AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced development of DTX, an open
standard specification designed by AMD to enable the broad adoption of
small form factor PCs. The DTX standard will be designed to empower
OEMs, ODMs, and component vendors to deliver innovative solutions to
market that are smaller, quieter, and desktop-friendly, while
leveraging commonalities within the ecosystem that benefit both
customers and end users. The DTX standard will take advantage of the
existing ATX infrastructure and benefits, including cost efficiency,
system options and backward-compatibility, to allow for
ground-breaking PC design. A review copy of the DTX specifications is
planned to be made available by AMD in Q1 2007.
"As a customer-centric company, AMD is constantly evaluating
platforms and working with its ecosystem partners to bring innovation
to the market in a way that minimizes disruption," said Bob Brewer,
corporate vice president, Desktop Division, AMD. "To help meet this
need, AMD is taking the initiative to define an open standard for
small form factor designs. The DTX specification will be designed to
allow the broad ecosystem to develop small form factor solutions and
deliver new, innovative and cost-effective systems to both businesses
and consumers."
The DTX standard will be designed to embrace energy-efficient
processors from AMD or other hardware vendors, and allow an optimally
designed small form factor system to consume less power and generate
less noise. When processor power consumption is reduced, system size
and cooling costs can also go down. Energy efficient processors can
also help extend the longevity of PCs, while offering consumer and
business users a quiet, more pleasant experience in their offices or
living rooms.
OEMs will also be able to enjoy the inherent cost benefits of
standardization. With the DTX open standard specification, the
potential exists for the small form factor market to reap the similar
benefits to what the ATX standard has done for the desktop market in
recent years.
DTX will be designed to provide improved motherboard layout
standardization, while being sensitive to the needs of OEMs, ODMs, and
component vendors. As the desktop market moves to lower thermal design
power (TDP) processors and works to lower costs, an eye to balancing
interchangeability of components with small form factor products
becomes critical. In addition, DTX chassis vendors can help mitigate
the financial risk associated with proprietary small form factor
designs by offering DTX-standard products to the channel, in either
component form or as bare-bones systems. The general DTX specification
will only define a minimum set of parameters necessary for
interoperability, freeing vendors to innovate.
-- DTX, which will allow up to four motherboards - for low cost -
per standard printed circuit board manufacturing panel sizes;
and
-- Mini-DTX, which will allow up to six motherboards - for low
cost - per standard printed circuit board manufacturing panel
sizes;
-- DTX motherboards can be manufactured in as few as four-layers
of printed circuit board wiring for motherboard cost savings.
-- By leveraging backward-compatibility with ATX infrastructure,
vendors may gain a low-cost DTX product offering with little
development expense.
"ASUS is pleased to work with AMD again to bring more innovation
on desktop solutions, leveraging production efficiencies that will be
available with the open DTX standard," said Joe Hsieh, Vice President
of ASUS MB Business Unit. "Together with ASUS' excellent design and
manufacturing ability, end users will enjoy a sleek and cool desktop
computing experience using our motherboards."
"We applaud AMD's commitment to open standards in developing
specifications that enable powerful system options and is
backward-compatible with the existing ATX infrastructure," said Norman
Tsai, EPS Sales vice president, MSI. "MSI is dedicated to enabling
customers to deliver innovative systems with minimal requirements or
disruptions."
The market pull for small form factors PCs is of particular
interest in the small and medium business (SMB) and consumer markets
that value the size advantage, power savings, and quiet nature of
energy-efficient systems.
"The evolution of desktop systems into smaller form factors with
lower thermal design power is a major step forward for the PC industry
as a whole," said Bob O'Donnell, program vice president, Clients and
Displays, IDC. "OEMs and ODMs will be able to design new PCs that take
up less space and are more aesthetically pleasing through the use of
motherboard specifications promoting energy efficiency and smaller
form factor designs. This will translate to better differentiated and
more competitive solutions for their customers."
About AMD
Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) is a leading global provider of
innovative processing solutions in the computing, graphics and
consumer electronics markets. AMD is dedicated to driving open
innovation, choice and industry growth by delivering superior
customer-centric solutions that empower consumers and businesses
worldwide. For more information, visit www.amd.com.
AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, and combinations thereof are trademarks
of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Other names are for informational
purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.
