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AMD To Close Plants, Lay off 2300, Lose Gateway
cdrudge writes: "According to this article on CNN, AMD will be closing 2 plants in Austin, TX and also their operations in Penang, Malaysia due to slack demand. 2300 jobs will be cut in the process. The same article mentions Gateway dropping it's 'Select' line of computers. Their 'Select' line of computers were Gateway's only AMD-based systems. A Gateway spokesperson said 'We're consolidating all of our offering behind Intel, which was the biggest part of our mix already.'"
However, the line about Intel "aggressively pricing" their P4's is just so much CNN tripe. A quick look at Sharkey's Extreme Weekly CPU prices shows this to be BS.
(hint: top of the line AMD - 100 bucks, Intel -- 500 bucks)
- Cheers
- RLJ
just "1300" reductions in job. That place employs tons of people.
At least that's what the local newspapers say.
Disclaimer : I'm from penang. But I'm not in penang.
Mode (3) smart-aleck mode. Press * to return to main menu.
#1 - Don't have overheating protection
#2 - Break if you install the heatsink wrong.
I don't see that there is much to worry about here. I'd be more concerned if AMD wasn't laying-off people. As it is, I think people have enough computer power for the time being. How many MHz does the average person/business really need?
There are always going to be adolescents out there who will buy the latest/greatest hardware just for the sake of it(and god bless 'em--they get fleeced and absorb research costs while we level-headed folks get affordable technology); but real people have enough computers right now.
If you have a problem with my views, REPLY, don't moderate!
Somehow I'm not surprised. Gateway has been consistently using AMD as a bargaining chip with Intel. They have now twice adopted AMD lines and dropped them when they thought they could get a better deal from Intel.
I suspect that AMD will pull through this, and most likely will re-activate the foundries when they need more capacity, though that might take some time as they still haven't reached 100% at Dresden yet and they're already transitioning to 0.13 micron process.
What does confuse me is why AMD consistently adopts such low selling prices. I think that people would still buy their processors even if they tacked on a minimum of $50 on the high end, if not even $100. A full base system based on AMD costs $400 these days and for that you can't even get a high end P4.
Sometimes the market economy and technology adoption just confuses me. I mean we've had Firewire (IEEE 1394) for almost a decade and it's only just now catching on, and even now with great resistance... go figure.
AMD is far from an upstart. They've been making semiconductors since 1969, although most of the initial line was made under license (i.e. they were more of a manufacturer than a maker).
In fact, they have been building chips to fit the PC platform nearly as long as Intel has. Take an old original IBM PC and fit an AMD 8088 clone in it and see what happens. Unfortunately, the inability to deliver a Pentium-class CPU in time (they were WAY behind Intel) hurt their revenue and market share a lot. Intel's "Pentium" name gained worldwide recognition - and left AMD in the dust.
Hopefully, AMD is not done yet, and like with the K5 they will be able to prop themselves up and surge ahead.
Hopefully.
- Ed.
the ability to overclock a chip says nothing for the quality of that chip .... i've never seen anyone throw away a processor out of a sun box because it couldnt be overclocked... besides, nobody overclocks in real situations, as it's known to cause computational errors. So, go ahead, buy your cheap $50 durons, and coverclock them to your heart's delight, but realize that that is NOT how businesses who buy systems operate, and what works in your house doesnt work for large companies.
Mooniacs for iOS and Android
Just looking at the folks carrying dual Athlon
systems: Legend Micro, Microway, Alienware,
Amax IT, Xi Computer, Adamant, Polywell.
'Life is like a spoonful of Drain-O, it feels good on the way down but leaves you feeling hollow inside'
Go to Pricewatch.com, I have bought many computer parts from places I've found by searching there.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
The top of the line AMD is a 1.4ghz T-bird on a 266mhz FSB. Which, you are right, is priced at ~100. (Marketing: apple [the fruit])
The top of the line Intel is a 2.0ghz on a 400mhz FSB. And actually the price is $570. (Marketing: orange)
You are right, the top of the line is ~$500, but Intel's top of the line carries larger numbers.
Of course, MHZ isn't an acurate scale of performance or power, but it is the scale looked at by home and business consumers.
To see where the price war is you need to look at the Pentium 4 1.4ghz (400mhz FSB). That little cpu is priced at $114. A very (price wise) competitive product. (Marketing: apple [the fruit])
It comes down to comparing apples with oranges, really. It is a nice way to try to prove a point, but still wrong.
Just remember, AMD was proud to use a mhz rating to describe its chips back when it held the highest.
Finally, the public can never be made aware of how little mhz has to do with actual performance because it already realize mhz isn't entirely accurate, it just isn't willing to invest the time and effort to investigate actual performace data.
I can see it now.
Circuit City Rep.: "Can I help you?"
Customer: "Yes, what does this mean: AMD Athlon 3.921k D.ALU"
Circuit City Rep.: "Derstern Arth.. Er, that's the number of additions it can do a minute."
Customer: "But it's cheaper than this Intel Pentium 4 2.0ghz. Something doesn't seem right, this must be a better computer. My old computer is only a 300mhz, what does that mean?"
Circuit City Rep.: "Well 2.0ghz is 2000mhz."
Customer: "I'll take the pentium."
The List of Grievances with Slashdot.
No, because intel will provide fully designed systems (cpu, motherboard, memory, etc), pre-built that Gateway can slap their name on them. AMD won't. When your scrapping for more money it helps that you can cut your design staff completely and outsource it.
See my homepage, where I detail the parts I used for my 1.4GHz Athlon machine for work. It's the third Athlon system I've built, preceeded by numerous 386/486/Pentium/PPro/K6 systems.
Antec has a new 350W p/s that makes a good, inexpensive choice for a single-CPU system, and they sell a nice midtower case that comes with it. I say "inexpensive" relative to the PC Power & Cooling gear I usually get.
Toy stores: MWave.com for selection, Newegg.com for price. I've bought a lot of stuff from MWave, haven't tried Newegg yet but will next chance I get, they're supposed to be good. EMS Computing has great prices on Antec stuff, I bought from them once, but their site is s-l-o-w.
Perhaps you should check your facts before spreading FUD?
AMD *is* releasing new processors shortly. Do you not remember the Palomino cored AthlonXP (or whatever they actually decide to call it)? This is destined to ship within the next month at around 1.53GHz.
And they aren't making a killing in the corporate market, so don't even try and pull that one out of your ass and call it objective fact. Meh.
Um could you make worse guesses & maybe take a look at facts?
Here are some quick notes:
1- um they will still be named Athlon... In fact AMD AthlonXP 1600 is how I've seen a few system configs listed... & The whole AthlonXP series is set to release within the next few weeks... In fact it could be within 2 weeks if things go well...
2- um this is so silly I won't comment... Though I wish this was the case...
3- Compaq announced a 1.2 Ghz athlon4 based laptop yesterday... 1.1 Ghz Athlon4's were already out & have been for ~1 month...
I will add that AMD is still selling out all CPU's they can make... This alone states that demand has stayed high for their product & we should not worry that AMD is in trouble...
we are all invisible unless we choose otherwise
Intel is pulling the same bullshit. They want to squeeze out the competition so they best way to do that is to force large outlets of computers to stick w/one chip vendor.
I don't think that's the issue, here. Vendors get a discount for a line of computers (e.g., Dimension, OptiPlex) that use exclusively Intel processors. That's essentially why the Select line exists: to sell Athlons without jeopardizing Intel discounts on other lines. I'm not aware of additional discounts for total exclusivity.
On the otherhand, Intel's P4's have some thermo monitoring thingy which will shut the processor down in case the heat rises too high, thereby saving the P4's life. This might be the reason why using Intel chips are less costly.
Hey dumbasses:
AMD is closing its oldest 0.7 micron flash fabs, not anything to do with newer flash or microprocessors.
Intel's ass is still grass.
Dont' let the market's knee-jerk reaction fool you.
Fabs 14 and 15 are antiquated. They were built in 1985. They do not manufacture flash, Athlons nor Durons. They manufacture chips for a business that was sold to LSCC called Vantis. These fabs were not being used because LSCC has a 9 month inventory on hand. Now was a good time to renegotiate the contract manufacturing with LSCC and shift the responsibility to a lower cost contract fab such as TSMC. In doing so AMD cuts costs.
Also, Gateway has not been a huge AMD customer anyway.