AMD gets into a corporate desktop, kinda

For years, I've waited and waited for AMD to land one of its chips into a corporate desktop from one of the Big Three manufacturers, and they have, in a way.

The Hewlett-Packard DX 5150, which runs an AMD Athlon chip, has for the last several months come with a 3/3/3 warranty, which means HP gives a three year warranty on parts, labor and next day service.

Back in 2004, the predecessor to the 5150, the D325 and D315, came with a three year parts warranty, but only one year warranties on labor and next day service.

The warranty is one of the differentiating features between a corporate PC and one for the small businesses of this world. A substantial number of PCs used to come with full three year warranties, but they were expensive to maintain so the manufacturers ratcheted them back.

Other differences between medium-sized business PCs and corporate PCs exist. Corporate boxes, for instance, come with manageability tools as standard, while they are often optional on small business boxes. In HP's case, the 5000 series of desktops comes with manageability tools that are similar to the ones found in the 7000, HP's traditional corporate line.

The 7000, though, also comes with an integrated security chip that encrypts documents. The 5000 comes with a Kensington cable lock. Many people, however, never exploit the power of security chips, so in some ways it's not a hugely significant difference.

The 5000 line is also touted primarily as a small- to medium-sized business box. Still, David Hemphill, product marketing manager for business PCs for HP, said that the company will sell both 5000 series PCs and the 7000 series PCs to large enterprises. HP also offers the 5150 as a stable image machine, which means the configuration won't change for 12 months. Usually, this is something corporate IT departments request. (The 7000 sports 15 plus months of stability. Most vendors will offer anything from 12 to 18 months.)

In other words, the 5000 technically isn't a corporate box, but it could pass for one and not everyone would notice the difference.

This may not be the grand entrance to the corporate world that swingin' Jerry Sanders, AMD's founder, used to talk about, but AMD has, for the most part, can say it has made it into the club.