AMD to roll out Athlon64 combo offer with Kobian

AMD is furthering its alliance with Kobian India to roll out the
Athlon64-based motherboards. This three-in-one combo offer will give systems
integrators and solution providers with the high-end Athlon64 processor, a heat
sink with CPU fan along with the Kobian motherboard.

The roll-out is likely to take place in the AMJ quarter and comes close on
the heels of a similar initiative for the Duron processor. The price of the
Ath-lon64 combo offer have not been decided, though it is likely to be much
lower than stand-alone Athlon64 processor.

"The USP of this offer is that this will be the first time the Athlon64
processors will be available in a box pack with the motherboard," informed
San-jeev Keskar, Country Manager, AMD Far East Ltd (India). Additionally, prices
for the combo products will be much lower than processors available in the tray.

AMD feels that these combo packs offer a value platform for solution
providers, especially if the systems are being integra-ted for the home and SOHO.

Sunil Sharma, MD, Kobian India, added, "It is a cost-effe-ctive pack
where the solution partner does not have to hunt separately for the pro-cessor
and a compatible motherboard."

But won’t the availability of the combo packs affect the sales of the
stand-alone proce-ssors, which are sold By AMD’s four national distributors?
"No," asserted Keskar. The distis –Neoteric Infomatique, Tech
Pacific, Abacus Peripherals and Priya Ltd–will continue to sell the tray-based
Duron and Athlon processors.

"The combo packs is just our endeavor to position our products to a new
customer segment, which are the cost-effective budget buyers," explained
Keskar. Agreed Viren Gujurati, Product Manager (AMD), Neoteric Infomatique,
"I think it will click in smaller cities, where people are looking for very
low cost options like a Rs 12K-Rs 15K system."

AMD has no plans to tie up with any other motherboard manufacturer, for
similar combo pack offers. "The reason we selected Kobian is because it has
a local manufacturing base with good production capacity," clarified Keskar.

Kobian will provide a two-year replacement warranty for the mobos and a one
-year war-ranty, as per AMD’s global war-ranty policy, for the processor.
Sharma acknowledged that this disparity between the warranty periods between the
two prod-ucts within the same pack, co-uld give rise to post-sales supp-ort
problems. But he adds that in the assembling business, partners have to deal
with variable warranties of different components.

Vinita Suvarna Bhatia

Mumbai (CyberMedia News)