PCs and tablets powered by AMD chips and running the new Microsoft Windows 8 OS will let users download and run over 500,000 Android based Apps and games.Advanced Micro Devices, AMD, has partnered with software maker Bluestacks to install their Android wrapper called AppZone Player on all new PCs and tablets with a AMD CPU and/or GPU. The apps are run through the AppZone Player in a ‘sand-boxed’ fashion with versions available for both Windows and Mac OS. Currently it is optimized for devices running on AMD chips but should also work fine for Intel. Talking to Wired, Bluestacks CEO Rosen Sharma said, “This helps AMD leapfrog Intel by making Windows 8 more attractive on their tablets and PCs. We’ve worked closely together to optimise the performance of the apps for AMD’s unique ‘graphics and computing on one chip’ setup. The result is awesome — mobile apps run beautifully on their machines.”

With Bluestacks optimizing for Windows 8, AMD has also fine tuned code on its chips and graphics cards to be certain that apps made for the small screen smartphones will look and run without hiccups on bigger devices. App syncing users use an app or game on their PC/tablet and then if need to, can switch over to their smartphone and carry on were it left off. Those with an AMD PC with Windows 7 can already take AppZone for a spin and in the future Windows 8 machine will have it pre-installed. As Windows 8 will only have about 2000 apps when it ships later this month (October 2012) having the ability to use Android apps and games makes it more appealing to consumers.