AMD To Combat Intel Viiv With AMD Live!

Author: by Darrell Dunn, InformationWeek

Advanced Micro Devices continues to step up its battle with Intel to secure a bigger share of the digital home entertainment market with the introduction on Wednesday of the AMD Live! Entertainment Suite, a collection of services and applications designed to enhance the home PC experience, including some game-related PC content. PC makers such as Acer, Alienware, Fujitsu Siemens, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, Sahara, and Tsinghua Tongang will offer the AMD Live!-branded systems, which use AMD's Athlon 62 X2 dual processor, starting in June. AMD is fighting for a larger piece of the digital home entertainment market as rival Intel is engaged in a similar branding effort for the home market under its Viiv platform brand, which also has some game-related licenses, such as GameTap. "Today customers are looking for PCs that will allow them to view, interact and play new content from broadcast television to music to games," said Tom Anderson, vice president of marketing, global consumer PCs, Personal Systems Group, HP. "By offering AMD LIVE! branded PCs, our customers will have the ability to buy a PC that will meet their evolving entertainment needs." Among the first services to be offered on AMD Live! include On Demand, a service powered by Orb Networks that streams live or prerecorded television programs, photos, music, and movies to Web-connected devices. Also being offered is Compress, a tool that optimizes recorded television content and lets users save large volumes of TV shows on their PCs. Another service, Network Magic, lets users set up, manage, and secure their home network. LogMeIn is a service providing users with the ability to remotely control an AMD Live! PC.