AMD takes aim at small businesses

AMD has kicked off an initiative to challenge Intel’s dominance of the corporate desktop. Dubbed Business Class, the new initiative will take in single-core to quad-core processors and motherboards based on either the AMD 780V chipset or Nvidia MCP78 chipset, and will offer a guaranteed period of product availability, driver stability, and extended warranties.

The initiative includes Athlon, Athlon X2, Phenom X3, and Phenom X4 processors – all with the suffix 'B' appended to them but they are otherwise the same as existing consumer parts. The key point of this, however, is the guaranteed 18 to 24-month availability for CPUs and chipsets as well as the three-year warranty, opening the door for longer lifecycles when it comes to a business’ computing infrastructure. Such longevity may not sound like much in the rapidly-evolving consumer market, but it’s something corporations like a lot, a stable platform that does not change for a reasonable period of time.