AMD: dockable computers are the future

AMD - a mighty dock?
AMD - a mighty dock?

AMD believes that people will not want to choose between a small, portable and lower power device and a heavier but more powerful option, and a senior figure at the company thinks that docking could be the answer.

The computer world is awash with talk of so-called 'thin clients' which don't need huge processing power and take advantage of the cloud to store information and run applications and 'fat clients' which have more processing power and their own storage for programs and data.

With its Fusion project, AMD is keen to align itself with both thin and fat clients, but vice president of marketing Leslie Sobon thinks that the public will not need to compromise in the long run, with the option of a portable device that docks into a more powerful machine when portability is less of a problem.

Not that simple

"We talk a lot about thin client cloud and I just don't think it's that simple," said Sobon, "I think it's a lot of stuff in the cloud and still fat clients."

"There are things that people are going to be comfortable having in the cloud and things that they are going to want their flash drive to hold and you are offering them the choice – it's never going to be an either or proposition.

"But for me it's how you move from something that's mobile and portable to something you can actually manage and enter content with – those things need to come together.

"Docking is probably the way that will come together. You basically have a smartphone and then you dock it and it expands its ability."

Google is hoping that the release of its Chrome OS at the end of the year will bring a slew of thin clients, with the operating system designed to utilise the cloud and local storage limited to a cache.

TOPICS
Patrick Goss

Patrick Goss is the ex-Editor in Chief of TechRadar. Patrick was a passionate and experienced journalist, and he has been lucky enough to work on some of the finest online properties on the planet, building audiences everywhere and establishing himself at the forefront of digital content.  After a long stint as the boss at TechRadar, Patrick has now moved on to a role with Apple, where he is the Managing Editor for the App Store in the UK.

Latest in Pro
Isometric demonstrating multi-factor authentication using a mobile device.
NCSC gets influencers to sing the praises of 2FA
Context Windows
Why are AI context windows important?
BERT
What is BERT, and why should we care?
A person holding out their hand with a digital AI symbol.
AI is booming — but are businesses seeing real impact?
A stylized depiction of a padlocked WiFi symbol sitting in the centre of an interlocking vault.
Dangerous new CoffeeLoader malware executes on your GPU to get past security tools
China
Notorious Chinese hackers FamousSparrow allegedly target US financial firms
Latest in News
cheap Nintendo Switch game deals sales
Nintendo didn't anticipate that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was 'going to be the juggernaut' for the Nintendo Switch when it was ported to the console, according to former employees
Three angles of the Apple MacBook Air 15-inch M4 laptop above a desk
Apple MacBook Air 15-inch (M4) review roundup – should you buy Apple's new lightweight laptop?
Witchbrook
Witchbrook, the life-sim I've been waiting years for, finally has a release window and it's sooner than you think
Amazon Echo Smart Speaker
Amazon is experimenting with renaming Echo speakers to Alexa speakers, and it's about time
Shigeru Miyamoto presents Nintendo Today app
Nintendo Today smartphone app is out now on iOS and Android devices – and here's what it does
Nintendo Virtual Game Card
Nintendo reveals the new Virtual Game Card feature, an easier way to manage your digital Switch games