The rise and fall of AMD

[Phynaz]

Excellent article over at Ars, well worth the read.

http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/04/the-rise-and-fall-of-amd-how-an-underdog-stuck-it-to-intel/

I didn't know that Atiq Raza quit over Sanders spending too much money building fabs.

 

[Sleepingforest]

Any idea when part 2 will be out?

 

[TY-1]

A rather nice review of AMD's history and some behind-the-scenes info that most people probably don't know. I'm interested to see what PART 2 will have to say.

 

[tweakboy]

I think back in the day. AMD was better then Intel for a short period of time.

Like when the Athlon X2 64bit came out. Then after that Intel answered with Core2 series. gl

 

[Abwx]

I didn't know that Atiq Raza quit over Sanders spending too much money building fabs.

Even before reading it i would say that Mr Sanders
was right as proved by AMD perpetual lacks
in production capacities.

 

[lagokc]

Even before reading it i would say that Mr Sanders
was right as proved by AMD perpetual lacks
in production capacities.

From reading it, it doesn't look like Raza was upset about the amount of Fabs. It looks like he was just upset about using borrowed money to build them as opposed to waiting until AMD had the cash. Without actually having access to AMD's balance sheets and interest rates at the time I don't think you could really determine who was right.

Or you could say they were both wrong and AMD should have concentrated on making flash memory with the fabs it had and found a way to make its CPUs at a 3rd party fab to avoid the situation they're currently in.

 

[MountainKing]

Awesome article. I read it at work.

 

[thilanliyan]

Thanks for the article. Interesting.

 

[Phynaz]

Even before reading it i would say that Mr Sanders
was right as proved by AMD perpetual lacks
in production capacities.

Or if they hadn't built the fabs they could have invested in their products.

Which today would have given them a sellable product with no fabs, instead of an unsellable product with no fabs.

Did you bother to read the article yet or are you just out to troll? Who else in the world makes a comment about an article they didn't even bother to read...sheesh.

 

[Cloudfire777]

Interesting. AMD began as a copy cat, who reverse engineered Intel CPUs because they didn`t have the know-how to create their own designs. Then later AMD had to buy NexGen and their expertise to be even able to compete against Intel`s processors, since the processors became too complex to reverse engineer

Not exactly impressed...

 

[Abwx]

Or if they hadn't built the fabs they could have invested in their products.

They had the products starting from 1999 but manufacturing capacity
was missing.

Which today would have given them a sellable product with no fabs, instead of an unsellable product with no fabs.

Fabless doesnt work on the long term , where are the once
fabless CPU designer a la DEC ?..

Did you bother to read the article yet or are you just out to troll? Who else in the world makes a comment about an article they didn't even bother to read...sheesh.

Well Mr Sanders had skills in entertainement wich
benefit to this article , such caracters are rather
find in Hollywood series or books but rarely in real life.

 

[Phynaz]

Fabless doesnt work on the long term , where are the once
fabless CPU designer a la DEC ?..

So you are saying both AMD and ARM are doomed, along with Qualcom etc.

 

[mrmt]

Interesting. AMD began as a copy cat, who reverse engineered Intel CPUs because they didn`t have the know-how to create their own designs. Then later AMD had to buy NexGen and their expertise to be even able to compete against Intel`s processors, since the processors became too complex to reverse engineer

Not exactly impressed...

And this only in the design side. On the foundry side, they had no process on their own. First they bought from Motorola, then IBM.

R&D definitely isn't one of AMD's strong points.

 

[Texashiker]

Good article. It brings back a lot of memories from the late 1990s and into the early 2000s about which CPU was best.

 

[Phynaz]

Any idea when part 2 will be out?

The story author just posted in their forums that part 2 is being published tomorrow evening.

 

[USER8000]

In 1990, a Merrill Lynch analyst called AMD “dead,” largely because of the time needed to reverse-engineer the chips, just one of many times an analyst would say this about the company

I didn't realise that people thought AMD was doomed even 23 years ago,LOL!

 

[Exophase]

Even before reading it i would say that Mr Sanders
was right as proved by AMD perpetual lacks
in production capacities.

Right or not, if Sanders respected Raza's urging on this more maybe he would have stayed at AMD and would have been the next CEO instead of Ruiz. One can only fathom how differently things could have been had that been the case.

 

[galego]

I didn't realise that people thought AMD was doomed even 23 years ago,LOL!

AMD has been killed many times, still it is alive

 

[USER8000]

AMD has been killed many times, still it is alive

:biggrin:

 

[Zor Prime]

I didn't realise that people thought AMD was doomed even 23 years ago,LOL!

People have been repeatedly saying AMD is done for since the 90's AT LEAST ... which is why I roll my eyes every time I see someone jump on the decades-old bandwagon of "AMD is doomed."

When they're done and over with, then OK. But, that has yet to materialize, and people continue to repeat the same old shit ... and have been ... for DECADES ... really.

 

[kalrith]

Good article. It brings back a lot of memories from the late 1990s and into the early 2000s about which CPU was best.

Same here. Looking forward to part 2.

 

[grimpr]

I didn't realise that people thought AMD was doomed even 23 years ago,LOL!

Its the beginning of the AMD Doom & Gloom drama soap opera from "respected" financial analysts, they have an axe against the company since it proved them worthless time and time again. That doesnt mean that the current situation is easy though, they'are in deep *** and only an deus ex machina can save them. Microsoft and Bill Gates to the rescue!

 

[grimpr]

Good article that reads like an leaked obituary for someone terminally ill. All i can say is that with AMD bankrupt and out of the PC industry i can imagine how things will get excited in harcore pc forums, talking about Ipads and feeling the sex,vibe and excitement on Tim Cooks speeches talking about how great Apple is, aint that geeky?

 

[Puppies04]

And this only in the design side. On the foundry side, they had no process on their own. First they bought from Motorola, then IBM.

R&D definitely isn't one of AMD's strong points.

R+D takes money, tons of money. The article says it all, AMD were always the under dog. Even when their products weren't (CPUs faster and cheaper than intel) they were still the under dog and they never had the reserves that intel had available to invest.

All it took one one bad decision to strike a death blow that they would be unlikely to recover from and unfortunately they have made several. Props to them for keeping up with intel for as long as they did but it was never going to last forever and it didn't

 

[mrmt]

All it took one one bad decision to strike a death blow that they would be unlikely to recover from and unfortunately they have made several. Props to them for keeping up with intel for as long as they did but it was never going to last forever and it didn't

And this is what separates winners from losers in every sector out there. As we can see from the article, mismanagement didn't start with ATI but well before it.