AMD Announcement: ARMv8 Opterons In 2014

[mrmt]

Unprofitable for a whole year is a very bad place to be in for a company as poor as AMD.

Some sites noticed an interview with Devinder where he said that AMD cash needs would be around 800 million once restructure is done, which is less than half the cash they had in 2011. Also Devinder mentioned that they are renegotiating purchase commitments with GLF. Unfortunately I could not find the transcript of this interview.

I can't fathom 800 million in the balance sheet if they are not thinking about further downsizing or pull out of some market.

 

[AtenRa]

But, Intel can afford to use Benjamins to power the grills at a company cook-out, and still rake in high profits. AMD had a chance, and largely let it pass by targeting high speeds with BD. If they had made the thing to run at 2-3GHz, instead of 4-5GHz, and had actual IPC improvements over Stars, it would have been a great CPU for 'cloud' and virtual hosts, and a fair notebook CPU, to boot. Now, they either have to make it work, push Bobcat-type cores like nobody's business, or we'll find out that the whole BOD is set up with golden parachutes and no liability.

If you take Trinity against an Intel SandyBridge Core i3 (32nm) you will find that it has superior performance both in CPU and iGPU and low power consumption(65W A10-5700). Same goes with PileDriver vs SandyBridge.
If AMD had 32nm and 22nm at the same time as Intel, things would be completely different.

The architecture is fine, they are just behind in litho process

 

[mrmt]

If you take Trinity against an Intel SandyBridge Core i3 (32nm) you will find that it has superior performance both in CPU and iGPU and low power consumption(65W A10-5700).

Oh boy, as if Trinity at 3.4GHz could take on SNB 2C at 3.2GHz in CPU performance, and discounting the fact that Trinity area is twice the area of SNB 2C. Even excluding the IGP, Trinity die dize is still significantly bigger than SNB 2C.

 

[happysmiles]

If you take Trinity against an Intel SandyBridge Core i3 (32nm) you will find that it has superior performance both in CPU and iGPU and low power consumption(65W A10-5700). Same goes with PileDriver vs SandyBridge.
If AMD had 32nm and 22nm at the same time as Intel, things would be completely different.

The architecture is fine, they are just behind in litho process

always within reach AMD seems to be!

 

[Cerb]

Yep, it seems unlike VIA, AMD wants to go out with a bang.

T.S. Elliot would not be happy .

If you take Trinity against an Intel SandyBridge Core i3 (32nm) you will find that it has superior performance both in CPU and iGPU and low power consumption(65W A10-5700). Same goes with PileDriver vs SandyBridge.
If AMD had 32nm and 22nm at the same time as Intel, things would be completely different.

The architecture is fine, they are just behind in litho process

In a fantasy land, maybe. Trinity has superior performance when using the IGPU only. IE, your and only works a as proper logical and, not as a regular vernacular inclusive and (logical or). When the IGPU is not stressed, it cannot keep up with Intel's cores.

Battery life is better because Intel has too little competition, so makes the normal parts not as good at the low end as the low voltage ones. 22nm v. 32nm has little to do with that part either way.

The reality so far has been that they have not been able to keep voltage in check as speeds have increased, and this has been an issue with their CPUs/process since at least 130nm, that I can recall (at 180nm many CPUs flat weren't making it to high speeds at all). Their corner has been lower than Intel's for several generations. They could have made a power hog at a lower frequency, but speed demon was just a bad move.

 

[Ajay]

Some sites noticed an interview with Devinder where he said that AMD cash needs would be around 800 million once restructure is done, which is less than half the cash they had in 2011. Also Devinder mentioned that they are renegotiating purchase commitments with GLF. Unfortunately I could not find the transcript of this interview.

I can't fathom 800 million in the balance sheet if they are not thinking about further downsizing or pull out of some market.

Yes, less cash, so add another product line

 

[Olikan]

i have found some tecnical slides:
http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4400351/ARM-A57-core-detailed-in-technical-session

 

[beginner99]

Why take out the Cray ??? It is illegal to sell to Cray ???

No, but according to the article about the super computer it seems that you make long-term contracts with Cray and Cray ships AMD Opterons. At the time the contract was made (2005) they were the better choice. Not so much now but customers in a contract do not seem to be able to choose. And I^m pretty sure with the super computer in the article going intel would save a looooooooooot of energy.

 

[Idontcare]

No, but according to the article about the super computer it seems that you make long-term contracts with Cray and Cray ships AMD Opterons. At the time the contract was made (2005) they were the better choice. Not so much now but customers in a contract do not seem to be able to choose. And I^m pretty sure with the super computer in the article going intel would save a looooooooooot of energy.

Nvidia says the contracts were locked in 2-3 yrs ago.

Incidentally, the Opteron processors used in the system are dual-chip CPUs based on the Bulldozer microarchitecture. We asked Sumit Gupta, General Manager for Tesla Accelerated Computing at Nvidia, why those CPU were chosen for this project, given the Xeon's current dominance in the HPC space. Gupta offered an interesting insight into the decision. He told us the contracts for Titan were signed between two and three years ago, and "back then, Bulldozer looked pretty darn good."

link

 

[Idontcare]

Some sites noticed an interview with Devinder where he said that AMD cash needs would be around 800 million once restructure is done, which is less than half the cash they had in 2011. Also Devinder mentioned that they are renegotiating purchase commitments with GLF. Unfortunately I could not find the transcript of this interview.

I can't fathom 800 million in the balance sheet if they are not thinking about further downsizing or pull out of some market.

The market is pricing in more bad news for sure:

Cash Burn

The company had already disclosed on Oct. 11 that third- quarter sales fell short of its earlier predictions, leading Standard & Poor’s to place the company’s BB- credit rating on watch for a possible downgrade.

Credit default swaps on AMD debt, which rise as investor confidence deteriorates, are trading at their highest level since Nov. 11, 2009. Derivatives traders are now pricing in a 62.5 percent chance of AMD defaulting within five years, up from 51 percent on Oct. 17, according to a standard pricing model maintained by data provider CMA. Contracts protecting the company’s debt climbed to 18.5 percentage points upfront today, up from 9.3 percentage points on Oct. 17.

link

 

[sontin]

And Cray blamed AMD as a reason for their bad Q4 result last year:

Cray is going to miss its revenue targets for the fourth quarter, the company warned Wall Street this morning before the markets opened, and it has pointed its finger (without naming names) directly at its main processor supplier, Advanced Micro Devices, as the cause of the miss.

In a statement, Cray said that system acceptances "were adversely impacted by further supply issues related to a key component," and with all of the other elements of the Cray XE6 system shipping – the system boards, interconnect chips, and operating environment – the only piece that was delayed was the Opteron 6200.

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2012/01/05/cray_q4_whacked_by_amd/

 

[Idontcare]

Ouch. To be fair though its not like Cray has a track-record to be proud of either. They've fallen from pretty high-up since the 70's to now being a brand-name slapped onto the box that houses someone else's chips. If any company should know how quickly fortunes can have a reversal it is Cray. No one forced them to become dependent on AMD, pretty sure Intel would have happily supplied them with SB Xeons to resell.

 

[MisterMac]

Ouch. To be fair though its not like Cray has a track-record to be proud of either. They've fallen from pretty high-up since the 70's to now being a brand-name slapped onto the box that houses someone else's chips. If any company should know how quickly fortunes can have a reversal it is Cray. No one forced them to become dependent on AMD, pretty sure Intel would have happily supplied them with SB Xeons to resell.

...which probably would have intel strongarming them into buying KC rather than K20
Which might not have been either ORNL or Cray's wishes.


Well - if i were intel that's what i would have demanded atleast.