AMD death watch

[Albatross]

Engineers get the boot,I bet the higher ups walk away with eleventy beeelion dollars.

 

[HydroSqueegee]

man. i havent had an intel processor since my celeron 366A. ill be sad if i swap to intel. ive been an AMD fanboy for a long time.

 

[SaDiZTiKStyLeZ]

This is sad to hear.

I knew AMD acquiring ATI was a BAD move & had a feeling it'd only go downhill from there... I see my hunch was correct...
However, I would hope they do recover from their follies enough to stay in the game.

 

[Miramonti]

I have a couple dead sticks of Crucial in a drawer. I never sent them back cause I'd just be getting more shitty Crucial ram in return. It wasn't worth the headache. I doubt I'll ever buy Crucial again.

I learned it wasn't worth the headache only after I let them send me more and my head exploded.

Ballistix DDR2 had what, a nearly 100% failure rate over time? At least from all the reports I heard it did. Mine died, not even clocked to what they were supposed to clock to, and not anything higher than standard DDR2 voltage, in less than six months. Crap RAM indeed.

I wouldn't be surprised if that percentage is close to accurate. I'm certain the memory took out 2 of my motherboards too in the process of failing but I can't prove it.

 

[OCGuy]

AMD died once Conroe/Wolfdale hit the market. Someone poured gasoline on the body and lit it with Lynfield/Sandy, the BD fiasco, etc.


AMD needs to BK and get it over with.

 

[Nemesis 1]

So it seems that AMD is prepping to lay off another 10%-to-30% of their workforce, and it appears mostly engineers, so it's only a matter of time before they kick the bucket.

It pains me greatly, but after continuous screw ups over the past several years it really wouldn't shock anyone if it were to happen.

http://semiaccurate.com/2012/10/12/amds-layoffs-target-engineering/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-5...ffs-that-could-hit-30-percent-of-its-workers/

How long do you guys think they'll last? I'm going to give it a year before they sell off their IP and/or graphics division.

man you got balls coming into off topic these guys play hard ball I seldom post in here .

 

[Nemesis 1]

I definitely prefer Intel to AMD, but AMD needs to be there to at least give a semblance of competition. AMD simply does not seem to be able to put out a competitive product in the 200 dollar range.

ARM . It has its up side AMD dieing . Arm IS the biggest cpu seller and its non x86 intel is x86 Intel will no longer be constrained as a monoply. That would be great , Intel unleashed I want it.

 

[3chordcharlie]

ARM . It has its up side AMD dieing . Arm IS the biggest cpu seller and its non x86 intel is x86 Intel will no longer be constrained as a monoply. That would be great , Intel unleashed I want it.

This makes no sense...

 

[theevilsharpie]

This makes no sense...

It's a Nemesis post. Just put him/her/it on ignore.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

Called it in another thread, calling it here.

If AMD looks to sell they will be bought by Intel.

 

[theevilsharpie]

If AMD looks to sell they will be bought by Intel.

No.

 

[3chordcharlie]

Called it in another thread, calling it here.

If AMD looks to sell they will be bought by Intel.

If any rational jurisdiction would allow AMD to be bought by Intel, it would have happened 15 years ago.

 

[jhansman]

Did anyone really think AMD could last against the Intel juggernaut? It's great they've hung in as long as they have, but they can't be sustained by their graphics division. I hope some bigger fish buys them and finds a way to keep Intel honest. Not sure that's possible, though....

 

[pelov]

It's great they've hung in as long as they have, but they can't be sustained by their graphics division

Their graphics division has never really made much money. In fact they've barely been able to post a profit.

Rumors we’ve heard — and they are, let us stress, just rumors — are that AMD’s Kaveri tapeout was significantly delayed. If true, this would likely push the chip’s volume launch back into 2014. Worst-case, it means AMD’s first 28nm APU would launch against Broadwell, not Haswell.

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/137796-amd-executives-have-forgotten-how-to-run-a-company

If Kaveri is going up against a 14nm Broadwell, AMD is absolutely screwed and won't survive through 2014

 

[VulgarDisplay]

If any rational jurisdiction would allow AMD to be bought by Intel, it would have happened 15 years ago.

ARM wasn't a juggernaut 15 years ago. Intel is not a monopoly because x86 isn't the only game in town.

With a version of Windows 8 running on ARM processors coming in a very short amount of time I'd say they are even more directly in competition than ever before. The ARM wiki says that 23% of the PC's in the world are expected to be using ARM processors by 2015. In the grand scheme of things that's a huge chunk of marketshare in a very short amount of time.

Yes, I know wikipedia is garbage.

 

[theevilsharpie]

ARM wasn't a juggernaut 15 years ago. Intel is not a monopoly because x86 isn't the only game in town.

The markets for x86 and ARM processors are distinct, and would be treated as such by regulators. x86 computers are so ubiquitous in all aspects of government that an acquisition would be blocked on national security grounds, nevermind the impact on the market.

In short, it's not going to happen. While AMD being sold off is a possibility, the buyer isn't going to be Intel.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

The markets for x86 and ARM processors are distinct, and would be treated as such by regulators. x86 computers are so ubiquitous in all aspects of government that an acquisition would be blocked on national security grounds, nevermind the impact on the market.

In short, it's not going to happen. While AMD being sold off is a possibility, the buyer isn't going to be Intel.

Read the part where independent research expects 23% of all PC's to use ARM processors by 2015. The market is becoming less distinct, and with Windows 8 they will be in direct competition. Maybe not in the corporate space where so much hardware is already deployed, but the average joe is going to be buying an ARM PC for price alone.

 

[bbhaag]

I love to hate AMD, but if they go then we are all screwed. Intel will rape the hell out of everyone and everything and so will Nvidia if the graphics go as well.

Give me a break. Intel is already raping its customers. Did you see the atrocity known as Ivy bridge? The numbers Ivy puts out are horrible for the price you pay. Especially when you compare it to Sandy. The death of AMD's cpu division won't make a damn bit of difference to Intel. They already own the market.

 

[pelov]

Called it in another thread, calling it here.

If AMD looks to sell they will be bought by Intel.

That's not gonna' happen. Intel has nothing to gain from AMD other than discrete GPUs and blocks of GPU IP, but they don't need either of those. Intel is pitching MIC to workstations and HPC as a GPGPU replacement and their HDxxxx line has come pretty close to AMD in the mobile end, actually surpassing it as you drop down in TDP.

It would be a hopeless waste of money if Intel were to buy AMD. Furthermore, it would jeopardize their potential partners and would shake up their potential clientele as well. Who would want to invest heavily into x86 if Intel is the only chip maker? Nobody would take that unnecessary risk unless they absolutely have to. ARM's marching forward mainly due to the absolutely fierce competition that's sparking innovation. Would Intel be as inclined to spend as much cash on server/desktop if they're the only option? I don't think so. And from a business standpoint, being the only show in town isn't a good thing for Intel and the perception of x86 either.

 

[Fritzo]

I think the changing nature of the market is killing AMD.

The paradign where Microsoft and Apple kept writing bigger and more thirsty OS'es and applications drove the CPU manufacturers to make more and more powerful cpu's is nearing an end.

However, much like the MP3 was good enough to replace cd audio the low cost ARM chips can now run just about all the apps most people use. You don't need a 700 hundred megabyte Bluray software program. You can play them with a 7 mb. Windows Media Player Classic.

Windows 7 ran better than Vista on the same hardware and I have run Windows 8 on an AMD C-6 dual core at 1ghz(turbo 1.33) and it ran better than many of the Vista machines did in the 800 dollar price range.

I always wondered how ARM stayed in business with such low revenue but it turns out that Intel and AMD were working in a world where profit margins were astronomical. As soon as ARM's caught up to running the apps that 90 percent of the people used all the time it was the end of the party for the huge markups.

We are reaching the point where cpu's can be made with off the shelf components and designs. Instead of hundreds of dollars a SOC can do most things for under 20 bucks.

In the soon to be rapidly shrinking home market for powerful, expensive home cpu's there is only room for one. And its clearly Intel.

Cloud computing also took AMD AND Intel by surprise. They both kept focusing their resources on speed wars, when low powered devices using the cloud for the majority of their computing power started showing up and taking over. Smaller, long forgotten chip fabricators started booming because they could supply processors to tablets and smartphones, where AMD and Intel didn't have anything available.

Now we're at a point where most Internet access is done via smartphones, and Intel was large enough to ride it out until they developed a product to compete. AMD, being pretty much a 1 trick pony, wasn't nimble enough to keep up, hence the layoffs.

What AMD SHOULD be doing is whipping a mobile graphics platform into shape with the current boat anchor ATI division. It worked well for NVidia, so AMD may still have something to offer.

 

[pelov]

What AMD SHOULD be doing is whipping a mobile graphics platform into shape with the current boat anchor ATI division. It worked well for NVidia, so AMD may still have something to offer.

Remember they spun off Imageon, a low end graphic chip designer.

Unless AMD has had an SoC brewing these past 2-3 years, I doubt they'll make it. Judging by some of the rumors and layoffs, it's unlikely they've had any decent sub-10W chip in the making.

Intel's shares have dropped by 20% since early Q2 and likely to drop again in Q4 with decreasing PC sales. Intel has enough money to weather the storm until they're able to provide something that can compete in mobile. AMD has been absolutely blindsided by the shift towards mobile

 

[theevilsharpie]

Read the part where independent research expects 23% of all PC's to use ARM processors by 2015.

The market for ARM-based PCs today is non-existent, and Intel's R&D efforts in low-power x86 processors can easily throw a wrench in ARM's growth.

If ARM-based PCs make up 25% of the market, and if switching between ARM and x86 is reasonably seamless, regulators may change their tune. Until then, there's not a chance in hell Intel will be allowed to buy AMD.

 

[Acanthus]

I was thinking of getting an FM2 rig. One part just for fun, one part because it's new, and I like to play with new things, and one part just to support AMD's efforts on their new CPUs. Plus, you can get a quad-core (UNLOCKED, even!), with a nice GPU bolted onto the die, for CHEAP! Intel i3 pricing, for a quad-core, with better graphics than the i3.

This. I just bought an A8 system.

 

[SlowSpyder]

Stock is up, being in all the consoles is paying off big time, plus a new deal with China gaining them some much needed $.

 

[thesmokingman]

When was AMD supposed to kick the bucket for good?