Toshiba, the world’s fourth-largest laptop PC maker, is expected to buy microprocessors from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) for about 20 percent of the notebooks it sells in the United States and Europe, which account for about 60 percent of its overall PC operations. It includes three Satellite laptops using AMD’s dual-core mobile Turion 64 X2 processor and AMD’s M690 core-logic chipset.
With this announcement, Toshiba is ending its exclusive agreement with Intel Corp. that began in 2001. Intel was the provider for the chips that power most of its laptop computers. Toshiba last used AMD’s chips around seven years ago.
“The use of Advanced Micro’s chips will lead to a reduction in procurement costs. Lower costs and a possible increase in sales during the Christmas shopping season may help improve profitability at Toshiba’s computer business” said Yuichi Ishida, an analyst at Mizuho Investors Securities Co.
The number of Toshiba laptop PCs loaded with AMD chips can be calculated at about 1.1 million units a year as Toshiba’s overall notebook PC shipments came to 9.2 million units in 2006, according to research firm IDC.
According to Toshiba spokeswoman Yuko Sugahara, Toshiba plans to put AMD chips in moderate-priced standard models for individual and corporate clients.
However, Toshiba is expected to continue using Intel on their high performance machines.
