AMD plans to follow Yukon with a series of chips code-named Congo, Nile, and Ontario, respectively, Meyer said. Each subsequent platform will be smaller, cost less, have higher performance, and consume less energy than the previous. These products will be adapted for "big and little notebooks," Meyer said.

While ATI over the years has cost AMD billions of dollars in charges that has drastically reduced profits, AMD is confident the graphics technology it obtained eventually will pay off.

One area ATI technology is likely to help AMD is in its notebook platform, which benchmarks show has a slower CPU than Intel's. While AMD's processor may be slower, it doesn't matter because in combination with the ATI technology, the platform delivers better graphics and video on the PC, Meyer said.

"The way in which consumers and businesses ought to gauge the value of the PC or notebook shouldn't be in performance benchmarks, because those benchmarks do not reflect what people do with the PC," Meyer said. "It's not just about the CPU. People can get distracted by how fast is the CPU, and then have a lousy graphics experience when they get home."

New x86 processors from Intel and AMD are paving the way for improved virtualization. InformationWeek has published an independent analysis of this topic. Download the report here (registration required).