AMD sets its eyes on the platform business

IT'S ALL about the OEM business. That is where the money is. The channel or desktop business is nice and profitable but OEMs are driving the business.

And OEMs like and want the platform concept, the complete solution - where you have the chipset, graphic, CPU, drivers, software, bios for both video and a certified motherboard that you can warranty for at least two years.

This was one of the AMD's biggest weaknesses and, with the acquisition of ATI, this problem will dissolve over time.

That's what ATI's Vice President and General Manager of Desktop Rich Heye thinks.

For him, this is his highlight of the acquisition. Before he joined ATI Rich use to be a VP & General Manager of the Microprocessor Business Unit at AMD so if anyone knows the benefit of the merger it will be Rich. He's familiar with the both sides of the coin.

This is one of the key benefits from a new AMD. The new company now owns a bunch of very skilled people, resources and products all gathered under the ATI brand.

This will give AMD the power to finally stand up against Intel and will enable it to compete in the most profitable market segment. The big manufacturers will jump on this bandwagon and will like the fact that AMD CPUs powered up with ATI's graphics and chipsets can make a stand on Intel Platform.

Intel should fear such a platform. We know it will take some time to make things work but once it's done it will create a lot of interest in the OEM world.

AMD's new Fab in New York State does not sound ridiculous anymore. There might be some extra demand in both CPUs and GPUs from the new AMD.

A new AMD or DAAMIT as we like to call it, will now make a huge pitch to mimic Intel's platform marchitecture squeeze itself into the gaps. That's all the green CPU manufacturer ever really wanted. µ