Dell and Dell subsidiary Alienware are to announce a number of media centre machines based on AMD's Viiv-like platform, Live!, the chip maker has revealed. Expect unveilings at the DigitalLife show taking place in New York this week.

All the machines - a Dell Dimension box and Alienware's DHS series - will be based on Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processors and bundle AMD's Live! Entertainment suite, a set of apps and services that bundle VoIP and video conferencing tools, downloadable games and a kid-friendly web browser.

Dell and Alienware join HP, Acer, Gateway and Fujitsu Siemens among the well-known PC names offering Live! PCs. Like Intel's Viiv, Live! is an attempt to make living-room PCs more attractive by promoting services unavailable - in some cases - on bog-standard desktop and notebook systems. That said, AMD is offering many of the elements comprising the Live! Entertainment package as downloads, either itself or through its partners. ®

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