AMD Live! will start supporting Blu-ray and HD DVD in the third quarter of 2007 in line with AMD's hopes to take a bigger share of the multimedia market, according to industry sources.

Both Intel and AMD are eyeing the multimedia market from slightly different angles. Intel's Viiv platform focuses on high performance CPUs and chipset specifications, while AMD gives more emphasis on the specifications of multimedia audio-visual devices, the sources said.

While their common goal is to define multimedia functions on PC platforms, their share of the multimedia PC market is not high, the sources said, pointing out that major PC vendors do not give too much stress on Viiv or AMD Live! when promoting their systems.

Sources with PC vendors said that support for Blu-ray and HD DVD by AMD Live! will be a boost for the blue-laser market.

Source: DigiTimes