AMD Intros Entertainment Platform Live!

by Anton Shilov
05/31/2006 | 08:42 AM

Advanced Micro Devices on Wednesday finally unveiled its platform designed to digital entertainment enthusiasts – the highly-anticipated AMD Live! initiative. Personal computers (PCs) that carry AMD Live! moniker are direct competitors to those, powered by Intel’s Viiv platform unveiled earlier this year. But Live! is not just a set of hardware: AMD provides a number of services and software apps along with Live! PCs.

“With the AMD Live! PC, AMD begins delivering on its vision for merging broadcast TV content with interactive, personalized broadband applications and services, all without disrupting the devices already accepted and used by consumers in their homes today,” said said Bob Brewer, corporate vice president, desktop business, AMD.

AMD did not publicly provide any concrete requirements for computers carrying AMD Live! logotype, but said that the systems should be capable of streaming music “through entertainment center”, viewing and sharing photos on the TV, burning recorded TV shows, videos, music and pictures to a DVD or CD, or transfer this same content to a notebook, portable media player (PMP) or personal digital assistant (PDA).

Confidential documents by AMD oblige AMD Live! and AMD Live! Entertainment personal computers to feature dual-core energy efficient AMD Athlon 64 X2 processors in AM2 form-factor, high definition 5.1 audio, Gigabit Ethernet, processor cooling-system fan control capability and some other requirements. The systems should run Windows XP Media Center Edition operating system.

The first solutions to be offered in the AMD Live! Entertainment Suite include the following:

• AMD Live! On Demand powered by Orb Networks: a service that streams live or pre-recorded television programs, photos, music and movies to many common Web-connected devices;
• AMD Live! Compress: a tool that optimizes recorded television content in order to save space and time, enabling customers to save up to 10 times as many TV shows on their PC;
• AMD Live! Network Magic: an easy to use service that allows users to set up, manage and secure their home network;
• AMD Live! LogMeIn: a service providing users the ability to remotely control their AMD Live! PC to obtain access to content, files and programs from anywhere;
• AMD Live Media Vault: a service that can automatically back-up users’ digital content collection to a secure online server. Once registered and activated, AMD Live! PC users will receive 25GB of free storage to store their personal photos, home movies and music collections.

System makers including Acer, Alienware, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Gateway, HP, Sahara, and Tsinghua Tongfang, as well as system builders in North America, Western Europe, and China, will have AMD Live! PCs starting in June, according to AMD.