Lenovo and AMD strike desktop partnership

Lenovo Inc. has opened its door to a limited range of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD)-based computers with the debut of three desktop models powered by Athlon64 and Sempron processors.

Part of its new Lenovo 3000 range, they are aggressively priced to target the budget small and medium-sized business (SMB) market. All three models are available for less than A$900 (US$670), although they don't include monitors.

The AMD-based desktops would be tagged with the model number J105, according to Lenovo product strategist, David Nicol. A similar desktop powered by an Intel Corp. Pentium 4 processor would be labelled J100.

With a price difference of $430 between the base model J105 and J100, Nicol said the AMD and Intel models would reach different market segments.

The base model J105 is powered by a second-tier AMD Sempron chip running at 1.6GHz; the J100 runs on a 3GHz Intel Pentium 4.

"We don't think the J105 range will cannibalize our Intel sales and have no interest in switching people from Intel to AMD," Nicol said.

He wouldn't speculate on what portion of future Lenovo desktop sales would be AMD machines.

AMD national sales manager, Caleb Leung, was enthusiastic about the introduction of his company's processors into Lenovo products.

"AMD processors have been perceived as being for the gamer or consumer market, so this is a good opportunity to show we mean business by providing a platform for SMBs," he said.

AMD already partners with HP on commercial products as well as with Acer, Asus HP and MSI in the consumer market.

Nicol quashed suggestions that a pair of upcoming Lenovo 3000 notebooks might also have AMD derivatives, and said the C100 and N100 models were Intel-based devices.