AMD Live lives at long last

Dan Ackerman Editorial Director / Computers and Gaming

Dan Ackerman leads CNET's coverage of computers and gaming hardware. A New York native and former radio DJ, he's also a regular TV talking head and the author of "The Tetris Effect" (Hachette/PublicAffairs), a non-fiction gaming and business history book that has earned rave reviews from the New York Times, Fortune, LA Review of Books, and many other publications. "Upends the standard Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg technology-creation myth... the story shines." -- The New York Times

Expertise I've been testing and reviewing computer and gaming hardware for over 20 years, covering every console launch since the Dreamcast and every MacBook...ever. Credentials

Author of the award-winning, NY Times-reviewed nonfiction book The Tetris Effect; Longtime consumer technology expert for CBS Mornings

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Dan Ackerman

May 31, 2006 8:46 a.m. PT

2 min read

You'll recall that Intel got a lot of ink back at CES when it revealed the specs for Viiv, the much-hyped entertainment PC platform. Less noticed was AMD's announcement of the similar-sounding Live, which also promised an enhanced entertainment experience from systems with the right hardware/software combinations. Finally, after almost six months of silence (and some general snickering about the name) there's some concrete news about AMD Live (we're opting out of AMD's exclamation point).

The Live brand has been in use in some professional audio and video systems since 2004, but the consumer version is focused on enabling users to, "Distribute, share, and enjoy their content collection throughout the home and on the go," according to AMD's press release. On a more practical note, the company says, "Leading OEMs including Acer, Alienware, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Gateway, HP, Sahara, and Tsinghua Tongfang, as well as system builders in North America, Western Europe, and China, will have AMD Live PCs, powered by the award-winning AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processor, starting in June."

As for system requirements, the minimum CPU is an AMD X2 4200+, and you'll need Window Media Center, at least 1GB of RAM, and an SATA hard drive. Like Intel's Viiv, a TV tuner is recommended but not required.

AMD is offering a suite of cobranded versions of third-party software utilities to Live users, including AMD Live On Demand, powered by Orb, for accessing content from remote PCs, and AMD Live Compress for squeezing down video files to save hard drive space. You can actually get limited versions of some of these programs to try out right now by going to AMDLive.com.

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