14 DAY TRIAL // Last year some may not have expected it, but it looks like AMD really is showing some daring and prowess on the mobile front, especially with the various devices based on its Brazos platform that were brought over to CeBIT 2011.
Until the middle of last year, Advanced Micro Devices had practically no noticeable stake in the mobile PC market, meaning that Intel had a monopoly of sorts.
At some point, the outfit managed to provide some mobile processors, but it wasn't until it delivered Fusion APUs for mobile computers, known as Ontario and Zacate, that it really scored design wins.
Now, at CeBIT, the company seems to have scored even more, having unleashed the Brazos platform in its full glory.
The reason why the Fusion technology is proving so popular is the fact that the processing power of the chips is on par with what Intel's equivalent chips deliver, meaning that the graphics component ends up as the deciding factor.
Basically, all APUs have a DirectX 11-capable GPU, and while this does not matter much for lower-end chips that can;t play advanced games (AMD has yet to release the Llano or stronger APUs), the fact remains that graphics and, by extension, multimedia capabilities drew the attention of various PC makers.
Lenovo, for instance, presented the IdeaPad S205, an 11.6-inch product which uses the E-350 chip and will likely rival Sony's similarly-sized member of the VAIO Y line.
Meanwhile, Acer's Aspire One 522, also shown at MWC 2011, is a 10-inch netbook that boasts the C-50.
All in all, the Sunnyvale, California-based company's technology will most likely end up powering a wide variety of laptops of various shapes and sizes.
Of course, other sorts of products, like the Lenovo C205 all-in-one, can make sue of the same processors.
Either way, Advanced Micro Devices actually seems to have the tools needed to truly take away some of Intel's market share.