Another hint from AMD that Fusion aims above IGPs

Tuesday 11th September 2007, 02:08:00 PM, written by Geo

Speaking at an Australian tech show, an AMD spokesperson suggested that Fusion based systems, expected to ship in late 2008 or early 2009, will initially focus on the integrated notebook market. This kind of thinking has been expressed before from the AMD camp, so by itself it is not news. However, the spokesperson then went on to offer as expectations that the graphics performance of said Fusion would be similar to "mid-to-high-range" graphics cards of today. Further, that "perhaps" the cost would be marginally higher than current integrated solutions for notebooks.

Well now, let's conjure with that, shall we? First, while "mid-to-high-range" performance sounds fantastic, when one considers that he's referring to the performances of today's graphics cards as seen from the perspective of early 2009. . . well, let's just say that it's one of those formulations that requires one to get it exactly right or it's entirely wrong --like, for instance, "best hitting left-handed second baseman from the Dominican Republic". Second, "mid-to-high-range" is quite some range! Is it HD 2900 XT performance or HD 2600 Pro performance suggested to be on offer here? Makes a bit of a difference, no? To be conservative let's guess he's more suggesting 2600 XT kind of performance here, in a notebook integrated solution in early 2009 for "perhaps" a bit more jingle than a typical integrated graphics notebook today. Well, sign us up for liking that formulation if they can deliver it.

Having said that, there is a bit of risk here for AMD. Trying to create a new market segment is always a bit risky, and sometimes it works out gloriously and sometimes it works out with some other less-than-happy adverb ending with a "ly". One can remember, for instance, ATI's surprise to discover with their early chipsets that market was much more interested in defending their price points than in having a better mousetrap for just a little bit more. When that happens, margins tend to end up in the toilet.

Having said that, anyone who has priced integrated graphics notebooks vs more capable discrete graphics notebooks knows there is typically a pretty decent size price gap there that Fusion may be able to fill nicely and to significant market penetration if they can keep the prices closer to the IGP end of the current range. Such a development might make things very uncomfortable for discrete graphics solutions in the lower half of the notebook market.

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