AMD LIVE! Unveiled

AMD Unveils Digital Media Vision To Deliver Enhanced Entertainment Experiences — AMD LIVE! professional brand extends to consumers with PC solution complementing devices already accepted and used today

AMD today unveiled its vision to apply the power and flexibility of the PC to enable enhanced digital entertainment experiences on all the screens in peoples’ lives. As part of this vision, AMD plans to extend the professional AMD LIVE! brand to full-featured consumer multimedia desktop and notebook PCs expected to be delivered in mid-2006.

“We’re excited about AMD’s recent momentum with Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005,” said Mike Sievert, corporate vice president of Windows Product Management and Marketing at Microsoft Corp. “Consumers are responding to the combination of powerful AMD64 technology, Media Center PCs and the Xbox 360 system, enabling them to enjoy digital entertainment throughout their homes, and this will help to pave the way for the success of AMD LIVE!.”

AMD LIVE! will help transform consumer entertainment from “2 foot” PC interactive experiences into true “10 foot” extended PC entertainment experiences. With an AMD LIVE! branded desktop or notebook PC, consumers should be able to extend their PC to stream music through their entertainment center, view and share photos on the TV, burn recorded TV shows, videos, music and pictures to a DVD or CD, or transfer this same content to a notebook, MP3, portable media player or PDA.

eweek AMD Plan Unites Internet and Television
Under Live, AMD will work to help get broadband-connected PCs and televisions talking. The company aims to make it possible for the couch potato to spice up a given program such as an auto race, accessed via a television by adding additional and more detailed Internet content from a PC. The effort is important, AMD said, in that it could open the doors for new types of programming, but without necessarily requiring people to purchase special adapters, sometimes called set top boxes, which are often required now.

CNet AMD’s ‘Live’ to rival Intel’s Viiv
Live PCs are scheduled to come out around the middle of the year. Viiv PCs will arrive in the first quarter. To date, attempts to put the PC in the living room have been a flop. The early version of Intel’s EPC computer TV, intended to be the centerpiece of a home entertainment center, sold in low numbers. The upcoming models, however, are smaller than the previous editions and will require fewer fans. More pervasive home networking will also mean that the PC can stay in the den but be operated in the living room with a remote control through the TV screen.