Taking on rival Intel"s Viiv platform in the consumer space, Advanced Micro Devices on Monday rolled out reference designs for a home cinema device, home media server, new notebook and digital media storage device under its AMD Live! banner. Launched at CES 2007 in Las Vegas, the AMD Live! Home Cinema and AMD Live! Home Media Server aim to bridge the gap between the television and the PC and introduce a more comfortable form factor for the living room or bedroom, said Aaron Feen, director of consumer marketing at Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD. The two new platforms are slated to be included in OEM offerings in the first half of this year.
Also at CES, AMD took the wraps off an AMD Live! notebook PC platform that"s designed to make it easier for OEMs and system makers to build consumer laptops. AMD Live! notebooks will be available later this month in Europe from ASUS, Fujitsu Siemens Computers and MSI, AMD said. The AMD Live! Home Cinema is a set-top box with PC technology that"s intended to serve as a "perfect mate" to a flat-panel TV and a DVD player, according to AMD. The company collaborated with the cable TV industry to ensure that the device can access premium content, enabling users to have a fully functional DVD recorder and the ability to record high-definition HBO and other TV programming while also surfing the Web.