Laptop Thoughts: AMD Fires Back At Intel

"AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced the widely anticipated launch of its 2nd-Generation AMD A-Series Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) for mainstream and ultrathin notebooks, All-in-One and traditional desktops, home theater PCs and embedded designs. The 2nd-Generation A-Series APU, codenamed “Trinity”, is a grounds-up improved design over the previous generation, enabling a best-in-class PC mobility, entertainment, and gaming experience."

For decades, we have seen AMD and Intel fight each other over the x86 CPU market. Intel will produce a blazing fast CPU, AMD will release one that's even better. This flip flop happens every so often, but it has now become more complicated with the inclusion of integrated graphics. Integration was bound to happen, after watching all other components like hard drive controllers, lan controllers and sound all being folded into smaller and smaller circuitry. Ignoring price, Intel seems to be holding down the fort in terms of CPU performance, however, the increasing utilization of the GPU means that AMD's solutions are very compelling. Ivy Bridge does show that Intel is slowly catching up in thsi space, but when it comes to graphics or parallel processing, the Radeon graphics that AMD offers still bests Intel. If you are looking to build your own computer, or even deciding what to pick out, the choice of which company to go with keep getting harder.