Computex 2006: PC industry heads for Taipei

Computex 2006

Taiwan's Computex trade show, a key event in the PC industry calendar, opens on 6 June in Taipei.

The show is traditionally used by Taiwan-based manufacturers to demonstrate products ready for delivery during the run-up to the Christmas season.

Taiwanese companies dominate the production of products like desktop PC motherboards and notebook PCs, cornering more than 80 per cent of global production.

Computex attracts hordes of system integrators, distributors and other buyers from Europe, the US and Asia.

More than 120,000 visitors are expected to see tens of thousands of products from approximately 1,300 companies at Computex, which runs from 6 to 10 June.

With Intel and AMD releasing, or about to release, new processors, market watchers will be keeping a close eye on the level of support they receive from motherboard and notebook makers, the vast majority of which are based in Taiwan. 

AMD recently announced its new line of socket AM2 CPUs, which are its first to use faster DDR2 memory. AMD has traditionally tried to keep CPU socket changes to a minimum to make it easier for PC makers to support its chips.

Intel has been able to follow a different path thanks to its market dominance, and releases new CPU sockets yearly.

So the transition to a new socket type, and the level of support it receives, are important indicators of AMD's new status as a leader in the CPU market, rather than a follower.

In addition, AMD's digital home media sharing platform, AMD Live, will be formally launched at the show.