AMD’s Technology Forum held at Singapore last April 29 contained many surprises, not least of all was the Business Class initiative, announced a day earlier. The forum covered this initiative in detail, listing down its specific features, components, and benefits to the business user. For a full overview, do point your clickers at this link: Paradigm.

The Business Class initiative comes at the heels of AMD’s recent release of the fixed Phenom quad cores, and the release of Phenom X3 processors. Current AMD focus on balanced computing platforms give this initiative a very good foundation from which to build up a stable, balanced and practical brand from scratch and to garner a different kind of market share from the usual one-upmanship at the high end of the market.

                                             Terry Makedon - Manager of Software Product Management describes how Catalyst Drivers can ensure stability in their Radeon products.

I say “from scratch” but actually, AMD has been hard at work gathering support from some of the industry’s biggest names, namely HP, Dell, and Fujitsu. Other companies like Sun Microsystems, Cray, and IBM who has already embraced the Barcelona processors in their server and business machines, may not be far behind. What attracted these names to the Business Class initiative were the following promises: exceptional Stability and Longevity, Performance and Energy Efficiency, and Essential Management and Security. These may sound like typical marketing fluff, but each and every word has a solid basis to it, backed by AMD’s obvious need right now for a leveling of the normal playing field so that they can compete with their blue rivals, and not just in the high-end of the market.

                                             The components of the Business Class computers.

Starting with Stability and Longevity, AMD hit on the most important of a business buyer’s many concerns for a computer system investment. According to studies made by HP, the most important concern of corporate buyers is image stability - the ability to use the same image for the same kind of computer setup on any of their corporate PCs, saving on re-installation, setup and configuration of the individual PCs every time some type of problem occurs. By creating one image for all PCs in a networked environment, any installation or repair process is much speeded up. This is only possible if the original specification of computer system remains available for purchase a long way down the road, and support for said product remains available. AMD is committed to this ideal, and with the Business Class has made moves to do so in an organized and practical manner. Up to 24-months of longevity is a promise that comes with their business Class machines, and coupled with a stable CPU socket infrastructure, makes these machines a smart, long term buy, especially important for the public sector, large enterprise, and SMB IT pros / administrators.

                                              Processors to be utilized under the Business class name.

Performance and Energy Efficiency is obvious, but the underlying technology isn’t. The very series of processors makes sure that all possible user classes are catered to – Single core up to quad core processors are available depending on the customer’s requirements, whether simple data entry, knowledge worker or for specialized, computing intensive tasks. A slew of certifications and “background” technologies like Energy Star 4.0, Cool ‘n’ Quiet, and ATI Powerplay originally meant for power sipping notebooks’ use, are all present in the series. When combined with some of AMD’s most energy efficient core processes such as the 45w and 65w processors found on AMD’s “B” series roadmap, these machines speak of value performance with energy efficiency that will reward the user with a long term value realized after cost savings through less power usage over the product’s lifetime.

                                             Interoperability and compliance is a primary concern; AMD supports open standards to promote ease of use.

Essential Management and Security is less a feature and more an ongoing process, all of it based on interoperability and open standards that give no advantage to AMD or to the system builder, and all the benefits to the computer buyer. An open standard simply means that IT managers and administrators spend less time trying to get one system to work with another and more time actually maintaining the system on its daily use – it makes sure that all standards are up to DMTF – Distributed Management Task Force levels, making sure that security standards support IT environments rather than force them to work with limited proprietary technology. Web services management, another fast growing section of business that requires specialized infrastructure to function correctly, uses DASH (Desktop and Mobile Architecture for System Hardware), a suite of specifications supported and being developed by AMD. In other words, AMD supports a policy of openness to the benefit of its customers, making it easy for them manage their systems within a secure envelope and reducing complexity when two complex IT environments needs to communicate and/or merge.

AMD’s Business Class may not be the headline-grabbing development like a Core2 Quad beating Phenom or Stars processor would have been, but it is important information and a huge step for AMD nonetheless. As one of AMD’s initial offerings based on their decision of developing balanced solutions for their customers, the Business Class is set to start a trend of practical computing that doesn’t rely on just the strength of one component but rather on the combined, enhanced capabilities of a harmonious platform.