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AMD Prepares Move to ?Seattle,? Its First ARM Chip

Advanced Micro Devices has been using the same technology foundation as Intel since the 1980s. Now the underdog chip supplier is fleshing out plans to diverge.

 

The company on Tuesday is announcing ?Seattle,? the code name for a new chip based on the ARM Holdings designs that prevail in smartphones and tablets. But AMD is aiming the microprocessor at server systems, a market where low power consumption is becoming nearly as important as in mobile devices.

 

Its shift is not a surprise. AMD, whose minority share has withered in so-called x86 server chips that Intel also sells, has since early 2012 been signaling plans to augment that product line.

 

Nor will AMD be the first to field an ARM chip for servers. Rival Applied Micro Circuits in April said it is shipping sample quantities of what it calls a ?server on a chip? called X-Gene.

 

AMD does not expect to deliver samples of Seattle until the first quarter of 2014, with commercial quantities arriving in the second half of that year.

 

 

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