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With large lay-offs, limited funds and delayed processors, many people predict a hellish future for AMD. But is it really all doom and gloom at AMD? We put the question to AMD
If you’d looked at an issue of Custom PC from 2004, you’d think that AMD was on an unstoppable roll. Its AMD64 architecture contained new features that Intel wouldn’t introduce until years later. In fact, even now the integrated memory controller is only being introduced with Intel’s Nehalem architecture.
However, the company has struggled to make ends meet since its acquisition of ATI, and the launch of Intel’s Core architecture. Is AMD really in as much trouble as reports suggest? We wanted AMD's side of the story, so we interviewed AMD’s technical director of sales and marketing, Giuseppe Amato.
‘2007 has been a very challenging year for AMD,’ admits Amato. ‘I don’t want to say it was a good experience, but it was a lesson.’ It’s also a lesson that AMD intends to act on very quickly. According to Amato, ‘AMD is now ‘structured to fly in the next coming years,’ so how does it intend to do this?
Job cuts
We’ve already seen the first steps towards making AMD a profitable company again in the form of a huge cut of 10 per cent of its workforce. ‘We are a business,’ explains Amato, ‘we had to make this employee reduction, because we have to be back in profit.’ However, Amato is confident that AMD could be back in the black as soon as Q3 (July to September) this year.
According to Amato, the new recently launched B3-stepping Phenom CPUs, including the triple-core X3 series, are going to generate enough revenue for AMD to break even this year. ‘The product that you see now in execution and being delivered by AMD will generate revenue,’ says Amato, ‘not immediately, but when you ship a product you need a couple of quarters to see the revenue.’
The Radeon HD 4000 series
‘After this it’s a matter of latency or inertia,’ he says, adding that ‘the future is very promising with the new products that are now shipping and in production.’ As well as this, he also alludes to a ‘new graphic family that will soon be introduced.’
Could this be the Radeon HD 4000-series that’s rumoured to be in development? This is very probable, but Amato is understandably reluctant to discuss it. He does, however, say that the ‘increasing performance and level of scalability that you will reach with a multi-GPU system will be much, much better,’ with the new GPUs.
Price cuts
It’s worth remembering that AMD has traditionally been the processor company that offered CPUs at a cheaper price than Intel’s. The K5, K6 and original Athlon chips were all designed to undercut Intel’s pricier chips, and it was only when AMD launched its AMD64 architecture, which was superior to Intel’s NetBurst architecture, that it started to charge a premium for its top-end Athlon 64 FX processors.
****With all the banter from the "Experts" I believe my decision to build an AMD powered PC is the smart thing to do**** No its really not. Well.... it is if you like wasting money. I try not to spend the same amount (or god forbid more) on an inferior product. It just doesnt make any sense.
Do you think Intel will keep those cpu prices low? do you think Nvidia will bother to make those faster gpus when no one is around to compete with them? I dont care how fast or even cheap intel or nvidia will be as long as their competitor AMD still exists then im going to buy AMD not for brand loyalty but to keep competition alive. I guess your all forgetting that way back if it werent for the k6 series ordianry peopl in thrid world countries like mine would never have afforded desktop pcs. Intel was never going to lower their overpriced almost like a 2ndhand car pentium 2 pcs. When AMDcame out with the k6 series thsi caused a blossoming of the pc industry in my country with internet shops, printing, graphics etc which used to be the enclave of the very rich. And if AMD bails or fails then we the consumers will go back to this very undesirable situtation where a monopoly rules over the market completely. So im sticking with AMD for the principle of it.
Do you think Intel will keep those cpu prices low? do you think Nvidia will bother to make those faster gpus when no one is around to compete with them? I dont care how fast or even cheap intel or nvidia will be as long as their competitor AMD still exists then im going to buy AMD not for brand loyalty but to keep competition alive. I guess your all forgetting that way back if it werent for the k6 series ordianry peopl in thrid world countries like mine would never have afforded desktop pcs. Intel was never going to lower their overpriced almost like a 2ndhand car pentium 2 pcs. When AMDcame out with the k6 series thsi caused a blossoming of the pc industry in my country with internet shops, printing, graphics etc which used to be the enclave of the very rich. And if MAD bails or fails then we the consumers will go back to this very undesirable situtation where a monopoly rules over the market completely. So im sticking with AMD for the principle of it.
With all the banter from the "Experts" I believe my decision to build an AMD powered PC is the smart thing to do, Fire alarms and Doomsday warnings remind me of "Mob" mentality. I have had no problems with their previous products, so reliability speaks volumes to me. I'll stick with loyalty over "Trick of the Week"
A good long winded topic on people for and against AMD and Intel. To be honest i think they need to learn the lesson quick and do something before nvidia, and intel push out the Ati nose, and then begin the forefront of Intel domination followed by its underdog VIA.
I have been saying to all my friends in 2007, that 2008 will be the year for AMD, live, death, rise, fall????? ... we'll see.
If only the 6600 was not as good as the best phenon for less money dam. If only the 3750x2 was not 1 year late to take on the 8800gtx and ultra There are alot of if onlys in AMD's hat but not realy anything else the 3 Core phenom is good idear on paper but realy what can you get a intel quad for these days the market gap between a fast duel core and the 6600 is just realy minute so the 3 core just wont be a mass seller me thinks. Salvation could come in the form of the 47-- series GPU's but again seeing the dismal gains nvidia made over the original 8800 series ATI will have to have done something radical remember the 29-- series (was late and crap) and then the 37-- was just late so mabey there is foward movement. (First company to come out with some decent scaling drivers for multi gpu deserves major cudose i hope for your sake its you ATI)
My new PC bits will arrive today. My Last Intel purchase was the 486 DX2 66. Intel has won me over. It's very sad that the peoples champion (AMD) can't win me over any longer. I will be unhappy to see them go, if they do disappear, but what can they really do? On the other hand let's stomp on Labour and rid the country of the lieing, deceitful ****'s. Early indications are that the country is waking up to a new England, governed by new promises.
i need to build a proxy/file server... its gonna be an AMD. my game rig is an intel atm which was purchased last year. my laptop is an intel purchased yesterday. however, if i built these systems 3 years ago, funnily enough, it would be the EXACT opposite.
Are out of buisness!, Without a shadow of a doubt!
I'm currently building my first Intel system since 2000! Since then, every time it's come to upgrade, AMD have been at the top of the heap. "Hardcore" consumers like us will always hold brands dear, but not as dear as low prices, innovative kit or through-the-roof speeds and performance. Intel has had a fantastic couple of years, just as AMD did between 2001-2006. There's nothing to stop them moving ahead once again, if they can come up with the goods in terms of price and speed. Or maybe move to a different marketplace; PVR and other home entertainment systems perhaps, or mobile data and communication packages.
Me, I hope they do bring out something new, Amd are a bit slow, but the tech is wright and you need this to move computer power on, eg Windows 95, 98, XP, Vista, we still use 32bit as a mainstream I believe we should be at a 64bit by now and maybe moving on to the next phase......so AMD, good luck and I do hope you survive.
LOL, what a pointless interview. Everything is gunna be Rosy according to this ***person*** - he is hardly going to say the company is in deep doo doo. What a waste of time, they may aswell had got Stepping A Phenom and interviewed that - atleast it would have provided more factual information. ***MODERATED FOR COARSE LANGUAGE - please keep it clean***
AMD really are in financial trouble and the company should really not be putting out a pretty picture from their own spin department. It doesn't matter how good you think your own product is or how competitive it is in the market place if the competition is kicking your ass on all fronts. CPU, Motherboard and GPU are all below par in price and performance. We know that once ATI announce a new card, Nvidia just announce a better product. AMD announce a CPU and Intel half their own price to out sell alternative from AMD. They really don't have the ability to compete on all those fronts. They should either offload something or sell up completely. Either that or only focus on the low end of the market and price accordingly. This is something he was trying to say they are doing but they are still getting hammered by everyone. I'm sorry but money talks and the competition appear to taking it all with better and cheaper products.
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