According to a recent revelation by Rick Bergman, a senior VP at the second-ranking computer chip maker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), the first working versions of the company’s Fusion line of chips will appear in personal computers early next year.

With samples of the Fusion line of chips likely to go out to computer manufacturers this summer, the chips - which will combine a microprocessor and a graphics processor in one piece of silicon – will essentially help the Sunnyvale, California-based AMD to offer graphics features which its bigger chip-market rival Intel will find hard to match.

Boasting the ability to bring better visuals to a broader range of PCs, including laptops, the new Fusion family of chips will also mark the productivity of AMD’s 2006-acquired graphics firm ATI Technologies – a deal which not only weighed down AMD with debt, but also brought about three annual losses in a row for the company.

With Bergman and his team intending to give demonstrations of computers using Fusion – to show Fusion’s effectiveness for video-heavy multimedia processing, better handling of faster Web browsing, and running games from Microsoft - at the Computex Show in Taiwan, Bergman said that AMD will finally be able to depict why it considers Fusion processors to be “so compelling.

During the course of a recent interview, Bergman further added: “Fusion was painted as the ultimate goal of the (ATI) acquisition.”