AMD denies limiting mobile Duron family

AMD has denied that it is restricting access to socket and chip technology for its family of mobile Durons, and has claimed it is still on target for product introductions in the first quarter of next year.

Sources close to Asian notebook firms had claimed that AMD had restricted designs using the mobile Duron to four big ODMs (original design manufacturers) and to Toshiba in Japan.

Compal, Quanta, Acer and Asus were named as the four favoured manufacturers and the same source claimed that the first notebooks using such designs would be introduced in Q2 of next year.

But an AMD representative here in Europe denied that it would limit designs to any specific set of manufacturers, and claimed that the first notebooks using the technology were still on target for Q1 next year.

The situation in Asia does, however, differ markedly from Europe. Firstly, major ODMs such as Compal, Asus and the like, have large contracts with major multinational PC firms.

At the Computex show held in Taiwan every June, visitors typically see no-name notebooks which, later in the year, may have big-name stickers attached to them.

Such relationships are highly sensitive, and sometimes the Taiwanese firms forego sales of notebooks under their own name to keep the big PC firms happy.

The AMD representative said that he could not see any possible reason why his firm should restrict information to a particular set of customers.

He also confirmed the firm is on target to complete development work on its mobile Duron family on time.

He suggested, however, that some of the ODMs might delay their introduction of machines based on the microprocessor for fully integrated graphics chipsets and the like. ®