AMD Says No Thanks to Smartphone Business

From DailyTech: Like Intel Corp., Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. salivates at the prospect of seizing a piece of the soaring tablet market. Two months ago it launched its Z-Series CPUs (code-named Desna), targeting the tablet market.

The design, which weighs in at a modest 5.9 watts, was reportedly rushed out the door. Work on it began soon after former CEO Dirk Meyer was ousted. Mr. Meyer had advocated that AMD stay out of the tablet business -- a key reason why the board decided he must go.

Just because AMD changed its mind about tablets, though, doesn't make the task at hand any easier. It must vie with an entrenched ARM architecture, which of late has been boasting designs with high clock speeds, multiple cores, and relatively low power consumption.

Still, tablets are inherently graphical endeavor, and AMD arguably has vastly more experience making high quality graphics hardware than its fellow challenger Intel.

Interviewed at the Pacific Crest Securities Technology Leadership Forum in Vail, Colorado, AMD senior vice president Rick Bergman reaffirmed AMD's commitment to the x86 architecture, dispelling persistent rumors that AMD would seek an ARM license from ARM Holdings PLC. He states, "We're excited about what the tablet market can do for AMD."

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