Intel Centrino was the first market-specific platform to be marketed as an entire concept. Centrino was a gathering of hardware components specially designed for the mobile platform and has been a great success for Intel. Intel ViiV and AMD Live! can be seen as Centrino’s equivalents for the digital multimedia platform. Intel and AMD has set up specifications for what they think should be inside a computer whose task is to distribute digital entertainment, such as music, film, pictures etc. Both Intel and AMD has presented its specifications in a way so that a manufacturer that fulfills these requirements can get a “ViiV certified” or “Live! approved” branding, which is a way for helping the consumers to find the right system.
Details of these systems can be hard to find out and at Hardware Secrets they’ve done their best trying to define precisely these two systems in an article comparing Intel ViiV with AMD Live!.
“In the war to see who establishes a standard for digital entertainment computers archenemies Intel and AMD present their weapons: at one corner Intel with their ViiV platform – which is the digital home concept that Intel is pushing for ages with a new name – and at the other corner AMD with their Live! Platform.”
