Hinting at its intent to take on Intel in the consumer market, AMD stated that its new triple-core chips will “deliver the visual experience, performance and multitasking capabilities of true multicore technology to a broader audience,” and asserted that the development of the chip demonstrates that AMD is the “smarter choice” for computer users with a need for speed.
“This innovation is a direct result of our development of the industry’s first true, native quad-core design, coupled with AMD’s manufacturing flexibility, to create multicore processors in two, three and four computational core configurations on a single die of silicon,” said Greg White, vice president and general manager of AMD’s desktop division.
“As a customer-centric company, AMD is committed to working with our OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] to deliver compelling value propositions across their multicore product families with capabilities that address their requirements and aspirations.”
AMD said that the development of the triple-core Phenom was in response to consumer demand for more choices in multicore systems. According to Mercury Research, quad-core processors represented less than two percent of all desktop shipments between April and June of this year; AMD sees this not as an indication that consumers don’t want quad-core chips, but a suggestion that there is a “need for a wider selection of multicore solutions.”
“Triple-core AMD processors may stimulate broader multicore adoption with a product family that scales to more points-of-entry for the customer,” the company stated in its release.
In aid of increasing its reach in the home computing arena, AMD is hoping to land support for its new triple-core chip from other major players in the computing space, including a strategic relationship with Microsoft to develop applications that exploit the capabilities of the new chip.
Bill Mitchell, vice president of the Windows Hardware Ecosystem division at Microsoft, said that the software giant is “excited to see AMD creating new technologies” like the new triple-core Phenom.
“We see potential for power and performance improvements through triple-core processing in the industry and are exploring with AMD the possibility of taking advantage of this in the Microsoft family of products.”
For more information on AMD’s multicore chips, visit Multicore.AMD.com
