"The Government Connection program is based on the premise that today's taxpayers expect the public sector to do more with less," said Dave Sheffler, AMD vice president, channel sales and marketing. "This new program creates a productive partnership between AMD and government resellers to present public sector IT solutions that offer the best combination of system performance and value. Our goals are to make systems based on the AMD-K6® family of processors easy to order and easy to sell, and to provide a superior return on investment for government IT departments."

As a key part of the program, AMD has developed a new website that provides an information resource for government resellers and IT professionals. When visiting the URL http://www.amd.com/reseller/government/index.html, resellers will find product information and market trends, tips on building and selling AMD-K6 processor based systems, downloadable selling tools, ad kits, and government MIS and AMD contact information. Government agency IT managers and procurement officials can access AMD-K6 product information, government-oriented market data, as well as lists of government-approved PC manufacturers offering systems powered by the AMD-K6 and AMD-K6-2 processors.

Federal, state and local government agencies account for the nation's largest installed base of legacy PCs, ranging from 286, 386 and 486, as well as current generation PCs based on fifth and sixth generation processors, such as the AMD-K6 processor. According to research firms tracking the government/education segments of the PC industry, new system purchases combined with replacing these systems represents a several-million unit opportunity this year alone and significant growth is anticipated over the next four years, especially in the education sector.

To help resellers take advantage of these opportunities, the AMD Government Connection program will also include access to a business development center, which will track federal, state and local government bid opportunities and direct qualified leads to AMD's most active reseller partners. The business development center will also support any government agency that wants assistance in developing bid specifications based on functionality and performance, thereby enabling a more open, competitive environment and bidding process.

"Given a level playing field, systems based on the AMD-K6 processors generally offer the best value," said Bob Myers, AMD field marketing manager, government segment. "For the same price as a Pentium® II equipped system, a PC powered by the AMD-K6 or AMD-K6-2 can include more memory, a larger hard drive, a faster modem, better graphics acceleration, or other performance-enhancing features. So no matter how much or how little agencies want to spend on their PCs, they can get richer, more powerful configurations from AMD-K6 processor-based systems."

Systems based on the AMD-K6 processor have successfully penetrated the government sector. AMD-K6 processor based machines can be found on several federal IT contracts, including PCHS, Ulana II, Desktop V and STAMIS. In the PCHS contract alone, more than 50 percent of the systems provided by primary supplier Digital Equipment have been based on the AMD-K6 processor.