AMD Delivers Business-Ready Desktop Offerings to Solution Providers with AMD Business Class Initiative

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(EON:Enhanced Online News)--AMD (NYSE: AMD) today introduced AMD Business Class, a new program helping offer a solid and reliable foundation for desktop business computers designed to deliver the best value on the market. AMD Business Class technology provides AMD solution providers with the advantage of exceptional performance and energy efficiency, essential security and manageability, and enables them to provide a tested, validated commercial platform designed for the Small and Medium Business (SMB) market. This platform will be available to channel partners for up to 18 months under the AMD Validated Solutions (AVS) Program, addressing solution providers’ need to deliver a consistent, long-term platform roadmap based on AMD technology to their business customers. Based on the AMD 780V chipset, validated motherboards for AMD Business Class are now available worldwide from leading manufacturers including MSI and ECS and with Asus planned to be coming soon.

“The added ease-of-business with stable, validated motherboards and AMD processors completes an attractive and competitive offering.”

“AMD remains committed to offering the channel industry-leading AMD processor and chipset solutions to help differentiate their products and services in the marketplace,” said Mario Rivas, executive vice president, Computing Solutions Group, AMD. “Designed with business in mind, motherboards for the AMD Business Class program are rigorously tested and validated, offering solution providers the ability to make assurances of platform stability and longevity to the commercial customers who require these attributes.”

Industry-Leading Stability and Longevity

New AMD Business Class processors, including AMD Phenom™ and AMD Athlon™, provide up to 24-month stability and come with a three-year warranty in tray and Processor-in-a-Box (PIB) ^(a). With AMD Business Class, solution providers and their customers may benefit from longer image-stability periods for the processor and motherboard, lengthening PC lifecycles and thereby lowering total cost of ownership.

“MSI is proud to continue our collaboration with AMD to deliver high-performing motherboard solutions that support the industry-leading stability and longevity, exceptional performance and energy efficiency, and essential security and manageability of the AMD Business Class platform,” said Vincent Lai, global marketing director, MSI. “By introducing K9A2VM-FD & K9N2GM-FD, AMD Business Class desktop customers can realize consistency, longevity, and reliability to help minimize IT disruptions and get more from their computing infrastructure, longer.”

“Equus Computers is committed to offering high-value solutions to our customers, with the customized capabilities to help them navigate the challenges of their industry,” said Joe Toste, Vice President of Marketing, Equus Computers, the largest whitebox system builder to the channel. “We’re looking forward to working with AMD to broaden our own portfolio of business offerings with AMD Business Class, help us differentiate our offerings in a highly-competitive marketplace, and provide better business value to our customers.”

Open Platform Approach

AMD Business Class is an open platform that allows for multiple configuration options, enabling AMD solution providers to customize their offerings to meet the needs of their commercial customers. This approach provides solutions providers the opportunity to extend their reach further into the high-opportunity SMB market, as well as local, state, and federal government and education markets.

“Our ongoing relationship with AMD continues to deliver outstanding value, options, and innovation on AMD processor-based platforms. The new AMD Business Class solutions are a perfect example because businesses have the flexibility to choose NVIDIA chipset-based motherboards to meet their needs,” said Drew Henry, general manager of MCP business at NVIDIA.

Exceptional Performance and Energy Efficiency for Solution Providers

The low idle power delivered by the combination of AMD Business Class processors and the AMD 780V chipset can assist solution providers in meeting new ENERGY STAR^® 4.0 requirements, resulting in reduced power consumption and small form factors that can save space.

“AMD Business Class provides Dacco with a desktop business product sensitive to the needs of our customers - energy-efficiency, multi-application processing and impressive visual performance” said said Esa Poikolainen, managing director, Dacco. “The added ease-of-business with stable, validated motherboards and AMD processors completes an attractive and competitive offering.”

The combination of AMD Business Class processors with ATI Radeon™ graphics can deliver fast, smooth, clear performance on even the most demanding operating systems and business applications of today and tomorrow. Whether their employees are busy using the advanced search functions of Windows Vista^® to quickly access critical data, or going back and forth between multiple application screens on two monitors, AMD Business Class delivers performance and rich visual experience to SMBs.

“As graphics performance increases in importance for businesses using next-generation operating systems and multiple monitors, ECS’s collaboration with AMD will stay focused on delivering innovative systems that help enhance productivity through unparalleled graphics capabilities,” said Kevin Yang, general manager, Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS), mainboard, add-on card and system products. “The new AMD780V M-M2 provides multiple graphics monitor capabilities for faster, smoother, clearer performance on even the most demanding applications.”

And with specified support for Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 1.2 and in-band systems management capability, solution providers can help their customers stay up-to-date with the latest standards without getting locked into expensive, proprietary security and manageability solutions.

“Nor-Tech is excited by the possibilities extended by AMD Business Class to help us support a wide range of customers, particularly those who want an open, flexible solution,” said Todd Swank, Vice President of Marketing, Nor-Tech, the second–largest custom systems builder in the US. “We appreciate that the AMD Business Class standard utilizes open industry standards, including TPM and support for today’s widely-used in-band systems management tools. For the many schools, hospitals and government agencies we work with, the use of open standards lends another layer of essential security and manageability to future-proof their mission-critical systems.”

To learn more about the AMD Business Class initiative, please visit http://www.amd.com/businessclass.

Pricing and Availability

Pricing for the new AMD Business Class processors in 1KU include the AMD Phenom X4 9600B processor for $230, the AMD Phenom X3 8600B processor for $175, AMD Athlon X2 5400B and 5200B processors for $120 and $110 respectively, AMD Athlon X2 5000B and 4450B processors for $95 and $85 respectively, and the AMD Athlon 1640B processor for $50.

About AMD

Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) is a leading global provider of innovative processing solutions in the computing, graphics and consumer electronics markets. AMD is dedicated to driving open innovation, choice and industry growth by delivering superior customer-centric solutions that empower consumers and businesses worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.amd.com.

^(a) Available for all PIB processors and those tray processors sold under specific agreement with AMD through contracted distributors.

©2008 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, AMD Phenom, AMD Athlon, ATI Radeon, and combinations thereof, are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Windows Vista is a registered trademark of the Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and other jurisdictions. ENERGY STAR is a registered trademark of the U.S. Government. Other names are for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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