AMD scores one on Intel in HP Pavilion

Hardware HP expands consumer line with digital imaging focus.

Hewlett Packard (HP) has further eroded its dependency on Intel after the US operation introduced a consumer line of PCs in its Pavilion range using processors from AMD as well as the chip giant.

The move signalled another coup for AMD against Intel, as vendor interest grows in the sub-$1,000 PC market.

HP's Pavilion 8300 range of PCs has a higher specification than other Pavilion models and comes with an extra dedicated serial port and bundled software designed for use with digital cameras.

This was the first time HP has attempted to link its digital camera business with PC products.

However, this range will not be made available in Europe because the European market for digital imaging products is not as mature as in the US.

Base configuration 8300 PCs come with a 333MHz Pentium II processor, but higher up the range some of the models use AMD's latest K6-2 processor, designed to run multimedia applications fast.

However, analysts noted that future versions of Intel's Celeron processor, due out in the fourth quarter, could undercut AMD's prices at a similar level of performance.

HP, like most top-tier vendors, has tended to favour Intel processors in its PCs. However, Compaq and IBM also use AMD processors as an alternative offering to Intel, but only within their consumer ranges. Prior to the takeover, Digital was the only big-name vendor to adopt AMD processors in its business range of PCs.

Compaq has recently deployed the K6-2 chip in its consumer notebooks.