Atom has been one of Intel's most prominent successes in recent times. The platform has impressed many for its technical achievements if not pure sales, with analysts and enthusiasts alike seeing it as being a big part of future hardware sales. AMD has publicly denied interest in the netbook segment where Atom is king, questioning the usefulness of these devices, but as the market matures the company knows it needs to come up with an answer.

CEO Dirk Meyer outlined some rough plans AMD has, including what sort of hardware to expect and what that hardware is intended to do. The company is going to unveil a new platform in the near future intended to directly compete with Atom, the primary selling points being low power consumption, a small profile and a cheaper price than Intel's offerings. The platform will be distinct from Puma and Tigris, AMD's mainstream notebook platforms.

It will not be considered a “netbook” platform, however, with Meyer expressing doubt that the term will even exist for much longer due to the blurring lines between higher-performance notebook hardware and lower-end netbook hardware. No other details were revealed about AMD's upcoming platform, which is expected to be released sometime next year.