AMD Introduces AMD Business Class, Designed with Business in Mind

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(EON:Enhanced Online News)--AMD (NYSE: AMD) today introduced AMD Business Class, an initiative dedicated to developing AMD processor-based commercial desktop and notebook solutions designed specifically for businesses. AMD Business Class technology is designed to offer the best value and tools on the market for OEMs and system builders to provide a solid, reliable foundation that delivers exceptional performance and power savings, industry-leading longevity and stability, and supports the essential security and manageability business users require. The launch of AMD Business Class also brings with it the introduction of AMD’s new line of commercial stable AMD Athlon™ and AMD Phenom™ processors.

“Our members are actively defining and evolving the DMTF DASH specification beyond the current capabilities of existing management standards in order to deliver future-ready solutions with the features and interoperability businesses need.”

“IT decision-makers have a broad range of commercial client solutions to choose from and it is not always clear which systems deliver the best business value,” said Dirk Meyer, president and COO, AMD. “At its heart, AMD Business Class processors are based on the same innovative technology that powers the world’s most advanced servers. Our solutions are designed to give commercial customers the assurance that platforms are designed with their business in mind to help get more from their computing infrastructure, longer.”

AMD also unveiled the first AMD commercial desktop platform solution, which configures in a variety of ways to better meet customer needs. The platform includes a new comprehensive lineup of stable processors, with up to 24-month stability and longevity from initial product availability. These commercial stable processors include native AMD Phenom X3 triple-core and AMD Phenom X4 quad- core processors, as well as AMD Athlon X2 dual-core processors. OEMs can choose AMD 780V chipsets or optional ATI Radeon™ HD 3000 series discrete graphics, and the platform also supports non-AMD graphics and chipsets. Commercial notebooks for AMD Business Class are scheduled to be available based on the upcoming next-generation notebook platform, codenamed “Puma,” with competitive productivity and battery life at multiple price points.

“As the world's largest PC vendor, HP understands what corporate computing customers want when looking to deploy five, 50 or 55,000 desktop PCs,” said Alan Reed, vice president and general manager, Personal Systems Group, HP. “Organizations tell us that their number one priority is image stability, which is why we're excited to incorporate AMD Business Class in our stable, highly energy-efficient desktop platforms, including the HP Compaq dc5850 Business PC we are introducing today.”

Delivering Energy-Efficient Performance

With AMD Business Class, AMD underscores its commitment to helping businesses meet real-world productivity needs, while working to keep energy consumption in check. Stable commercial AMD Phenom X3 processors offer an excellent upgrade path from dual-core for those power-users who need the advantages of an additional processing core for multi-threaded applications and heavy multitasking scenarios, without the added cost of quad-core. The low-idle power delivered by the combination of AMD processors and the AMD 780V chipset enable manufacturers to meet new ENERGY STAR^® 4.0 requirements, resulting in reduced power consumption and small form factors that can save space. Additionally, two of the AMD Athlon processors featured in the new commercial offerings are 45-watts, an industry first.

“Small and large businesses alike require standardized desktop systems that deliver stability for 12 to 18 months and the flexibility to choose configurations that best fit user requirements,” said Bob O'Donnell, vice president, IDC. “Standardized platforms that deliver greater stability and longevity, improved productivity and energy savings better meet the needs of businesses today.”

Industry-leading Stability and Longevity

With AMD Business Class, businesses can build a computing infrastructure that does more, longer. AMD Business Class enables commercial desktop platforms featuring up to 24-month image stability across the platform to help enable greater cross-generation compatibility and longer PC lifecycles to help minimize IT disruptions. The commercial desktop platform is also designed to take full advantage of the rich visual experience and enhanced productivity features of Windows Vista^® and enables businesses to upgrade when the time is right.

“Dell continues to focus on simplifying IT, delivering business desktop solutions that help eliminate the hassles and high cost of technology transitions,” said Darrel Ward, director, Dell Product Group. “The Dell OptiPlex 740 with AMD Business Class technology and AMD Phenom processors takes that commitment to another level with systems that are extremely manageable, stable and energy efficient.”

“From small businesses to multinational enterprises, business computing users require the utmost in productivity,” said Mike Nash, corporate vice president of Windows Product Management at Microsoft Corp. “With that in mind, we are pleased that the AMD Business Class Platform will enable business users of Windows Vista to take advantage of the advances offered by multi-core technology.”

Essential Security and Manageability

AMD Business Class platforms offer future-ready solutions with the features and interoperability businesses need. AMD supports choice in the marketplace and is committed to open security standards (TCG – Trusted Computing Group) and management standards (DMTF – the Distributed Management Task Force) that support today’s increasingly diverse IT environments rather than locking businesses into expensive, proprietary technology. AMD is actively involved in defining and evolving the DMTF’s Desktop and mobile Architecture for System Hardware (DASH) suite of specifications that are designed to deliver standards-based Web services management for desktop and mobile client systems.

“DMTF, the industry organization leading the development, adoption and promotion of interoperable management standards and initiatives, applauds AMD for its commitment to delivering open and interoperable standards that reduce overall IT complexity for businesses,” said Winston Bumpus, DMTF president. “Our members are actively defining and evolving the DMTF DASH specification beyond the current capabilities of existing management standards in order to deliver future-ready solutions with the features and interoperability businesses need.”

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

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.

©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.

Cautionary Statement

This release contains forward-looking statements concerning the acceptance of AMD Business Class products by commercial customers, which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are commonly identified by words such as “would,” “may,” “expects,” “believes,” “plans,” “intends,” “projects” and other terms with similar meaning. Investors are cautioned that the forward-looking statements in this release are based on current beliefs, assumptions and expectations, speak only as of the date of this release and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations. Risks include the possibility that Intel Corporation’s pricing, marketing and rebating programs, product bundling, standard setting, new product introductions or other activities targeting AMD’s business will prevent attainment of AMD’s current plans for its commercial product offerings; customers stop buying the company’s products or materially reduce their operations or demand for its products. Investors are urged to review in detail the risks and uncertainties in the company’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including but not limited to the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 29, 2007.

AMD Business Class Quote Sheet

With the introduction of AMD Business Class, AMD demonstrated broad ecosystem support for the initiative focused on delivering commercial desktop and notebook platforms designed to deliver the best value on the market.

“The Veriton M420 continues Acer’s commitment to meeting the high-reliability, manageability, and performance demands of our business customers,” said Brian Bogaard, Product Business Manager, Desktop EMEA, Acer. “Leveraging the exceptional performance and energy-efficiency of AMD Phenom processors and outstanding graphics solutions, combined with superior stability and longevity of AMD Business Class platforms, the Veriton M420 delivers a long-term solution built for the most demanding business desktop user.”

“Broadcom's industry-leading line of Gigabit Ethernet controller products with TruManage™ technology are the first in the industry to enable secure and energy efficient platform manageability,” said Vinod Lakhani, senior director and general manager of Broadcom's High-Speed Controller line of business. “We are excited to support the AMD Business Class initiative with our TruManage technology which enables seamless and predictable out-of-band management capabilities. Much like our commitment to the DMTF standard and other emerging standard-based technology, Broadcom and AMD will continue to work together to enable OEMs to deliver competitive manageability solutions in the second half of 2008.”

“Fujitsu Siemens Computers welcomes AMD Business Class, which will help to extend our professional PC portfolio, with the addition of ESPRIMO E5625 and ESPRIMO P5625,” said Andreas Thimmel, senior vice president Volume Business, Fujitsu Siemens Computers. “Offering impressive performance, manageability features and longevity, AMD Business Class technology provides valuable benefits for IT users across the spectrum.”

“Our customers want energy efficient, yet powerful systems, and Lenovo’s ThinkCentre desktop PCs are designed to deliver maximum performance while minimizing energy consumption,” said Dilip Bhatia, executive director, Global Desktop Marketing, Lenovo. “AMD Business Class technology helps us to further reduce noise and heat emission in our AMD processor-based ThinkCentre systems while extending the product longevity.”

“Marvell commends AMD’s open standards-based approach to providing secure, out of-band PC manageability capabilities in the near future,” said Roawen Chen, Vice President of the Connectivity Business Unit, Marvell Semiconductor. “We are committed to collaborating with AMD to enable PC OEMs and ODMs to deliver feature-rich, cost-effective DASH 1.1 LOM and add-in card solutions for PC manageability beginning in Q2 2008.”

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