-feeds-laden marketing message, breaking AMD-powered desktops and notebooks into just four categories -- vanilla Vision for entry-level systems, Premium Vision systems with more powerful media-viewing capabilities, Ultimate Vision with full-on content creation capabilities, and the top-of-the-line Vision Black for the most demanding users.
The new Phenom II X6 desktop processor, released in late April and formerly code named Thuban, slots into AMD’s Vision Black category for desktops and gives the chip maker a six-core desktop chip to match Intel’s first six-core, the Core i7-980X. But AMD’s two six-core chips, the 2.8GHz, $199 Phenom II X6 1055T and the 3.2GHz, $295 Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition, are priced considerably lower than the Core i7-980X from Intel, which is listed at $999.
AMD is calling Wednesday’s multiple platform update “the largest-ever launch of AMD-based desktops and notebooks at one time.” The chip maker’s OEM partners are introducing more than 100 new mainstream and ultra-thin notebooks based on two new mobile platforms, the company said.
That number includes 109 new mainstream notebooks featuring on AMD’s Danube mobile platform, which is based around new dual-core and quad-core Phenom II and Turion II processor cores code named Champlain. AMD on Wednesday also introduced its new ultra-thin mobile platform, Nile, based around the dual-core Athlon Neo X2 CPU and emerging from the gates with 26 notebook design wins.
The amount of design wins with the Danube mainstream notebook platform represents a 3X increase of OEM laptops introduced in 2009 with the previous-generation Tigris platform, according to AMD. The number of new third-generation, Nile-based ultra-thins from the likes of Hewlett-Packard, Acer, Lenovo and other OEMs is a 30 percent jump from OEM designs based on AMD’s second-generation edition of its ultra-thin platform from last year.
The Athlon Neo X2 delivers 22 percent better performance than its predecessor and the Nile ultra-thin platform promises up to eight hours of battery life, a two-hour improvement on the earlier Tigris platform.
Acer, HP, Dell and Asus are among the global computer makers with new notebooks based on AMD’s Danube mobile platform. Danube is built for extended battery life and includes options for AMD processors with thermals as low as 25 watts, the chip maker said.
At the Vision Black high end, new Danube-based notebooks feature up to 17-inch displays, 3D gaming via Direct X 11-compatible discrete graphics from AMD’s ATI side of the house, quad-core processor power and over seven hours of resting battery life.
On the desktop side, new Vision systems include the Acer ASM5400, the Dell Kamino, the HP TouchSmart 300 all-in-one touchscreen PC and CyberPower Sniper Dragon. Those systems and others from top OEMs feature AMD’s triple-core and quad-core Phenom II processors, ATI Radeon discrete graphics and the ATI Eyefinity multi-display technology introduced in 2009 with the first Vision campaign aboard the U.S.S. Hornet.