By John Mark V. Tuazon
Computerworld Philippines
May 25, 2010

PC vendor Acer recently outed three new notebooks that feature recently-upgraded AMD microprocessors, aiming to provide a computing experience that is more visual in nature.

Acer’s netbook line—the Aspire One—will include two new additions in the form of the aspire One AOD521 and the Aspire One 721, both running AMD’s Athlon II Neo processors, and retails for approximately P22,000 and P25,000 respectively.

A thin and light notebook, on the other hand, becomes part of Acer’s eMachines family, in the form of the new eMachines eMD640 notebook, with an AMD Athlon II Dual-Core processor, which ships at a sub-P30,000 price point.

The new AMD chips put a premium on the user’s visual experience, which, according to AMD, has become the leading factor in choosing personal computing systems nowadays. “HD videos are ubiquitous right now. Video is very, very prevalent. It’s everywhere,” remarked Sonny Sy, sales manager, AMD.

Sy claimed that users are now within the epoch of high-resolution and highly visual computing. “[Operating systems]-wise, Windows 7 is 3D already, and supports higher-resolution screens,” he added.

Citing a recent IDC study on purchase and usage breakdown of notebook buyers, Sy said the way computers are being used today is becoming more entertainment-focused, owing to the fact that social networking, online videos, and online games form the top three reasons buyers use their systems.

This puts AMD, Sy said, in a unique position, by taking the “balanced platform approach.” “AMD is in a unique position because we offer CPU, graphics, and chipset,” Sy clarified, adding that their systems allow for highly paralleled workloads to be offloaded to the GPU, freeing up processing power from the CPU.

This higher emphasis on visual computing, Sy noted, prompted the company to rebrand its processors by naming it “AMD Vision,” separated by three tiers—basic, premium, and ultimate—that differ in processing power, delivering varying core values still with a keen emphasis on being visual.

Competitor brand Intel last year also underwent a similar rebranding strategy, dividing its core line into three levels—Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7—to address the different needs of varying market segments.

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