AMD 2006 Annual Report Download - page 13

Table of Contents
while still maintaining reasonable profit margins, are increasingly using integrated chipsets over discrete graphics chips in their products because of the lower
cost of integrated graphics solutions.
Our customers generally use our graphics and chipset products to increase the speed of rendering images and to improve image resolution and color
attributes. Our products include 3D graphics, video and multimedia products and chipsets developed for use in desktop and notebook PCs, including home media
PCs, professional workstations and servers. With each of our graphics products, we provide drivers and supporting software packages that enable the effective
use of these products under a variety of operating systems and applications. Our latest generation of graphics, chipset and related software offer full support for
the Microsoft® Windows Vista™ operating system. In addition to the Microsoft ® Windows® family of operating systems, our graphics products support Apple’s
Mac OS X as well as Linux®-based applications.
Discrete Desktop Products. Our discrete GPUs for desktop PCs include our ATI Radeon ™ X1000 family of products which we introduced in October
2005. From our current enthusiast level product, the ATI Radeon X1950 to the value-based ATI Radeon X1300, this product family includes offerings that
incorporate features and price-performance characteristics for the enthusiast, performance, mainstream and value categories of the desktop PC market. These
products support our CrossFire™ dual-GPU technology, first introduced in May 2005. Crossfire technology increases graphics processing power and speed by
combining two GPUs in the same PC platform. The ATI Radeon X1000 family of products incorporates our proprietary ATI Avivo ™ platform technology. ATI
Avivo™ technology is a video and display platform that enables high-definition (HD) video playback and display.
Although an increasing percentage of desktop PCs rely on integrated chipsets for graphics, we believe that discrete graphic solutions will continue to offer
higher performance and be the preferred solution for several types of desktop PC configurations, such as platforms designed for gaming enthusiasts, CAD
professionals and animation as well as for applications such as multimedia, photo and video editing, and other graphic-intensive applications.
Discrete Notebook Products. Our discrete GPUs for the notebook PC market include our ATI Mobility Radeon X1000 series of products which we
introduced in December 2005. When selecting a graphics solution, the key considerations for notebook PC manufacturers are visual performance, power
consumption, form factor and cost. We designed our products to provide the mix of performance, features and flexibility desired by the major categories of the
notebook PC market, including the thin and light, performance, desktop replacement and value categories.
Our high-end ATI Mobility Radeon X1900 products deliver 3D graphics performance and video playback quality and vibrant image quality for
performance notebook PCs. An ultra-threaded 3D architecture with advanced power management provides high-definition video and display enhancements. At
the value end, we offer the ATI Mobility Radeon X1300 with features such as enhanced 3D gaming, high-quality video playback and longer battery life for
price-conscious consumers.
Chipset Products. Our integrated chipset solutions, also known as core logic on the motherboard, include our Radeon™ Xpress and Crossfire™ families.
We target our Radeon Xpress series chipsets to motherboard manufacturers and offer a high degree of performance, stability and connectivity for mainstream and
commercial desktop and notebook PCs. Radeon Xpress chipsets contain integrated graphics while our Crossfire™ chipsets are discrete chipsets without integrated
graphics and are intended to be used in systems targeting the higher end markets, such as gaming, that use multiple add-in graphics boards. Our chipset solutions
include products that are compatible with Intel platforms. We expect to continue to ship existing chipsets for Intel CPUs throughout 2007 and beyond to the
extent there is demand for these products. However, we expect that sales of these products will continue to decline and will eventually cease.
Home Media PC Products. Our home media PC products incorporate a wide variety of features for consumers that intend to use their PCs for
multimedia applications. For example, our family of TV Wonder ™
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Source: ADVANCED MICRO DEVIC, 10-K, March 01, 2007