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Hardware Dell Confirms AMD Notebooks
Brandon Hill (Blog) - August 8, 2006 4:09 PM

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35 comment(s) - last by Viditor.. on Aug 9 at 10:54 PM

AMD-based notebooks coming from Dell by year's end

Dell has confirmed that story that DailyTech reported on last week concerning the company's plans to put AMD processors in notebooks. A company official who spoke with CNET Asia confirmed that Dell will begin by offering 15.4" notebooks this October built using Sempron and Turion 64 X2 mobile processors.

"This is not a big deal. In order to remain competitive, we have to make sure that we have [a wide] enough variety of products to meet the market demand," stated a Dell executive who chose to remain anonymous. "This is a sensitive topic, though we won't deny the fact that we are working with Dell on desktop and notebook PCs," said AMD’s general manager of Taiwanese operations. Chou went on to say, “Consumers will be able to buy AMD-based computers from Dell by the end of the year."

While Dell won’t be able to offer the large variety of notebook designs covering all segments of the market as is the case with the company’s current Intel-based offerings, it’s a good start. Dell first announced their plans to use AMD Opteron processors in May of this year and that was seen as a watershed moment for the both companies.

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Good for AMD

By epsilonparadox on 8/8/06, Rating: 0

RE: Good for AMD

By robber98 on 8/8/2006 5:57:36 PM , Rating: 2

Huh? Apple sells Intel's chip only while Dell sells both Intel and AMD chips...

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RE: Good for AMD

By Lifted on 8/8/2006 6:00:25 PM , Rating: 5

Hmmmm...

Intel has 100% of Apple and 100% of Dell (soon to be 95%?).
Amd has 0% of Applce and will soon have at most 5% of Dell.

Yeah, AMD has got a much better deal.

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RE: Good for AMD

By SteelyKen on 8/8/2006 6:01:22 PM , Rating: 2

What next? An Eagles reunion?

Oops, that already happened...

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RE: Good for AMD

By Googer on 8/9/2006 12:35:29 AM , Rating: 2

I think you mean an ABBA Reunion. (Blah)

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RE: Good for AMD

By bob661 on 8/8/06, Rating: 0

RE: Good for AMD

By bob661 on 8/8/06, Rating: 0

RE: Good for AMD

By mendocinosummit on 8/8/2006 6:51:38 PM , Rating: 1

Apple with with Intel to get into the x86, because Intel has the recources to help Apple with their OS AMD did not. AMD still very well be a Apple Contender. Out of my ass, also.

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RE: Good for AMD

By formulav8 on 8/8/2006 6:59:37 PM , Rating: 4

Yeah, but having 5% of Dell is more than having 100% of Mac which has under 5% of total market share.

Jason

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RE: Good for AMD

By hstewarth on 8/8/2006 7:59:37 PM , Rating: 2

I think one thing people are forgetting, that most of people that will purchase AMD Dell's will be people that like AMD chips and ones that purchase Intel DEll's will be Intel fans. So this actually increase the # of Dell's sold.

Of course there will be some, maybe alot that don't know or care about the difference.

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RE: Good for AMD

By abhaxus on 8/9/2006 1:35:48 AM , Rating: 2

Having known people who have sold for dell, i do not think this is the case at all. People call dell's sales number with no idea of what they will buy. The salepeople on the phone simply ask them what they want to do with the system, and then sell them a system they can stack the most accessories onto while keeping the customer on the line.

Whether it's an intel chip or amd chip really won't matter to 95% of the customers buying PCs. I have people all the time who ask me if it's true that AMD chips are better than intel, because they've already heard it elsewhere. There's quite a bit of buzz for AMD among the completely computer illiterate, enough that people won't go "no i don't want that AMD Athlon I've heard they aren't reliable."

Dell going AMD is a huge deal.

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RE: Good for AMD

By hoppa on 8/9/2006 1:24:31 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
Yeah, but having 5% of Dell is more than having 100% of Mac which has under 5% of total market share.

Really?? That's some extraordinary math!

Lets see here... if Apple has 5% market share, then 5% of computers sold are Intel macs. If every computer sold that wasn't a mac was a dell (95%... obviously a very wrong number), then the AMD boost would only be 5% of 95, or 4.75% . And Dell certainly doesn't have 100% control of the PC market....

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RE: Good for AMD

By kamel5547 on 8/9/2006 4:07:44 PM , Rating: 2

Apple ahs around a 2% market share last I saw. Realistically speaking AMD would capture more than 5% of Dell's sales, lets say initially 5% growing to 20% (dell's current share is between 30-33%) hence while initially the % is lower there is a bigger customer base to grow into. (5% of 30% is 1.5% only a tad bit less than apple's market share initially with higher potential for expansion).

Of course I'm basing the 20% on the fact that Dell will at some point introduce desktops as well, which isn't so far fetched at this point.

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RE: Good for AMD

By Viditor on 8/9/2006 10:54:27 PM , Rating: 3

quote:
if Apple has 5% market share, then 5% of computers sold are Intel macs

Apple currently has a 2.8% total marketshare, and Dell (who has ~18% marketshare) is making 16-18% of their laptops and desktops AMD. This means that AMD's share of Dell should equate to ~3.2% total marketshare...

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RE: Good for AMD

By Viditor on 8/9/2006 9:19:52 AM , Rating: 1

quote:
Amd has 0% of Applce and will soon have at most 5% of Dell

And now for reality...

"The worlds largest computer manufacturer has targeted an initial ramp of 1.2 million AMD-based desktop and server units for its third quarter. This, McConnell elaborates, represents 16 to 17 percent of the company's projected desktop and server units in aggregate "
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20060802/dell-amd-...

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Capacity

By Desslok on 8/8/2006 5:53:35 PM , Rating: 2

I hope AMD isn't biting off more than they can chew. From all that I have read they seem be maxed out capacity wise.

RE: Capacity

By Master Kenobi

(blog) on 8/8/2006 6:29:23 PM , Rating: 2

Yea this is likely to be for the XPS line of notebooks, not the mainstream. AMD doesnt right now have the capacity to meet the kind of demand DELL can generate, especially with the prices on dell notebooks.

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RE: Capacity

By bob661 on 8/8/2006 6:37:22 PM , Rating: 1

Where do you guys get your capacity figures from? I just read this: http://tinyurl.com/kf3ov

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RE: Capacity

By Motley on 8/9/2006 1:14:27 AM , Rating: 2

You do realize that article says that AMD is already over their own capacity? They had to ask Cartered Semiconductor to produce chips for them already since they can't produce that many. And that's all before Dell. Dell sells 12.3 million PCs each quarter. AMD can produce 9.76 million. With Chartered Semi, they are producing 11ish million. If they can even get 20% of dell sales (2.46m/quarter), they have a major production problem. When Fab 36 comes online in December, it had better start producing at full capacity from the get go. It'll add another 2.6m/quarter production, which will barely cover the dell sale (If they only grab 20% of the dells), if they grab more, they will have to start looking for other less-optimal (more costly) 3rd parties to produce for them.

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RE: Capacity

By abakshi on 8/8/2006 7:47:06 PM , Rating: 3

Why would it be for the XPS line? Both Intel's desktop and mobile chips are now faster than AMD's...

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RE: Capacity

By kamel5547 on 8/9/2006 4:11:07 PM , Rating: 2

Agreed. Throw in the fact that AMD's notebook chips have NEVER been faster than Intel's and I arrive at the conclusion that this will be aimed at mid to low market.

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Oh please

By Griswold on 8/9/2006 3:41:58 AM , Rating: 2

Oh boy. On one side, people say "why would anyone buy AMD if they can buy Intel" yadda yadda. On the other side there are those capacity preachers who throw out numbers of how much Dell sells per anno and how little AMD can produce.

Which is it folks? Dell sucking AMD dry or nobody buying AMD? Make up your minds...

The only fact that matters is: AMD and Dell signed a deal which means, AMD has the capacity and Dell can see a market for that product. End of debate.

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RE: Capacity

By Viditor on 8/9/2006 9:27:06 AM , Rating: 2

quote:
From all that I have read they seem be maxed out capacity wise

Between Jan 06 and Jan 07, AMD will have tripled their total capacity...and AMD's 65nm production began this month (remember that it takes 3 months for a wafer to become chips).
All of the estimates I've made show AMD with the capacity to produce 50% of the world's CPU supply by the end of this year (depending on the CPU mix), and I don't see Intel giving up 1/3 of their marketshare to AMD...

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Not sure if its the best choice

By cmurphy2266 on 8/8/2006 6:38:53 PM , Rating: 2

I dont think this will help Dell because AMD has nothing compaired to the current lineup from Intel in both Desktops and Notebooks. Conroe is better than Athlon, and Merom is better than Sempron and Turion, In all regards (power, performance, heat). Unless there is soming special about Sempron and Turion, i dont see where this is positive for Dell. And if they want to "AMD-Fans boys", whats the point? he majority of the time, if you have a preference between 2 CPUs, then you know what your doing and you will either build it yourself or go to Falcon or VooDoo. Its not like regular computer users will care or will even know if they have an AMD over Intel. They just know how much performance, power, and heat (mostly meaning notebooks because its noticeable. heat/power is realy noticeable in a desktop unless you know what your doing)

Good Luck Dell! And i think there a great company.

RE: Not sure if its the best choice

By mendocinosummit on 8/8/2006 6:53:20 PM , Rating: 2

They might know something about the future that we don't; like the performance of the 65nm and K8L.

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RE: Not sure if its the best choice

By hstewarth on 8/8/2006 8:04:07 PM , Rating: 2

They have 65nm with Intel right now and well I think the performance is a matter of opinion. Currently Dell's Woodcrest server is top computer in TPC price/performance. - its Dell 2900.

As far as K8L, that is in the future and Intel will have new cpus by that time - atleast quad core and maybe even eight core by that time.

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RE: Not sure if its the best choice

By Regs on 8/9/2006 9:18:19 AM , Rating: 2

If you think Intel will actually have something brand new in 8 months, I want what you're on.

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RE: Not sure if its the best choice

By Tom Tom on 8/9/2006 12:36:58 PM , Rating: 2

Intels core doesnt scale to multi core as well as AMDs arch.

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RE: Not sure if its the best choice

By Questar on 8/8/2006 7:53:05 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
I dont think this will help Dell because AMD has nothing compaired to the current lineup from Intel in both Desktops and Notebooks.

They have the very bottom end. Cheap.

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RE: Not sure if its the best choice

By Viditor on 8/9/2006 9:33:24 AM , Rating: 2

quote:
AMD has nothing compaired to the current lineup from Intel in both Desktops and Notebooks

This is a common mistake...the vast majority of Intel's lineup is Netburst, and Dell deals in the volume chips.
So the real lineup from their POV has nothing to do with the Core 2 chips...
Also (and more importantly), Intel has (reputedly) changed their rebate program, and this means it's no longer in Dell's best interest to be Intel exclusive.

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Cool runnings

By trexpesto on 8/8/2006 11:51:19 PM , Rating: 2

Now if they will offer a no-OS option that isn't somehow the same price or more than one with M$Home.

RE: Cool runnings

By trexpesto on 8/8/2006 11:55:14 PM , Rating: 2

And an overclockable BIOS.
Preinstalled Open Office.. Ha!

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RE: Cool runnings

By dagamer34 on 8/9/2006 12:21:53 AM , Rating: 2

Hell is frezzing over. It's not frozen yet.

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Laptops?

By dexvx on 8/8/2006 8:38:16 PM , Rating: 2

Laptops are definitely not Intel proc's weakpoints, even before Conroe/Merom. Its 4s/8s servers and soon to be low end dekstops. Celeron-M's (Yonah or Dothan) are better than Semprons (price, battery, and just about everything else) and the Core Solo/Duo line just owns the Turion/Turion X2 line. One would wonder why Dell choose LAPTOPS of all things.

And FYI, Dell and Intel has had a bad relationship for the last 2 or so years (that extends beyond CPU's).

In other news...

By MarkHark on 8/8/2006 7:55:41 PM , Rating: 1

<voice of BBC/CNN reporter>

...average temperatures in hell dropped around 20 degrees this week only. Scientists are worried hell might freeze before next Christmas.

</voice of BBC/CNN reporter>