With the recent launch of new high- and low-end micro processors, AMD is attempting to spread into non-traditional markets.
According to Gary Bixler, manager of North American regional marketing for the Austin, Tex.-based microprocessor maker, AMD is ratcheting up its commitment to the enterprise/commercial
market, while maintaining its core focus on consumers.
Bixler lists consumer, media centre PC, gaming, commercial client and SMB client as the five markets the company is pursuing.
The new Opterons will feature PowerNow engery conserveration capability. Bixler did not have the power saving specifications, but said the new models will better the performance of previous versions, which were able to reduce power from 89 to 35 watts.
“”This is important for data centres which are stacking servers to ceiling and have a power budget,”” Bixler said.
The new Opterons can, for example, work at peak performance during the day and then cool down overnight. PowerNow was originally used in AMD’s mobile processors, monitoring performance at 30 times per second. The technology can throttle down during off peak times and ramp back up in an instant, Bixler said.
AMD also released three Sempron models with 754 sockets, which are being postioned just behind the company’s Althon 64 processors. According Bixler, the Sempron line is for everyday computing.
AMD is also upgrading its virus protection embedded in the chip itself. Bixler said viruses such as Code Red, Slammer and Blaster can exploit a buffer overflow hole on all systems.
AMD has partnered with Microsoft to provide chip-level anti-virus, but users must have Windows XP Service Pack 2 for it to work. “”More than 50 per cent of the viruses last year were because of the buffer overflow hole,”” Bixler said.
He warned that this level of protection is not a substitute for application-level virus attacks.
AMD Opteron processors will be available through Bell MicroProducts Canada, Tech Data Canada and Supercom.
The company is about to start a four city Canadian Tech Tour to show its technology to resellers and end users.
Bixler calls these events the company’s face-to-face channel campaign. The tour starts in May and will hit Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver.