One of the sports networks I watch—I forget which one just now—has this feature called the Game Changing Play of the Day or something like that.  At the end of a football game, they highlight a play which they claim caused the outcome or turned the tide of that particular match-up. It’s a quick way to tie things up, explain the results and make sense of the previous two hour telecast. You turn off the TV, take comfort you understand what happened and why, and then perhaps decide to go fix that leaky faucet you’ve been too busy to get to. . . .

I’ve been told I use a lot of sports analogies around the office (ok, guilty as charged), and “game changer” is certainly one I’ve used; I bet you have too.   Why is that? One reason: analogies help to simplify complex situations so we can more easily make sense of them.

This kind of simplification is all around us.  Coke or Pepsi? Jennifer or Angelina? Ford or Chevy? Imported or domestic (wine, cars, clothes)?  Thing is, it’s a complicated world.  In real life—not the one depicted in magazine surveys and pop culture quizzes—the situations we face are usually considerably more complicated.

So it’s no small irony that I really do want to use a sports analogy like game changer for what I’m about to describe.  In this case, though—and I hope you agree–it’s appropriate.  Now, having said that, I also want to point out some of the limitations inherent with this kind of language and how it can sometimes invite simplistic, binary thinking (Coke/Pepsi) (Winner/Loser) which ultimately may not serve us very well.

See, the thing is, AMD’s recent launch of AMD Fusion APUs (accelerated processing units) really is that rare event—a true game changer.  It has helped steer the microprocessor industry in an entirely new and unchartered direction.  That’s not hyperbole, it’s fact  . . . and the consequences are not trivial.

Up until very recently, the CPU and the GPU in a PC were always separate because the technology to integrate them didn’t exist.  Now it does. As a result, the microprocessor industry is undergoing a rapid transformation. APUs are changing everything . . . quickly. Microprocessors with dedicated graphics processing will be found in more than four out of five notebook PCs shipped in 2014, according to a new report from research firm IHS iSuppli. Adoption has already begun to accelerate this year as more PC makers, including HP, Sony, and MSI, introduce notebooks with dedicated CPU-GPU processors.

Interestingly, iSuppli’s report also suggests that rapid adoption of integrated chips gives Nvidia a foot in the door to the microprocessor market, now that the company has announced plans to combine their GPU technology with ARM’s CPU architecture. The report contends, however, that Nvidia will face barriers to entry, primarily “in the software realm.” That’s likely true – x86 is the incumbent instruction set, and the majority of today’s software is written for x86 hardware from AMD and Intel. But even if Nvidia succeeds in fostering ARM adoption, we should remember it’s far from a zero-sum game.

While industry watchers have long viewed the microprocessor market as a two-horse race because—as we’ve seen—analogies like this are an easy way to grasp a very complicated situation, something interesting is happening now that a third “horse” is poised to enter the “track.”  Our need for simplification is so compelling that rather than modifying the framework to admit additional complexity, the two-horse race analogy is . . . you guessed it . . . being recast  into, in this case, x86 vs. ARM.

Such a revised framework is as limiting as the last.

We believe AMD and our technology partners stand to benefit from increased adoption of CPU-GPU integrated chips, even if Nvidia and the ARM instruction set do make inroads. The overall size of the notebook and netbook markets is still expanding, albeit at an understandably slower rate than in years’ past as the market matures.

So, tempting as it is to see the world in simplistic terms, we’re going to try our best to avoid being distracted by a supposed debate framed between x86 vs. ARM.  We’re convinced users expect high performance from their PC at a price that’s right – regardless which instruction set is used to do it. The key issue to focus on is a solution’s value proposition to the end user and AMD Fusion is well positioned to deliver this value.  AMD Fusion APUs enable the brilliant visual computing experiences today’s users demand across various classes of computers, from tablets and all-in-one PCs to high-end professional notebooks.

And for our channel partners? AMD Fusion has a price-performance proposition that enables our partners to seize the opportunity presented by integrated CPU-GPU chip adoption and the growth of the notebook PC market in a way that helps them to maximize their revenue. Bottom line: We all can win.

Consider the game changed.

David Kenyon is VP of Worldwide Channel Marketing for AMD.  His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.