In 2012, AMD plans to start a new battle with Intel on the ultra-thin notebook front where it will release its own equivalent platform that is said to enable laptop makers to build similar systems with up to 20% lower price tags.
AMD calls these notebooks “Ultrathins,” and according to
DigiTimes they are designed to use the chip maker’s upcoming Trinity APUs.
Compared to their Intel alternatives, the Ultrathin machines aren’t supposed to bring and new significant innovations in terms of performance or function, but they are expected to be cheaper.
According to DigiTimes sources, this enables manufacturers to build notebooks that on average will be $100-200 (78.5 to 157 EUR) less expensive than similar Intel-powered models.
So far,
AMD’s Ultrathin strategy seems to have some success as the Sunnyvale-based chip maker said that it has already managed to get 20 design wins under its belt.
While this number isn’t as impressive as the 75 design wins reported by Intel for its Ultrabook platform in 2012 this is still an noteworthy feat considering that AMD’s ultra-thin notebook alternative is still at its first iteration.
At this year’s CES fair, AMD has already showcased a
Trinity APU that is expected to power these upcoming Ultrathin computers.
The demo was run on a 17W Trinity processor connected to three displays at the same time, one running Dirt 3 live in DirectX 11, another showing Arcsoft’s MediaConverterbeing used for converting a vide and the third one was playing back an HD movie.
The lower price of AMD’s solution has already got some notebook vendors concerned as they are worried that a competitive alternative to Intel’s
Ultrabooks may start a price war between the two platforms, which will end up reducing the prices of the now profitable performance ultraportable segment.
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