AMD pairs with GTSI

Advanced Micro Devices officials are hoping to expand their reach into the federal market with a new partnership with reseller GTSI, and through a new dual-core, 64-bit processor that will be available in coming weeks.

Officials at the chipmaker announced the partnership at the FOSE trade show in Washington, D.C., and also took advantage of the show to promote the new processors.

Federal users get AMD’s technology when they buy servers and desktop computers from the company’s vendor partners, mostly Hewlett Packard, IBM and Sun, said Rick Indyke, AMD’s federal business development manager. However, even though end users don’t buy processor chips directly, Indyke and his team spend time talking to them and understanding their current and future needs, he said.

It’s part of what AMD calls the “Triple A” strategy — awareness, acceptance and adoption. Awareness among users leads to acceptance from the computer makers who buy chips, and that leads to adoption as end users buy the computers.

Through the partnership with GTSI, AMD personnel will train GTSI’s sales staff so that GTSI’s team can talk to government officials with more authority about the capabilities of AMD technology, Indyke said.

AMD’s new dual-core chip runs faster than a traditional chip, while drawing the same power and generating the same amount of heat, Indyke said. That means that information technology managers will be able to increase the computing power of their data centers without having to provide more electricity or cooling.

A dual-core chip is essentially like having two processors on one component, taking up the same space as a single-core processor. AMD officials plan to release dual-core versions of both their Opteron and Athlon chips by summer.