AMD resellers are ambassadors

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has admitted its acceptance into the corporate PC market by tier-one manufacturers will depend on the ability of its channel to convince vendors of its quality.

AMD has an expanding base of PC vendors using chips in consumer desktops, but it is fighting an uphill battle to have its processors used in business machines.

To date, Digital has been the only global vendor to use AMD chips in its old Venturis line of corporate PCs. Rana Mainee, AMD European market analyst and planning manager, insisted the vendor was talking to other PC suppliers but said progress was slow. 'On the consumer side, it was easier We just had to talk to retailers and they helped convince the vendors,' he said.

Mainee conceded that having distributors and resellers in the corporate market meant double the effort.

AMD's contract with Digital was not seen as secure for the future, with the deal thrown into confusion as a result of the Compaq-Digital merger.

Compaq has been one of the companies most resistant to using AMD chips.

Michael Winkler, Compaq senior VP and group general manager, recently said: 'We see a preference for Intel-branded PCs at the commercial level.

We will be using the Celeron as our entry-level commercial chip.'

According to Mainee, AMD will launch the K6 II, its answer to the Pentium II, in the UK on 29 May. It will also announce OEM partners.

AMD will also resume production of notebook processors, which it abandoned last year after K5 and K6 supply troubles.