AMD Targets Small and Medium Businesses With AMD Branded PCs

After a continuous beating in the market from arch-rival Intel, AMD is seeking to fight back. The underdog chip company is making a big debut with small and medium-sized business with the launch of a new brand of self titled computers — AMD Business Class.

The program is aimed directly to tackle Intel’s own corporate platform called vPro, but is hoping to differentiate itself by pitching a platform that AMD says is important to the corporate sector. This time around AMD is not touting about bringing new technology to the market, but focusing on introducing a 24-month life-cycle. AMD is looking to assure IT decision-makers that there will be longevity to accommodate the corporate world’s longer PC buying cycles.

The initiative utilizes AMD’s Phenom X4 quad-core, Phenom X3 triple-core, and Athlon X2 dual-core processors in conjunction with AMD’s 780V based motherboards with integrated graphics or the option of ATI Radeon HD 3000 series discrete graphics.

The first wave of Business Class PCs will be desktop, followed by notebooks based on the Puma platform featuring the RS780M chipset and dual-core Griffin processors in the second half of 2008. AMD will have tier one OEM support as well. Hewlett-Packard will introduce two models, while Dell is refreshing its Optiplex line of desktops.

According to reports, HP is refreshing two of its dx2400 series desktops as part of AMD’s new line of Business Class PCs.

This move comes as no surprise as AMD seeks out new channels for revenue. Processor delays and just overall business inefficiencies has caused consecutive quarterly losses, layoffs, and a customer faith to dwindle. AMD looks to finish restructing by Q3 ’08 and hopes to be profitable again by then.