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AMD will launch a new brand, Vision, in a bid to create an alternative to Intel's Centrino... just as Intel starts to downplay its long-running laptop platform brand.

AMD hasn't said anything publicly, but the inevitable industry leaks indicate it's going to establish vanilla, Premium and Ultimate versions of Vision - echoes of Windows 7 there - each of which centres on an AMD CPU and integrated or discrete graphics core, and a third-party Wi-Fi controller.

Wi-Fi controllers are what Intel plans to limit the Centrino brand to as it shifts to a branding strategy that focuses almost entirely on its Core, Pentium, Celeron and Atom processors.

What's been said so far indicates Vision will comprise a Neo X2 processor and Radeon HD 3200 or 4200 integrated graphics. Neo is AMD's CPU for thin'n'light laptops. It's currently available as a single-core part, with a dual-core version having just begin shipping this month.

Vision Premium will use an unnamed AMD CPU - or possibly a choice of parts - and a Radeon HD 4330 discrete GPU. Vision Ultimate ups the spec to a Turion X2 processor and a Radeon HD 4780 graphic chip, it's said.

Ultimately, whether any of this makes any difference will depend not on the technology used but the marketing resources AMD brings to bear to get buyers thinking about Vision. AMD has a history of these kinds of branding initiatives, most of which have failed to come close to matching the brands Intel has created.

Heck, not even Intel's efforts have always been successful. Whatever happened to Viiv, by the way?

AMD simply doesn't have the same resources. Which begs the question: why this obsession with laptop stickers, guys? ®

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