Advanced Micro Devices continues to broaden R&D operations. This week the company announced the establishment of an engineering laboratory housed in AMD Japan’s Tokyo headquarters.

The AMD Japan Engineering Laboratory plans to hire 15 to 20 engineers over the next 12 to 18 months. The new lab is expected to contribute to AMD’s mobile processor platform design activities to achieve an expanded presence in thin and light notebook PCs, as well as consumer electronics and communication devices that require extremely low power.

The Japanese market has been at the forefront of mobile computing for several years, with notebook PCs outselling desktop units since 2001. The preference for notebooks and other mobile computing solutions among Japanese customers has continued unabated. In 2003, the notebook segment comprised nearly 55% of the Japanese PC market and continues to expand.

The Japan Engineering Lab initially will be managed by Steve Polzin, Sr. AMD Fellow and Chief Platform Architect. Lab engineers will support electrical, thermal and silicon design disciplines, contributing to the development of Mobile AMD Athlon 64 processors, AMD Alchemy Solutions and AMD Geode Solutions. As part of AMD’s customer-centric design effort, the engineering team will work closely with the company’s silicon engineering teams in Austin and Dresden, as well as platform engineering teams in Austin and Taipei.

Earlier this year AMD established processors’ design lab in India.