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Updated at 9:00 p.m. with additional comments on Netbooks at bottom.

In case you missed it, Advanced Micro Devices is passing on Netbooks. At least as Intel and its partners have defined the category.

In fact, a lot of the media outlets missed this point completely, insisting that AMD is going to go head-to-head with Intel on Netbook processors--apparently because it satisfies a journalistic boilerplate that AMD must, just must, have a direct response to Intel's Atom.

Just to set the record straight, here's what AMD Chief Executive Dirk Meyer said Thursday: "We're ignoring … Read more

Updated at 3:20 p.m. PST throughout with clarification of Yukon and Congo technologies

An AMD-based Netbook? Maybe, maybe not.

On Thursday at an analyst meeting, AMD disclosed "Yukon" and "Congo"--the names that AMD is giving to its silicon technology, due in 2009, that will target the "ultraportable" market. (The meeting was streamed live from the event.)

The company is being very careful to parse this as a more full-featured ultraportable PC play not a strict Netbook play.

The ideal ultraportable form factor is a MacBook Air-style design: very thin with a … Read more

Advanced Micro Devices on Thursday plans to discuss its strategy for ultraportables, a market where the chipmaker is a self-professed laggard.

Whether AMD targets Netbooks specifically or a different design isn't clear. But the company must contend with the fact that Netbooks have become a market sensation during the last year. The Asus Eee PC demonstrated quickly that there was latent demand for a small, low-cost, lightweight laptop-style computer.

Every major PC maker--with the exception of Sony--followed suit, including Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba, and Acer. And Microsoft has made it clear that a version of Windows 7 will be stripped … Read more