AMD unveils living room PC reference design: world squints in wonder

The days of finding brands like Microsoft, Apple, Intel, and Cisco limited to the office-space are long gone. Windows Media Center devices designed around Intel's Viiv platform and soon, Apple's iTV (or whatever the final name will be) are perfectly happy to snuggle up with the living room TV and a bowl of WiFi. So no surprise to find AMD coveting a cut of that turf too, with this, their new living room PC reference design -- a prototype AMD hopes will be copied by manufacturers to bring AMD's Live! entertainment platform to market that much faster. AMD's VP of Consumer Business, Joe Menard, said that these living room PCs "may come out next year" and might even include quiet running, fanless designs if we read into his comments just a bit. With Windows Vista Media Center installed, the device will then be capable of storing all your digital media for pumping back out the TV or other PCs on the home network. Yeah, we know, that's a lousy picture but it's all that AMD is offering -- come on AMD, nobody dances with the wallflower.