As traditional microprocessor makers Intel and AMD sit back and lick their recessionary wounds, a svelte southern California predator is readying a headlong charge at the netbook market.
The southern California Company is CDMA chipset maker Qualcomm which this week announced it had acquired AMD’s handheld graphics technology for $65 million. The new technology rounds out San Diego Qualcomm’s netbook architecture, based on ARM’s Snapdragon processor family, and bolsters Qualcomm’s assault against Intel and that company’s Atom processor family.
Qualcomm has spent more than $400 million refining its netbook architecture, gaining potential customers such as Toshiba, Acer and Asus, and others, according to published reports.
While Intel has focused on low power and high speed with its Atom processor family, QualComm has enhanced its architecture by adding a dual core processor designed not just for Instant-on” but also “always connected” environments. AMD’s newly acquired technologies add support of rich graphics displays, a combination that could lead to slam-dunk successes for future netbook products.
Qualcomm also brings its tight alliances with cellular network providers to the netbook market are, something that’s been almost completely missing so far. The one exception to this, however, has been Acer, which over the last holiday period announced a version of its OneNote netbook bundled with AT&T wireless network coverage that was available only at US national electronics retailer RadioShack. The Acer/AT&T/RadioShack promotion however ended on December 24, 2009. Analysts predict the first round of netbooks based on QualComm’s new architecture will appear later in 2009.
Qualcomm’s expected move into the netbook architecture market comes at a time when Intel has announced a corporate-wide 5,000 person staff reduction, plans to cease manufacturing operations at US west coast fabrication facilities in Santa Clara, CA and Hillsboro, OR , and three other offshore facilities.—Jim Forbes 01/22/2009
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