AMD has been enhancing the marketing of its processors in DIY markets and aims to increase its global DIY market share from about 30% currently to 40%, and to reach a DIY market share above 45% in China in particular, at the end of 2014, according to Taiwan-based motherboard makers.

The sources pointed out that AMD's new Kaveri-based products are expected to appear in early January 2014 with mass shipments starting in February. However, AMD declined to comment about unannounced products and market speculation.

Because of the strong price/performance ratio of its FM3- and FM1-based products, AMD's share in China's DIY market has increased significantly from 30-35% in early 2013 to close to 45% recently. However, low gross margins, due to low pricing, meant the products did not benefit the company much in terms of profitability, the sources said.

With orders from Sony's PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Xbox One, as well as strong sales of its latest Radeon R9 and R7 series GPUs, AMD's fourth-quarter performance is expected to stay strong, the sources noted.

AMD's Kaveri APUs will succeed previous-generation Richland-based APUs. The processors are made by Globalfoundries on a 28nm process, targeting performance and mainstream desktop markets, the sources said.

AMD is also expected to release the Beema APU series in 2014, taking over the Kabini series released at the end of May 2013. The Beema series features a Puma+ architecture. AMD will also release a new Kabini-based series featuring socket FS1B and targeting emerging markets such as China, the sources said.

AMD has also planned several processors including the quad-core Athlon 5350/5150, Sempron 3850 and dual-core Sempron 2650, featuring 25W power consumption, for its socket FS1B family, targeting Intel's entry-level desktop processors such as the Pentium J2850, Celeron J1850 and J1750, as the major competitors, the sources noted.

In 2015, AMD will release Carrizo and Nolan APU series to replace Kaveri and Beema, respectively, both adopting Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA) designs. The Carrizo will support Socket FM2 and feature AMD's Excavator CPU architecture and pair with A88x/A78 chipsets, the sources added.

AMD has been clearing inventories of its FM1 and AM3 series processors since the beginning of fourth-quarter 2013 and the two series are expected to completely phase out from the market in the first quarter of 2014, leaving only AM3+-, FM2- and FS1B-based processors. Currently, FM2-based processors account for over 80% of AMD's total shipments with the FS1B series only contributing a limited share. By the end of 2014, the FS1B series' share is expected to climb to about 20%, the sources pointed out.

As for the chipsets, AMD is using its 990FX and 990X to compete against Intel's Z77, Z87 and H87, while the A85X and A88X are targeting Intel's B75 and B85. AMD's A55 is competing mainly against Intel's H61, while the 760G has already been phased out of the market, the sources noted.

By: DocMemory
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