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“AMD's CPU team is on track”
Again, that's the desktop space, but what about the mobile market with its unmatched potential?
Byrne told us, “AMD has also introduced the Radeon HD 6000M Series graphics cards to improve visual experiences in the mobile market. Generally, we also saw a great deal of growth in our notebook business and have won new customers over to our Vision technology team, including Sony, long an AMD graphics customer”.
Again, the design wins seem important, “Sony has joined Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo and Toshiba and many others in offering new VISION technology-based notebook computers in time for back-to-school and holiday buying cycles”.
While it's early days for the new Fusion APU, Byrne has mentioned AMD's CPU and GPU sales. While the Radeon HD 5000 led the world in terms of DX11 performance, it's been a while since an AMD processor stood atop the world. Byrne confirmed that AMD's CPU teams are “On track”. Hopefully that means KitGuru readers will be seeing a revolution in the architecture this summer.
In a recent conversation with one of the market's top analysts, KitGuru was told that they “Felt sorry for AMD”, because while the company has actually been enjoying quite a bit of success, all the noise around Sandy Bridge (performance and problems) has stolen a lot of AMD's thunder. The analyst in question felt that AMD deserved more recognition for 2010.
We put this to Byrne, who replied “I understand their view point, but I believe that the tide is turning”.
“AMD was just voted Component Vendor of the Year at the EMEA Channel Academy Awards 2011. In addition, we also received the Best Hardware Vendor Award 2010 from the well-known IDG German gaming publication, GameStar”, said Byrne.
“AMD was also honoured with a gold award in the Highest Customer Satisfaction category at the Newegg Top Partner Awards event”, Byrne revealed. “These honours mean a great deal to us. They are recognising and commending our complete dedication and commitment to the channel, both partners and customers”.
Asked why he thought AMD was seeing all of this positive noise from the market, Byrne replied, “I strongly believe that if you constantly deliver on what you say you will do, then recognition and rewards will follow”. Hard to argue with that point of view.
Going back to the high-end and performance markets, we asked Byrne if he felt that too much resource was being invested into creating these pinnacle products (uber-chips), when the global average selling price for a system is likely to remain under £600 ($1,000).
“Certainly not! In the world of technology, continuous innovation is essential, otherwise you get left behind”, said Byrne. “The development of ‘uber-chips' has two major effects. Firstly, it enables us to reach the enthusiasts. Once we’ve won the hearts and minds of this group, they then act as advocates of our brand to mainstream consumers, who are then influenced to buy AMD-based systems from our OEM customers”.
“Secondly, as technology evolves, it becomes much cheaper for us to produce these ‘uber-chips', so bringing that level of technology into the mainstream PC space. Our quad-core CPUs are an excellent example of this – by continuing to innovate and educate the PC buying public, we’re now able to offer these high performance CPUs for way under £100”.
Quick check on Dabs, reveals that the cheapest AMD quad core processor is just £74 at the time of writing, while the 955 Black Edition is just £99. Cheap enough.
Byrne also mentioned that AMD's Fusion APUs will be offering new performance levels in the small/thin/quiet space. We checked on Newegg in the States and found an early Acer design netbook at just $329. Certainly seems that Fusion will be accessible, price-wise – hitting what Byrne describes as “the sweet spot” where HD video and gaming is available at entry-level pricing.
