Toshiba Roll Out Cheap Notebooks Using AMD Turions Processors

In a report from Reuters early this morning a Toshiba spokesperson stated that it will end its exclusivity with Intel, with a deal that would deploy AMD processors in 20% of the company's laptop computers.

Most other global PC makers, including Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Acer are already procuring microprocessors from AMD as well as from Intel, AMD's far larger rival with a market share of around 80 percent.

Toshiba, the world's fourth-largest laptop PC maker, expects to put AMD processors in about 20 percent of the notebooks it sells in the United States and Europe, which account for about 60 percent of its overall PC operations.

The number of Toshiba laptop PCs loaded with AMD chips can be calculated at about 1.1 million units a year as Toshiba's overall notebook PC shipments came to 9.2 million units in calendar 2006, according to research firm IDC.

Toshiba plans to put AMD chips in moderate-priced standard models for individual and corporate clients, Toshiba spokeswoman Yuko Sugahara said.

"With PCs becoming commodity products, there seems to be a new way of thinking that competition should be introduced even in procurement of such core parts like processors as long as there are no major differences in product specifications," Macquarie Securities analyst Yoshihiro Shimada said.

"This could be a message that an era in which Intel took the lion's share of microprocessor profits as the king of PC chips is over."

Fujitsu and NEC, Toshiba's two major domestic rivals, procure microprocessors from both Intel and AMD.

The value of the Toshiba-AMD deal was not available, but prices of AMD's notebook-use microprocessors range from $86 to $263 apiece in a block of 1,000 units.

The Nikkei business daily reported earlier that prices of AMD-equipped PCs are expected to sell for up to 10,000 yen ($82) less than comparable models.

Toshiba will install AMD chips in some models to be released this summer, enabling it to reduce parts-procurement costs by at least 10 percent, the paper said.

Shares of Toshiba closed up 1.2 percent at 908 yen, outperforming the Tokyo stock market's electrical machinery index, which gained 0.44 percent.

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AMD's quad-core "Phenom" Desktop Chip Catches Up With Intel

Intel regained a technological edge last year when it released the first four-core processors by combining two dual-core ones.

However, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) introduced a quad-core microprocessor for the desktop, replacing its venerable Athlon processor with the new "Phenom" design in an attempt to better compete with Intel Corp., media reported Tuesday.

The chip, announced Monday, will reach stores in the second half of 2007 and share similar architecture with the Barcelona quad-core Opteron server chip AMD is planning to launch in the middle of 2007.

Quad-core processors are being introduced now as the future platform for playing videogames on the PC, and for someday streaming high-definition content from the Internet to the TV through a home media server. The high-end processors are also expected to find a place in workstations used in computer-assisted design, or in video editing, or animation.

"AMD has always enjoyed a great bond with the enthusiast community, and the introduction of the AMD Phenom processor family will take our relationship to new heights," said Gautam Srivastava, vice president.

During a pre-launch news conference last Friday, AMD executives spent lots of time demonstrating the better graphics quality of a videogame running on a Phenom-powered PC running Windows Vista, which contains Microsoft's latest collection of application programming interfaces for game programming and video.

AMD did not share features or specifications of the Phenom chip design, so some industry experts are withholding judgment until they see benchmark testing. But one analyst said the time is right to bring multicore computing to the masses, as consumers use more and more video, multitasking and digital media in their everyday applications.

"It's going to benefit them," said Toni DuBoise, senior analyst at Current Analysis West. "I've been waiting for their next product for some time because essentially they didn't have an answer to Intel's Core 2 Duo and that was reflected in their market performance."

Adding the Phenom chip to its line of desktop processors will allow AMD to push dual-core processing from its top-shelf desktops into the entire mainstream product family. That is a key strategy at a time when users are looking for better results from running Windows Vista and doing complex media creation, digital entertainment and multitasking, said Ian McNaughton, AMD's product manager for Athlon 64 FX products.

"Our products are no longer just math computation-type processors, but are about your experience on the PC, whether it's YouTube, BitTorrent, DVR or dual- and quad-core gaming," McNaughton said. "There's a rising expectation; people expect their PCs to be instantaneously reactive. Waiting a minute for a laser printer to print a page is no longer acceptable. Waiting for your PC to boot up is no longer acceptable."

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Intel Corp. unveil its new quad-core processor

Intel Corp. on Monday plans to formally unveil its new quad-core processor for high-performance desktops that runs at the speed of its fastest dual-core chip. But the release of the Core 2 Extreme QX6800 processor not only means higher performance for multi-core processor, but also an increase of Extreme-series chips pricing: the novelty costs $1199, up $200 from the previous levels.

The new Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6800 functions at 2.93GHz and contains 8MB of L2 cache. The new processor is drop-in compatible with LGA775 infrastructure that supports chips with four processing engines as well as 1066MHz processor system bus and can provide 130W of power to the central processing units. The new model is made just like the previous QX6700: by installing two dual-core “Conroe” dice made using 65nm process technology on a single piece of substrate.

Earlier Intel’s Extreme lineup of chips featured two Core 2-based processors: the Core 2 Extreme X6800, which operated at 2.93GHz, but had two processing engines, as well as Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700, which had four cores, but worked at 2.66GHz clock-speed. The new Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6800 combines both high clock-speed and four processing cores. However, if previous high-end models were sold for $999 in 1000-unit quantities, the model QX6800 will be available for $1199 in business quantities.

“The performance and technology leadership we are delivering with our enthusiast quad-core processor lineup is a direct result of the reliability provided by Intel’s manufacturing and engineering strength. This translates to user benefits such as better gameplay with more intelligent computer-generated opponents and less wait time for demanding high-definition media editing,” said Eric Kim, senior vice president and general manager of Intel’s digital home group.

The release of the twelfth quad-core microprocessor was generally unexpected by the industry, as there were no “leaks” about the chip in the media. However, the introduction still seems to be a logical one, as Intel said earlier this year that it had no plans to introduce enthusiast-oriented processors with two processing engines any more.

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