The company's presence in the netbook space is happenstance, said John Taylor, an AMD spokesman. AMD doesn't want to artificially dictate how PC makers use its chips, and the low-power consumption of Sempron chips could lend itself to netbooks, Taylor said. Sempron chips are low-end chips made by AMD for mainstream PCs.

"We haven't gone out and built a platform for netbooks," Taylor said. But the placement of its chips in netbooks is a positive as it offers a greater choice to buyers, Taylor said.

Beyond netbooks, AMD's low-power chips could also make their way into different form-factor devices like all-in-one PCs, Taylor said.

The Akoya Mini has an 11.6-inch screen and comes with a 160GB hard drive and 1GB RAM. It also includes the M690E chipset with ATI Radeon integrated graphics. The laptop is already available in Germany through Medion's for €399 (US$557).