Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Advanced Micro Devices announced the formation of two separate business units Monday that will function under the wings of its Memory Group.
The Memory Group develops Flash memory products, one of AMD’s biggest money makers.
According to AMD, the Embedded and Wireless Business units were formed to bolster sales within emerging markets for high-density Flash memory products.
Intel is AMD’s closest rival in the Flash memory sector, an area of business where demand for memory products in the wireless and embedded systems markets is on the rise.
The new business units will focus on existing relationships with cell phone manufacturers, as well as high-end entertainment systems, networking products, and the auto industry, the company said.
AMD’s Flash product line includes its newest MirrorBit technology, a double-capacity Flash memory chip that stores two bits of data per cell as opposed to multilevel-cell technology, which stores only one bit of data per cell.
MirrorBit began shipping in July of this year, bringing AMD into direct competition with Intel’s StrataFlash technology which has been on the market for several years now.
To lead the new ventures, AMD has tapped Amir Mashkoori as vice president and general manager of the Embedded Business unit.
Dr. Bertrand Cambou, group vice president of AMD’s Memory Group, will lead the Wireless Business unit.
Stephen Lapinski has been named vice president of system engineering and strategic alliances for the Memory Group, and Ian Williams has been named vice president of customer operations for the Memory Group.
In a similar announcement, AMD unveiled three new development board kits for its Alchemy Solutions processor family.
The DBAu1000, DBAu1500, and DBAu1100 are hardware and software systems that integrate processors, memory, and peripherals onto a single board, along with debugging assist features and software, that enable customers to develop and test both hardware and software components.
Depending on the type of board, the new kits feature 64MB SDRAM, MirrorBit Flash Memory, 10/100 Ethernet PHY, USB host/device connectors, Interface to static memory bus, LED’s for system activity and software debug, EJTAG connections to the processor, Yamon boot monitor and debugger, Windows CE .NET, VxWorks, and embedded Linux demonstration images.
According to AMD, the new boards are available now.