Advanced Micro Devices along with several industry partners unveiled its AMD Commercial Stable Image Platform (AMD CSIP) program that is aimed at commercial organizations. The CSIP guarantees that within a period of 15 months system makers will supply a computer configuration based on fixed components. Similar program has been available for arch-rival Intel Corp.'s customers for years now. The move may improve adoption of AMD processors by enterprises.

The AMD CSIP program supports AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processors, AMD Athlon 64 processors and AMD Turion 64 mobile chips. AMD has joined forces with several partners supporting AMD CSIP, including chipset developers ATI Technologies and NVIDIA Corp., network chip designers Atheros and Broadcom, as well as mainboard manufacturers ASUS, ECS, Gigabyte and MSI.

AMD CSIP commenced the 15-month stability period September 1 for desktop and mobile PCs with select AMD processors, as well as stable-image drivers, chipsets and mainboards. Motherboards participating in the AMD CSIP program will become available during Q4 2005. The AMD CSIP program initially will be available to select system builders and OEMs in Europe and North America, with broader availability expected in early 2006.

A consistent and key condition for the commercial market is disk image stability which allows IT organizations to focus on supporting a single, stable platform, reducing the number of disk images, and in turn, helping to reduce overall IT support costs. With disk image stability, businesses can create and maintain a standardized software image consisting of hardware drivers, application software and an operating system. This software image can then be applied when new PCs are deployed without the concern of incompatibilities between hardware and software.

AMD currently offers top to bottom solutions for thin client computing with the AMD Geode processor, as well as high-performing workstation solutions, and a backbone for server-based computing with the AMD Opteron processor. Together with customers and partners, AMD can now offer OEMs a complete portfolio of commercial client computing solutions with platforms including managed PCs, blade PCs, high-performance workstations, and thin clients.