AMD is making its presence known within South Korea’s CPU market for public PCs. Although Intel basically has full control of this market, AMD was able to increase its sales volume by 15 times from last year. Although South Korean industries were concerned about compatibility and safety, AMD is gaining competitive edge by gradually supplying more CPUs.
According to South Korean industries, AMD has obtained orders for CPU chips for 85,000 public PCs so far this year.
All 1,200 PCs that will be used for Jeollabuk-do Office of Education’s informatization support project this year will use AMD’s CPU ‘Ryzen 5 2400G’. It is also heard that more than 1,000 public PCs that will be supplied to Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education will also be equipped with AMD’s CPUs.
AMD has emerged as an up-and-coming contender within South Korea’s public markets as it has been succeeding in obtaining orders for large number of CPUs since the beginning of this year.
Jooyon Tech signed a contract for supplying 46,000 PCs to ‘Second Uzbekistan Education Informatization Project’, which is promoted by KT and Uzbekistan Government. All 46,000 PCs will be equipped with AMD’s CPUs.
AMD also won a contract from Republic of Korea Army Headquarters. South Korean PC manufacturer called Danawa Computer won a contract from Republic of Korea Army Headquarters regarding replacing 35,000 PCs out of 85,000 PCs and it decided to use AMD’s CPUs.
AMD has shown incredible growth for the past few years. There are demands for 600,000 PCs within South Korea’s public markets on average every year. AMD only obtained contracts for about 6,000 PCs in 2018. However, it has obtained contracts for about 90,000 PCs so far this year.
“We believe that we will be able to obtain contracts for more than 100,000 PCs by end of this year.” said a representative for AMD.

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<AMD’s CPU (Source: AMD’s homepage)>

Many predicted that it would not had been easy for AMD to enter public market unlike private market due to compatibility and safety issues.
However, AMD has been gaining trusts due to various performance tests and contracts from various public agencies. “Because there was not any huge issue even when we checked the performance of our CPUs with representatives from PC companies for about three months, representatives from public agencies started to be less concerned.” said a representative for AMD.
Improved brand image within private markets has also helped AMD succeeding in public markets. In July, AMD introduced third-generation Ryzen equipped with Zen 2 Architecture. Third-generation Ryzen has been seen as a ‘cost-effective CPU’ as AMD claimed that its CPU is half the price of other CPUs from its competitors.
“Even if PC companies use AMD’s CPUs, contracts become a failure if public agencies have no intention to purchase PCs with AMD’s CPUs.” said a representative for a PC company. “Fact that AMD has been expanding its business when Intel’s supply of its CPUs was in a slump at the end of last year is meaningful.”
AMD registered six CPUs including Ryzen5 2400G as products for procurement. It is going to work with South Korean PC manufacturers and slowly increase number of products for procurement equipped with its CPUs.
“Although we are currently working with five PC companies such as Danawa, we are going to increase number of our partners to ten and strengthen our product line.” said a representative for AMD.
Staff Reporter Kang, Hyeryung | kang@etnews.com