Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2000/02/23/amd_tells_resellers_athlon_story/

AMD tells resellers Athlon story

There's an awful lot of systems out there

By Mike Magee

Posted in On-Prem, 23rd February 2000 15:49 GMT

A presentation AMD made to its resellers last month has revealed the extent of its penetration into world markets. Although there is not much hard info about future technology in the Powerpoint slides we saw (they know how leaky the channel can be), at the same time the presentation is a glimpse into how the chip company is positioning its Athlon products. As of January, AMD listed 13 suppliers of systems in the Americas, including Mexican company Mexmai, and Brazilian firm MicroTec. Gateway was not yet on the list, but is by now. In Europe, system resellers include German firm Lion, Packard Bell, Centerprise, Transtech, Olidata, SPC, Evesham and Datagrossisten, giving a total of 15 system suppliers. In Asia-Japan, there are 16 system suppliers listed including Thai firm Atec, NEC, Biostar, Australian firm Edge, and three Singapore firms -- RFC, Systech and Amcom. AMD advises its resellers to target the following segments: Ultimate, Enthusiast and Performance. For example an ultimate system would have the top end Athlons, and over 256MB of memory, high end graphics cards, etc. According to the document we saw, the Athlon product family will grow across all segments with "improved and differentiated features" during those year. The Athlon Value will pitch against Intel in the, err, value segment, while the Professional and Ultra will include on chip full speed L2 cache, DDR memory, multiprocessor chipsets and other features "which will allow AMD to penetrate the commercial desktop space along with the workstation and server markets". AMD will be exhibiting at CeBIT and we will pop along there tomorrow to see what the score is. ®