PCs in India may get cheaper by 5%

Computers in India may become cheaper as a result of a row between global chip manufacturers, such as Intel and AMD, over standards.

The world's second-largest PC chipmaker AMDsays processors in India are likely to become cheaper by 5% due to its exit from the global chip benchmark body, this week. AMD declined to support the newly-launched chip standard Sysmark 2012 and quit the benchmark body, Business Applications Performance Corporation (Bapco) benchmark, this week. 

Sysmark2012 is being supported by Intel. "It's an outdated chip benchmark. It means costlier chips and a loss of $8 billion globally to users. Now, we will be free to produce chips without subscribing to Bapco's Sysmark benchmark," Ravi Swaminathan, AMD India head, told ET. "It has the potential to make chips cheaper by at least 5% in India," he added. 

The Sysmark benchmark, AMD says, was used to produce chips with very high scores but many unnecessary components, often not required by a general consumer, were a drawback. This led to higher chip prices. Bapco has members such as Toshiba , Dell , Lenovo, HP, Sony , Samsung and Hitachi. Intel is the only large chipmaker in the body now. 

Taiwanese chipset manufacturer Via and USbased graphics card maker Nvidia also quit Bapco on the issue. Bapco provides chip standards that other chip manufacturers used to subscribe to. Intel, the largest chipmaker, on the other hand, applauds Bapco's controversial Sysmark 2012.