Wednesday, February 10th 2016

AMD Increases Notebook Market Traction

Press Release by
btarunr
 Discuss (36 Comments)
AMD today announced increasing momentum for the 6th Generation AMD PRO A-Series mobile processors, based on the introduction of two new HP notebook design wins, new large-scale enterprise deployments, and the expansion of HP adoption of AMD FreeSync technology in its notebooks and displays. The 6th Generation AMD PRO A-Series processors, which efficiently integrate extensive AMD CPU, graphics, security, and video processing IP into a single SoC design, will now power two new HP 600 series ProBooks.

The HP ProBook 645 14-inch and HP ProBook 655 15.6-inch notebooks allow businesses to equip their workforces with widely configurable and extremely cost-effective HP notebook PCs, enabling executive-class collaboration and professional-grade capabilities. Containing AMD PRO A-Series processors with brilliant AMD Radeon graphics, Windows 10, robust DDR3 memory, and professional-grade peripheral devices, these HP ProBooks create a top-of-the-line user experience.
"We are pleased to continue strengthening our relationship with HP through the latest HP ProBook design wins," said Jim Anderson, senior vice president and general manager, Computing and Graphics Business Group at AMD. "We've seen positive consumer and commercial response to our 6th Generation A-Series processors and the recent announcements by HP, along with AMD technology adoption by global companies and the popularity of AMD systems during the holiday season, help confirm the strength of our product."

"AMD and HP continue to innovate in both commercial and consumer computing with the ongoing adoption of the latest generation of AMD processors," said Steve Sinclair, VP Commercial Notebook Product Management, HP. "Businesses can confidently deploy AMD-powered HP notebooks, which combine support for legacy features that provide long-term stability with modern security for today's business world. Consumers can also reap the benefits of this innovation with notebooks that provide the features -- like long battery life and responsive graphics -- that they are looking for."

6th Generation AMD A-Series processors powering the workplace
Market momentum for joint AMD and HP solutions is seen in the continued adoption of HP laptops powered by AMD processors by companies around the world. For example, ISS, a global facilities services provider with 511,000 employees in 77 countries, recently equipped employees with HP EliteBooks powered by AMD PRO A-Series processors in an effort to standardize global operations, increase sustainability and innovate business-efficient office environments.

Brink's, a global leader in security-related services with customers in more than 100 countries, wanted an IT solution that offered outstanding stability and mobility, and found it in the HP EliteBook 700 series, also powered by AMD. Stability is critical to supporting Brink's all-day, every-day workforce with mobile-ready features, and industry leading manageability that drives nonstop productivity. The innovative AMD PRO A-Series processor architecture offers all-day battery life, power and efficiency optimized for employees all around the world.

AMD FreeSync adoption
Additionally, HP plans to enable AMD FreeSync technology support for its consumer-focused HP Envy 15z laptops powered by 6th Generation AMD A-Series processors. AMD FreeSync technology resolves the communication issues between processor and monitor to eliminate stutter and tearing, providing a smoother image. HP anticipates having AMD FreeSync-enabled HP Envy 15z laptops available in the first half of 2016, and plans to enable AMD FreeSync support across its entire consumer laptop line-up powered by 6th Generation AMD A-Series processors in the second half of the year.

Personal and commercial HP notebooks powered by 6th Generation AMD A-Series processors are available now through major retailers.

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36 Comments on AMD Increases Notebook Market Traction

#1
GhostRyder
If the price is right, this will not be to bad a deal. I would not mind seeing a high end one with Freesync on something like a 1080p panel and giving it a whirl as a replacement for my current business laptop.
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#3
xfia
HSA in yo face!

@Assimilator just wait till they are supercharged with the shrink.
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#5
the54thvoid
Super Intoxicated Moderator
theoneandonlymrkAnyone reading that will find they conclude OEM's are kicking customers and amd in the nuts with poor circuit design and single channel memory support where dual channel is technically supported ,but that's the non fanboi summary.
Yeah, it's kind of an attack on AMD for not pushing a proper design envelope for their product. They need to stop allowing for OEM designs with cheap ass fabrics and build quality and have a premium version to let the hardware shine (a la Surface Pro 4).

Having 'cheap' AMD laptop models does not help AMD, it hampers them - they need to make some premium lines to let their hardware perform as it's intended.
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#6
Novaguy
Fwiw, HP was one of the few (ok, the only) OEM that was at least using a dual channel capable motherboard, so you can just buy another stick of memory in these. But otherwise, another wasted opportunity for AMD.
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#7
john_
AssimilatorLOL, and AnandTech did a review of AMD notebooks a few days ago and concluded that they're mediocre at best. anandtech.com/show/10000/who-controls-user-experience-amd-carrizo-thoroughly-tested
No. It showed that OEMS make really questionable choices with AMD laptops, like configuring the APU at 15W, put mediocre cooling systems, choose low speed DDR3L memory and even limit their designs to single channel memory. Then, on top of that, they put a stupid price tag on that laptop bringing Carrizo in the same price range against much pricier Intel chips.
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#8
Casecutter
I always wondered why AMD doesn't spec and show-case a laptop prototype the way they see their technology and use that as base to promote performance and pricing, much like Intel did with Ultrabook. Then provide those to every reviewer willing to test it with both other Carrizo OEM's and whatever appropriate Intel machine that are in the mix. Then say we expect this 15.6", 1080p FreeSync, back-lite keyboard, SSD or M2.... equipped Laptop to list for $XXX USD.

I mean they can spend money to build Project Quantum (with an Intel inside) to showcase a new strange form factor for Nano, but to promote high quality/performance/cost effective laptops they sit idly on the side lines.
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#9
HumanSmoke
the54thvoidYeah, it's kind of an attack on AMD for not pushing a proper design envelope for their product. They need to stop allowing for OEM designs with cheap ass fabrics and build quality and have a premium version to let the hardware shine (a la Surface Pro 4).
Having 'cheap' AMD laptop models does not help AMD, it hampers them - they need to make some premium lines to let their hardware perform as it's intended.
This has beena particular bugbear of mine for some time - the Catch-22 spiral of AMD's marketing -> OEM expectation -> User experience and product range.
HumanSmokeBut they do feed into each other as a Catch-22 situation. AMD aren't viewed as a first tier option by OEMs, thus OEMs downgrade the feature set and options of products using AMD hardware to have them fit into "the value option" - a marketing aspect AMD themselves foster. When (mostly) only lower feature sets are available to the consumer, the brand is then reinforced as the budget buy in the minds of those consumers. Look at any OEM dominated market and you will see AMD either disregarded entirely, or entrenched at the budget end of the product stack. The laptop market is exclusively OEM - How many top spec machines ( screen resolution, installed RAM, SSD options, high end components such as dual/multi-GPU options with the higher associated power and cooling BoM) are on the market featuring AMD hardware as opposed to Intel and Intel+Nvidia ?
The only difference now is that sites like Anandtech formally spell it out rather than isolated posts from individuals whose same observations get dismissed as "a whole pile of nothing" in favour of some vast global Illuminati-style conspiracy keeping AMD down at heel.
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#10
john_
What, you want an applause because AMD doesn't have a huge pile of money like Intel? Really? LOL. It is completely different to see a laptop with an HD Ready TN panel and a laptop that everything is wrong with it, not because of lower quality parts, but because of bad decisions. And then of top of that shoot in the face that "value option" with a high price tag. A year or more ago I was giving the example of an HP laptop with Kabini or Temash that was to come out at $199 and over night gone to $299. From an Atom killer became a ridiculous option. That's not "the value option" case. This looks more like a "I got a phone call yesterday" case. And yes we can ignore Intel's contra revenue program, insist that this is strictly for tablets and Intel is a saint in all other markets and start downgrading Intel's monopolistic tactics and known past as Illuminati conspiracies because that's what it is easy. In the end Anandtech's article shows that it is not just "the value option".
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#11
ShurikN
HBM Zen APU... Would love a notebook with that kind of power.
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#12
HumanSmoke
john_What, you want an applause because AMD doesn't have a huge pile of money like Intel?
No, just merely pointing out that the conclusion of Anandtech article should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone who follows the industry. I quoted my own post because -SURPRISE - I am more familiar with what, where, and in what context I wrote more than what others have written on the same subject.
The only caveats are that Anandtech only dealt with a fraction of the issue by highlighting Carrizo only, and ultimately sidestepped their own question and offered what amounted to a case-specific almost conclusion based on Carrizo only, and not the marketing, OEM relationships, or developments from previous product lines - such as the stagnation of AMD's mobile platforms once Kite/Puma got a bit long in the tooth, the Llano debacle (both overoptimistic promises on performance/features and overoptimistic schedule/product ramp), Intel's aggressive marketing, and a slavish devotion to the gate-first Common Platform alliance.
john_From an Atom killer became a ridiculous option. That's not "the value option" case. This looks more like a "I got a phone call yesterday" case. And yes we can ignore Intel's contra revenue program, insist that this is strictly for tablets and Intel is a saint in all other markets and start downgrading Intel's monopolistic tactics and known past as Illuminati conspiracies because that's what it is easy. In the end Anandtech's article shows that it is not just "the value option".
That's right it isn't just any one thing - and nobody except you seems to be trying to make that case.
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#13
geon2k2
theoneandonlymrkAnyone reading that will find they conclude OEM's are kicking customers and amd in the nuts with poor circuit design and single channel memory support where dual channel is technically supported ,but that's the non fanboi summary.
Exactly my thoughts, how on earth do you expect integrated GPU to work well with low frequency single channel memory?
That alone and made all the numbers pointless, especially as this APUs are soo memory starved even in dual channel config.

Also there was one which had a GPU, but guess what, it was not a Dual Graphics GPU. WTH?
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#14
TheGuruStud
Translation? So what everyone is saying is that intel is still doing backroom deals with OEMs to screw over AMD, but since it's not discussed in a contract, then they won't be sued.

Intel hasn't altered their business strategy or methods.

I don't know what the numbers are now, but I remember AMD selling 80% of retail desktop PCs a few years ago, even with all of 2-4 models on display, hidden in the back, while many intel models were front center. They've ALWAYS done the same thing with laptops, too.

There's a reason OEMs aren't pushing AMD, even though they can move more with cheaper price points. It seems, though, that they make them too cheap, but overcharge, so the better option is to pony up another 1-200 for the cheapo intel.
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#15
rruff
AssimilatorLOL, and AnandTech did a review of AMD notebooks a few days ago and concluded that they're mediocre at best. anandtech.com/show/10000/who-controls-user-experience-amd-carrizo-thoroughly-tested
The big problem I see is that the AMDs are all 35W chips that are throttled to 15W. They are technically more power hungry than Intel, but they solved this problem by slowing them down! Apparently the marketeers have decided this is the best way to sell them. Else they'd need to spend more on cooling.

I want my full 35W please! At least when it's plugged in. And fast dual channel ram.
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#16
HumanSmoke
TheGuruStudI don't know what the numbers are now, but I remember AMD selling 80% of retail desktop PCs a few years ago, even with all of 2-4 models on display, hidden in the back, while many intel models were front center. They've ALWAYS done the same thing with laptops, too.
You can't extrapolate a transitory spike in sales in 2006 to cover the whole long term market share of PC sales. If you remember semiconductors of early 2006, it became a perfect storm for AMD. Not only was their Athlon 64 X2 lineup stronger than Intel's P4, AMD also instituted massive price cuts across the range up to and including the same Q1 2006 (when they again cut prices 40-50%) where their market share spiked. You might also remember that as soon as Conroe arrived and the performance tables had once again turned, AMD instituted even larger price cutting. Selling much better performance for 50% less is a sure fire market share grabber. Selling less performance for less money not quite so much.

Intel's shenanigans certainly contributed to AMD's slump, but anyone thinking that Core2 did anything less than administer a barbed-wire enema to AMD's order book might not be fully in touch with reality.
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#17
TheGuruStud
No, I'm talking much more recent than then. Indeed 80% was from that long ago, but AMD has still sold 50% since then. Yet, OEMs continued to shove them to the back burner. The intel hammer came down HARD. And had been long before 2006. Marketshare declined the whole time during the reign of the athlon 64.

It's hard to find numbers, but I did find like 53% for 2009.
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#18
PLAfiller
I thought notebooks were dead as a platform, and their land inherited by cheapo and not-so-cheapo quad-core / octa-core android and recently windows tablets ? supplemented by a bluetooth keyboard. I mean nVidia dropped "ION" some time ago.
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#19
Frick
Fishfaced Nincompoop
lZKoceI thought notebooks were dead as a platform, and their land inherited by cheapo and not-so-cheapo quad-core / octa-core android and recently windows tablets ? supplemented by a bluetooth keyboard. I mean nVidia dropped "ION" some time ago.
Naaahhh. They still sell well afaik (depending on how you define "well"), especially the cheap ones. The only tablet + keyboard combo that is close to a laptop is the Surface/Pro, IMO.
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#20
xfia
yup notebooks do sell good..
you can even get them for free or heavily discounted if your a student
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#21
Casecutter
TheGuruStudTranslation? So what everyone is saying is that intel is still doing backroom deals with OEMs to screw over AMD, but since it's not discussed in a contract, then they won't be sued.
It's pretty obvious there's Intel's "official list price" for the counterparts to AMD... and then there's the, if you do their bidding there's a "discount" for finagling ways of making them (Intel) look good you'll end-up with different pricing now... and that can continue into the future... "partner". Intel has 10 way to Sunday to un-level the playing field and no big OEM is willing NOT to play it Intel's way given the uphill battle not having the discounted Intel products in their product lineup.

The interesting thing is Hp or Dell might use AMD components in a proprietary business laptop for some corporate customer who finds their software improves with AMD hardware. A OEM might build and sell a boat load of such laptops, but those sales fly below the radar as they're models not provide in the consumer marketplace. Though we hardly see the total in some end of the year marketing, even those wins don't move the needle much when judged against the consumer space volume.
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#22
xenocide
The laptops that AMD chips come in are always terrible. The biggest problem I have is they pride themselves on good GPU's but always come with 1366x768 screens which make everything look crappy anyway. Why are there no higher end laptops iwth at least 1080p screens that take advantage of AMD APU's extra GPU-muscle? If AMD is the one designing these setups they are doing a terrible job, if it's the OEM's they are clearly starting AMD at a disadvantage.
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#23
geon2k2
xenocideThe laptops that AMD chips come in are always terrible. The biggest problem I have is they pride themselves on good GPU's but always come with 1366x768 screens which make everything look crappy anyway. Why are there no higher end laptops iwth at least 1080p screens that take advantage of AMD APU's extra GPU-muscle? If AMD is the one designing these setups they are doing a terrible job, if it's the OEM's they are clearly starting AMD at a disadvantage.
On a small screen like 14-15 inch , 1366x768 is decent though, and in some ways I think better if you want to game on the integrated GPU.
Its always better to play at the native resolution than non-native.
And resolution will for sure have to be lowered for good frame-rates in some games as the APU is not really 1080p worthy.
They could do though, 1080p with dual graphics. :)
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#24
rruff
xenocide...they are clearly starting AMD at a disadvantage.
The disadvantage is that they are 35W chips throttled to 15W by the laptop manufacturers. The APU performance sucks at that point. At 35W they'd beat anything but Iris in graphics, and that would at least be a selling point compared to the Intel chips. But apparently a 35W cooling system is deemed too expensive.
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#25
geon2k2
rruffBut apparently a 35W cooling system is deemed too expensive.
And yet some managed to put 200W+, desktop GTX 980, in a laptop ...
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