AMD unveils vision of digital home

Hungry for a chunk of the digital home market, Advanced Micro Devices is preparing to go toe-to-toe with rival Intel with a platform designed to make it easier for consumers to blend television and Internet content.

The chipmaker revealed its Live branded PCs at last month’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, a venue also chosen by Intel to unveil its own digital home initiative called Viiv.

Though both companies are catering to the same niche market, AMD’s long-term vision for Live is much different then its competitor’s strategy for Viiv, according to Teresa de Onis, AMD desktop branding and product manager.

“From a visionary standpoint we believe that this is not a PC versus consumer electronic battle for the home. We are working with the CE industry to deliver experiences consumers want,” said de Onis.

“We’re not looking to displace any devices that are already in the home and have proven consumer acceptance, like the set-top box and TV. We’re working with those industries and that’s the number one difference.”

AMD is partnering with STMicroelectronics on a set-top box design that will enable various media applications to be delivered from the PC to the set-top box and onto the television screen.

Other industry vendors like Alienware, ATI Technologies, Motorola, NVIDIA and VIA Technologies have also expressed support for AMD’s digital media ecosystem.

De Onis described AMD’s concept of the extended PC as a media server in the home that aggregates a person’s digital media content and provides a centralized way to store, manage, access, share and enjoy the content.

“We’re not talking about plugging the PC into the TV and just displaying a Web site, we’re talking about leveraging the devices that are already in the home like the set-top box, from a cable or satellite provider or network DVD player,” she said. “Our strategy is to enable the TV and other home devices to become thin clients to the media server — the PC.”

VAR business
From a channel perspective, AMD’s vice president of global channel marketing, Pat Moorhead said that solution providers will not be forced to buy every component from AMD.

“We prefer to allow the custom system builders to maintain the ability to differentiate their systems or customize their systems based on the type of consumer they’re working with,” said Moorhead.

Once AMD Live begins shipping in the second half of this year, Moorhead said he expects the product will provide revenue opportunity particularly to high end audio and video installers along with those VARs that deal directly with consumers.

“The key is making money on the services and customization,” he said. “They’re not going to make it banging their heads against the wall trying to sell against Dell.”

As far as margins go, Moorhead said, if a reseller is selling 50 percent in services, then margin potential can likely go above 20 points.

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Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

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