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AMD Loses $1.2 Billion and Its CEO

Barence writes to mention that after seeing almost $1.2 billion in second quarter losses, AMD's CEO has resigned. Stepping up to fill his shoes will be Dirk Meyer, previous company president and COO. "Only two years ago, the company held a processor performance lead and was making serious inroads into Intel's market. However, AMD failed to keep pace with Intel's Core technology, and it once again surrendered its performance crown at the dawn of the multicore era. Those problems were exacerbated by the bungled launch of the Barcelona processors, which prompted Ruiz to make a frank public apology last December."

373 comments

  1. i hope they keep up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The last thing i want is an intel/ms only world. Bad enough MIPS and PPC have gone the way of the dodo more or less. AMD is the last bastion of creativity in CPUs.

    1. Re:i hope they keep up by mrchaotica · · Score: 4, Informative

      I don't want to see AMD fail either, but remember: we'll always have ARM.

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    2. Re:i hope they keep up by Mordok-DestroyerOfWo · · Score: 5, Funny

      Thank heavens for the second amendment!

      --
      "Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
    3. Re:i hope they keep up by dedazo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Not to worry. History (or the Slashdot version of it at least) will remember AMD being taken down by the evil Intel, and things like AMD having taken to lead in the desktop CPU market or the fact that buying ATI was a phenomenal mistake will be ignored.

      Companies don't die, they're just taken down viciously by companies we don't like.

      --
      Web2.0: I love when people Flickr my cuil and digg my boingboing until my google is reddit and I start to yahoo
    4. Re:i hope they keep up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      SPARC too...
      what is happening to the world? Lots of cheap and fast enough instead of lots of pow and crazy fast?

    5. Re:i hope they keep up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      But intel makes processors for Macs now. According to /. rhetoric, they thus cannot be evil.

    6. Re:i hope they keep up by xhrit · · Score: 3, Interesting

      We have the Cell.
      Long live Transmeta.

    7. Re:i hope they keep up by GameboyRMH · · Score: 4, Funny

      They can pry my DS from my cold, dead hands!

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    8. Re:i hope they keep up by ArTourter · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The thing is, the last thing INTEL wants at this point is for AMD to disappear as well. Their competition over the last few years has driven the industry forward and I doubt INTEL doesn't recognise this.

      The death of AMD would be rather bad for Intel in the long run as well as for the industry.

    9. Re:i hope they keep up by larry+bagina · · Score: 4, Interesting

      desktop PPC is an evolutionary dead end, but it's still in consoles, embedded, and servers.

      --
      Do you even lift?

      These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

    10. Re:i hope they keep up by melstav · · Score: 1

      Bad enough MIPS and PPC have gone the way of the dodo more or less.

      Don't forget about SPARC.

    11. Re:i hope they keep up by ScreamingCactus · · Score: 0, Redundant

      If AMD dies, someone else will take their place.

      --
      The path to enlightenment is truly through homemade drugs!
    12. Re:i hope they keep up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Good luck finding an ARM mainboard that could be even remotely on par performance-wise to the typical PC from 5 years ago. ARM is for cellphones, handhelds, embedded controllers and small/slow stuff. It's aimed to low power consumption at any cost, and sucks badly at everything else. Even networking stuff sucks on the ARM due to cache limitations, that's why you find MIPSes on routers, even the cheapest ones, rather than ARMs.

      Now, if only Apple didn't do the wrong thing by abandoning the PPC years ago...

    13. Re:i hope they keep up by elrous0 · · Score: 2, Funny

      If Boogie Nights is to be believed, any guy named "Dirk Meyer" should have no problem keeping it up.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    14. Re:i hope they keep up by mrchaotica · · Score: 2, Interesting

      ARM is for cellphones

      Exactly, and the cellphone market dwarfs the PC market -- and the gulf is only going to get larger in the long run.

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    15. Re:i hope they keep up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      frothy pee wee

    16. Re:i hope they keep up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I don't want to see AMD fail either, but remember: we'll always have ARM.

      Don't be so sure. Intel has been convicted of anti-competitive practices as a monopolist before. Right now, they're concentrating on AMD. But they've shown themselves willing to grab as much of every market as possible. How long do you think ARM will be able to last if Intel throws the full weight of the company at it, secure in the knowledge that Intel can let the other processor family development slide, once AMD is no longer breathing down their necks?

    17. Re:i hope they keep up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yep, Sun hasn't done anything with their Niagara chips that is at all creative. Nor has IBM with their Power processors.

      Oh, do you mean the desktop only world? There's a lot more than just the desktop.

    18. Re:i hope they keep up by Korin43 · · Score: 4, Funny

      No, you're behind the times. That was LAST year. This year, everything Apple does is evil and non-creative. Get with the times man!

    19. Re:i hope they keep up by alan.briolat · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Speaking purely as a cynic, Intel were dragged into having to innovate by somebody (AMD) producing something better and also instruction-set compatible. That meant they had to invest some money in R&D rather than continuing to push their fairly abysmal P4 line because there was no choice. The emergence of AMD as a serious contender is what has done the industry good in this instance.

      I'm sure that without actual competition, we'd be in the usual position (again) of a company not bothering to innovate because their profit margins are fatter without doing so.

      --
      I swear we should be allowed to give mod points to sigs... "-1, Offtopic"
    20. Re:i hope they keep up by XPACT · · Score: 3, Interesting

      AMD had first the 64-bit x86 processor for the mass market. Unfortunately there was no Windows 64 bit to force the market to adopt the 64-bit processing for every day needs. Or may be Intel and Microsoft are in the same bed.

    21. Re:i hope they keep up by SupremoMan · · Score: 1

      I hope one day the dodo references will go the way of the dodo.

    22. Re:i hope they keep up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thank you for that, Artie McStrawman.

    23. Re:i hope they keep up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Uh. Just to note: Intel make ARM chips. They're one of the largest manufacturers of ARM chips (ARM themselves mostly just license designs to manufacturers like intel and texas instruments). When you buy an "ARM" device, if it says "xscale", you're supporting intel.

      Now, intel are now competing directly with ARM chips with their new "atom" chips, so they might kill xscale off I guess.

    24. Re:i hope they keep up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      For full disclosure, Dedazo, you should make your sig "I work at Microsoft".
      At least for the weasely comments like this one.

    25. Re:i hope they keep up by markov_chain · · Score: 1

      Who else has the fabs to compete with Intel? IBM? TI?

      --
      Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
    26. Re:i hope they keep up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Guess what? Intel sold its XScale divission to Marvell two years ago.

    27. Re:i hope they keep up by Kneo24 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And how exactly was buying ATI a mistake? Every since AMD bought ATI, ATI's driver support has became significantly better. ATI cards have usually had better hardware than NVidia's cards. With the improvement in Driver support plus the better hardware and at lower prices (I hope AMD isn't losing money for the lower cost of these cards), ATI is now finally king of the hill in the GPU segment.

    28. Re:i hope they keep up by Cocoshimmy · · Score: 5, Informative

      um...there is a 64bit version of windows, XP64, which Microsoft developed specifically for AMD's 64bit processors since at that time Intel was still pushing Itanium. This was available for public consumption not too long after AMD's processors were released and at that time only ran on AMD processors since they were the only producer of 64bit x86 processors. There is also a 64bit version of Vista available which runs on both Intel and AMD CPUs.

    29. Re:i hope they keep up by murr · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Guess what? Intel sold its XScale divission to Marvell two years ago.

      Did they really have to buy a processor manufacturing division just to make a bunch of fancy Spider-Man action figures?

    30. Re:i hope they keep up by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 2, Informative

      PPC has gone the way of the dodo more or less

      PPC is everywhere. Wii, PS3, XBOX360. IBM's big iron is all PPC. Power5, Power6

      If you want a desktop PC look at what YellowDog Linux has to offer. Here's all of the hardware they support.

      Hell even look under the Wiki entry for PPC will show all the current Power/RISC hardware, PPC being one such implementation.

    31. Re:i hope they keep up by magus_melchior · · Score: 1

      Either you're new, or you haven't noticed the rabid Apple critics in the comments lately.

      --
      "We are Microsoft. You shall be assimilated. Competition is futile."
    32. Re:i hope they keep up by petermgreen · · Score: 1

      Actually there have been 64 bit versions of windows for quite some time, first for alpha, then for itanium and finally for x64.

      IMO the real reason 64 bit didn't catch on sooner is it is only in the past couple of years that 4GB of memory has come down to prices where ordinary people can afford it. The ability to use more memory is the only major reason to move to 64 bit.

      Ms has also been putting pressure on hardware vendors to support 64 bit through the vista logo program.

      It doesn't help that a lot of motherboards don't support more than 4GB of address space even with a 64 bit OS rendering using a 64 bit OS pretty pointless.

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
    33. Re:i hope they keep up by Legion_SB · · Score: 1

      Except what spurred them away from the abysmal P4 line wasn't investing R&D money to try and beat AMD.

      Instead, they basically had the solution dropped in their laps when their Israeli design team made a mobile processor (Pentium-M) that made the P4 look like the piece of crap it was. It really drove home to Intel how much of a dead end their current approach (creating CPUs with endlessly long pipelines to chase the GHz purple dragon) was. If not for the Pentium-M, who knows how long Intel would have held the course?

      --
      'a';DROP TABLE users; SELECT * FROM DATA WHERE name LIKE '%'... if you're reading this, it didn't work.
    34. Re:i hope they keep up by Chandon+Seldon · · Score: 1

      I don't think you understand the scales involved. Next you'll be saying that Microsoft is going to crush IBM, or that Greenland is going to invade Canada.

      --
      -- The act of censorship is always worse than whatever is being censored. Always.
    35. Re:i hope they keep up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      At this point, I think Cells are more relevant than ARMs, at least when you consider what might be the biggest threat to Intel in the consumer market. Given the companies behind them (IBM, Sony and Toshiba) and their use in gaming and other areas, there's a possibility that they could eventually become a real competitor to Intel and AMD, especially since they're not saddled with all the baggage that comes with x86. ARM would seem, at least to me, as a technology that's destined for embedded use and won't gain much adoption beyond that.

      I think it will partially depend on the nature of new software developments. If the trend continues and we see more use of audio/video and the like, the Cell could be well-positioned to take advantage of that, since it has specialized cores that work well for those applications. If we start to do other things with our increased computing power instead, the Cell will be less of a player.

    36. Re:i hope they keep up by Jorophose · · Score: 2, Informative

      ATI purchase was a phenomenal mistake?

      You've got to be kidding me. What was AMD to do against Nehalem then, pray tell? Merge with nVidia? Remember nVidia's outrageous terms for merger? Yeah. Like they're going to do that. Instead they swallowed ATI, albeit now they've got a stomach ache, and produced (possibly, I'm wondering about workstation cards) the greatest video card ever, the HD4870 X2. The best chipsets are also AMD/ATI, like the 780G and its sister chipsets.

      Not to mention although Puma and Fusion can't take Intel's CPUs head-on, the entire platform is so much better.

      No my friend, the ATI purchase was necessary. Else today AMD would be bunk.

    37. Re:i hope they keep up by Glasswire · · Score: 1

      This is idiotic on so many levels. For one thing Intel is the one innovating right now, AMD is coasting, trying to stretch the K10 design into lasting the next 3 years.
      Also Intel is actually the strongest corporate force preventing Ms from dominating as it's support for Linux, esp in new small devices, is on the way to making Ms irrelevant.

    38. Re:i hope they keep up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >Thank heavens for the second amendment!

      SP2?

    39. Re:i hope they keep up by drsmithy · · Score: 1

      Unfortunately there was no Windows 64 bit to force the market to adopt the 64-bit processing for every day needs.

      That's because there was no demand. Even today, 64 bit is still mostly pointless for average users (although this will probably change during 2009).

    40. Re:i hope they keep up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      QED, my friend.

    41. Re:i hope they keep up by dotancohen · · Score: 1

      They can pry my DS from my cold, dead hands!

      Seriously, I always try to buy from the runner up or underdog in any industry: cars, microprocessors, anything. Competition is good, and more often than not, the underdog has better price/performance/quality than the market leader. Such is the case with AMD, which I really love.

      --
      It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
    42. Re:i hope they keep up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm actually curious, are you trying to be funny, are you doing the usual "bwah, I don't like what he's saying so he must be a shill, bwah" sheep act, or do you actually knows who he works for?

    43. Re:i hope they keep up by HJED · · Score: 1

      err... until it crashed der!

      --
      null
    44. Re:i hope they keep up by Thundersnatch · · Score: 1

      It's Dirk Diggler, not Dirk Meyer...

    45. Re:i hope they keep up by Kjella · · Score: 1

      For ATI it was good, sure. But if the purchase costs knock the legs under AMD processors I don't think you can consider it a big win for AMD or consumers in total. Basicly, it's the money AMD should have had to produce a Core-killer. As for ATI vs nVidia, I'd say ATI is a horsehead in front but not much more. It's not exactly a big cash cow they can plow into processors.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    46. Re:i hope they keep up by AbRASiON · · Score: 1

      You might want to look at sales numbers as well as profit / loss reports rather than how it seems from an end user perspective.

      AMD / ATI is in serious, serious pain and need some major money soon

    47. Re:i hope they keep up by ScrewMaster · · Score: 1

      But intel makes processors for Macs now.

      No kidding: for a typical Mac user that fact must be inducing some significant cognitive dissonance.

      1. Mac is good.

      2. But Mac use Intel.

      3. Intel Evil.

      4. Horror! Mac now Evil too!

      5. Goto 1.

      I've noticed a lot of Mac owners just sitting at their computers, not moving or speaking, but generating a lot of heat.

      --
      The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
    48. Re:i hope they keep up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apple fanboys are well versed in the techniques of doublethink. It's a nessecary component of being an Apple fanboy (or any kind of fanboy, really). For them, the Intel switch was fairly painless, especially since they could spread the "AMD is bad" meme, something they'd been wanting to do since the AMD x64 processors had been kicking the G5's ass for some time.

    49. Re:i hope they keep up by BrainInAJar · · Score: 1

      "AMD is the last bastion of creativity in CPUs."

      Have you checked out UltraSPARC T1 and the upcoming UltraSPARC Rock CPU's ? There's still creativity in microprocessors...

      By the way, T1 and T2 are also the only commercial open-source processor

    50. Re:i hope they keep up by BrainInAJar · · Score: 1

      except in this case, AMD's the underdog because it has lower price, performance and quality.

      Sometimes the underdog deserves to be there...

    51. Re:i hope they keep up by BadOPCode · · Score: 1

      I think Cell Processors are a creative design. Ok the headlining project PS3 was a bust. It's because Sony is a dumb ass and didn't put enough memory in their RAM, but they did overkill with the blu-ray and had a 50 GB removable media drive. But the design of the CPU seems solid. But I do love SPARC's.

    52. Re:i hope they keep up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Huh? There's still PPC in the form of Cell. You can always buy a PS3 and use it as a Linux machine.

    53. Re:i hope they keep up by triffidsting · · Score: 1

      And surprisingly, device drivers were lacking for all but the most rudimentary devices. No scanners, few printers - a total nightmare. Even Microsoft advised waiting and not using it because of the lack of support - they knew they were going to toss it out when Vista was released.

      --
      Non, je ne veux pas coucher avec toi ce soir.
    54. Re:i hope they keep up by triffidsting · · Score: 1

      With new machines shipping with 4gb of mem, I think that day is already here.

      --
      Non, je ne veux pas coucher avec toi ce soir.
    55. Re:i hope they keep up by drsmithy · · Score: 1

      With new machines shipping with 4gb of mem, I think that day is already here.

      Most new machines are not shipping with 4G of RAM.

    56. Re:i hope they keep up by dedazo · · Score: 1

      That would be #2, as usual.

      --
      Web2.0: I love when people Flickr my cuil and digg my boingboing until my google is reddit and I start to yahoo
    57. Re:i hope they keep up by Walter+Carver · · Score: 1

      Why a revolutionary dead end? For technical reasons or markering-economical ones?

  2. Stocks fall by Drakin020 · · Score: 4, Informative

    It appears their stocks have dropped 12% on this news.

    http://finance.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=NYSE:AMD

    --
    The greatest revenge in life is massive success.
    1. Re:Stocks fall by Mojo66 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      With AMD/ATI being the only competitor to Intel and Nvidia, their success guarantees low CPU/GPU prices. As soon as they'd go bankrupt, prices would go through the roof. My next toy will be a 4870.

    2. Re:Stocks fall by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      What?!?

      A company announces worse results than expected and the share price falls.

      Unheard of!

    3. Re:Stocks fall by phantomfive · · Score: 0, Troll

      It dropped 12% from its high yesterday, which was basically an artificial buildup in the hopes of something good. It is now at $4.6, which is roughly where it was before, I expect it will drop to $4.3 or even under $4 when this news settles. Remember, there is no way to properly value this company, the proper valuation is NEGATIVE because that's what profits are. Thus there is no bottom limit to what the stock will reach, it is only bound by the optimism of the stock's investors.

      --
      Qxe4
    4. Re:Stocks fall by soibudca · · Score: 1

      Actually it seems like the stock fell ~12% because they missed earning estimates for the quarter. The mood with respect to CEO change seems somewhat ambivalent. Ruiz was not popular with investors and largely blamed for running the company into the ground by not solving production problems. Some blog post level comments seem to suggest that bringing in Meyer as CEO is a mistake. Anyone from AMD / ATI out there want to pipe in on the mood in house? --snip-- ""From 2001 to 2006, Meyer led the companyâ(TM)s microprocessor business, overseeing related R&D, manufacturing, operations, and marketing." Right. Forget Ruiz, _THIS_ is the guy who is responsible for AMD's sorry state. Responsible for the horrible marketing. Responsible for manufacturing problems. Responsible for the failure of K10 (aka Bulldozer aka Core-killer aka the architecture which should have been 10h which should have kept AMD on top which should have arrived a while ago but won't for another two years). They really should have promoted somebody from ATI or the outside or, I don't know, ANYONE but Meyer. Sigh. "

    5. Re:Stocks fall by TubeSteak · · Score: 5, Informative

      Remember, there is no way to properly value this company, the proper valuation is NEGATIVE because that's what profits are.

      That's one of the dumber things I've heard today and it only holds true if you assume AMD is going to keep losing money until they have to sell off their desk chairs & keyboards in a bankruptcy auction.

      There is a lot more to valuing a company than "omg they lost GigaBucks this quarter!!1"

      The two basic numbers to work with are:
      A) whatever investors think it's worth
      B) what the company's assets and fundamentals represent

      A lot of times A is less than B.
      The attempted Microsoft buyout of Yahoo is a good recent example.
      Yahoo shares were/are trading in the low $20s even though MS offered in the low $30s

      --
      [Fuck Beta]
      o0t!
    6. Re:Stocks fall by BlackSnake112 · · Score: 1

      I thought $0 would be the bottom for any stock.

      And if it does reach $0 and the company doesn't fold. Time to buy a few billion shares at $0 per share. It never happen, but isn't a company dead when/if it's stock hits $0?

    7. Re:Stocks fall by IronWilliamCash · · Score: 3, Informative

      Remember, there is no way to properly value this company, the proper valuation is NEGATIVE because that's what profits are

      You sir could not less understand what you are talking about by making that kind of statement. Losing money during one quarter means nothing, even during one year, giving this company a negative stock value like your saying, would make them have to pay you to get stocks. Meaning the company would be worth a negative amount with all it's assests combined. If that was the case they would be bankrupt long ago because no one would invest in that kind of company.

    8. Re:Stocks fall by phantomfive · · Score: 0
      Then let me clarify myself:

      The only thing that matters (to the stock price) is profit. That is what gives stock its value, the dividends (sometimes people are willing to buy stock in a company that isn't paying dividends at the moment in hopes of getting a higher dividend later, these are called growth stocks). If the company gets broken up and sold, stock holders won't get much from that.

      So assuming AMD is eventually profitable (which has a good chance of happening), what is their eventual profit per share? No one knows. They have a huge debt that will take a long time pay down. So the value of the stock is only set by the best guesses of the stock owners. How good is that guess? If they get pessimistic, the stock could drop dramatically.

      It is probably an exaggeration to say the proper valuation is negative, but it is certainly not beyond the realm of possibility.

      --
      Qxe4
    9. Re:Stocks fall by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      >I thought $0 would be the bottom for any stock.

      Not for a company that has any liquid assets whatsoever.
      Long before the stock reaches zero, the auction value of
      their stuff plus the amount of cash on hand becomes part
      of the value, and even if the company is deep in debt, its
      creditors have some interest in the sustainability of the
      company so that they can be repaid.

    10. Re:Stocks fall by CodeBuster · · Score: 2, Informative

      Thus there is no bottom limit to what the stock will reach

      It cannot go lower than zero, that is why loses are limited when selling put options and theoretically unlimited when selling short (i.e. the share price could theoretically rise to infinity). Now obviously loses (negative profits) and the prospect of more to come in the future does not bolster expectations about the future value of the company, but when valuing a company one must look not only a short term results, but at what value might be obtained from either liquidating the assets OR taking valuable assets and putting them to more productive work thereby returning the company to profitability. This is what private equity firms and other big investors (like Carl Ichan) specialize in doing, buying losing firms at an attractive price and either turning them around for resale or efficiently liquidating the assets and winding down the operation.

    11. Re:Stocks fall by phantomfive · · Score: 1, Troll
      I very much DO understand what I am talking about by making that kind of statement. Negative profits, massive debt.......AMD loses more per share than many companies make, and they haven't made profit in a long time.

      It may very well be worth negative with all it's assets combined (assets really don't matter to the stock price, because stock holders won't be getting much if the company is liquidated). Are you certain that AMD can turn this ship around? If so, how long will it take? I am hoping they do, and I think they have a good chance, but they are right on the edge.

      --
      Qxe4
    12. Re:Stocks fall by MadnessASAP · · Score: 1

      Essentially when a stock reaches zero it means that the company as a whole is worth nothing. IT has no assets, no employees, no IP and no product. It would be nothing but a record in the governments books. When a company goes under (at least in theory) It's assets would be liquidated, likely at an auction, and the money handed over the its debtors and then its shareholders. \\

      Disclaimer: IANAMBA, IANASMA (I am not an MBA or a Stock Market Analyst)

      --
      I may agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to face the consequences of saying it.
    13. Re:Stocks fall by alexander_686 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Not true. A zero [or near zero] just means that the people who hold the equity have nothing left at stake. The company can have assets [liablities are normally higher at this point], employees, IP, product, etc. At this point the shareholders are pushed out and the bondholders take over. Take a look at K-Mart [now Sears] as an example. K-Mart went bust, bondholders took over [and became equity holders] and then they bought Sears.

    14. Re:Stocks fall by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How is this "Informative"? So you're saying that if Microsoft lost money this year, their valuation should be negative even though they are bathing in billions of cash? I think you should leave company valuations and price predictions to some of us who have degrees in business just as business people should stay out of writing code.

    15. Re:Stocks fall by jlf278 · · Score: 1
      >>the proper valuation is NEGATIVE because that's what profits are

      This gets 5, Informative??? A stock's value is always >= 0. The value of a company is a combination of assets, liabilities, cash flow, expecations, reputation, etc. Many, many, many companies have some losing quarters or even years. Even in the case where liabilities outweight everything else, the company declares bankrupcy and the stock becomes worthless. You aren't liable for damages because you owned the stock.

    16. Re:Stocks fall by Anne_Nonymous · · Score: 1

      >> the proper valuation is NEGATIVE because that's what profits are

      Perhaps the shareholders will give me a billion or so to take the company off their hands.

    17. Re:Stocks fall by besalope · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I very much DO understand what I am talking about by making that kind of statement. Negative profits, massive debt.......AMD loses more per share than many companies make, and they haven't made profit in a long time.

      No apparently you don't understand. In most cases debt financing of a company is cheaper than equity financing. With AMD trying to get back on its feet after the ATI debacle, lower Cost of Capital is the best approach. Their Debt to Equity ratio is also skewed due the drop in their stock price. If you actually looked at their financial statements, $920 million of the loss was from divesture of their Handheld and DTV product businesses. Between the R770 taking the lead in the graphics division with extremely competitive pricing aimed at quick market and deep market penetration and the overall server market constantly moving towards better power efficiency and integrated systems, AMD is fine and on track towards a recovery between Q3 and Q4.

    18. Re:Stocks fall by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We're here to kick green ass till it turns blue.

    19. Re:Stocks fall by Thelasko · · Score: 2, Informative

      B) what the company's assets and fundamentals represent

      I would replace the word asset with equity. AMD as a lot of assets ($11.2 billion) but they also have a lot of liabilities, or debt that has to be repaid ($8.6 billion). The liabilities must be paid before stock holders receive any money. Therefore, picking stocks based solely on the fact that the company has huge assets is a terrible idea.

      The stock price of a company that is not making money and carries quite a bit of debt is most likely determined by what people are willing to pay for it. Not based on assets. People are willing to pay for it because they think it will make money in the future. I doubt the equity is large enough to make a difference in the price.

      --
      One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
    20. Re:Stocks fall by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      B) what the company's assets and fundamentals represent

      Whatever value the company's assets have will belong to creditors, not shareholders, in the case of a bankruptcy. The company may continue to exist in some form, but current shareholders won't be a part of it.

    21. Re:Stocks fall by TruthfulLiar · · Score: 1

      AMD is a company with debt/equity ratio of 2.0 and an average profit margin of -9.8% for the past 10 years. I'd say a company that has lost 10% for 10 years has a dismal future ahead of it. So for your B option, assets + fundamentals, we have about $5/sh - $1.1/sh/year. (-10% of revenue/sh = -$1.1) EPS this year were about -$8; I'd say if ever a company could have a negative valuation, AMD would be in the running.

      Reminds me of a comment by Terry Pratchet in his Discworld book about opera. The owner was observing that he put opera in, but never got money out. The new owner looked at it differently: the opera house was a machine that you put money in and got opera out. AMD seems like the same thing: you put money in and get competition with Intel out. You certainly don't get money out!

    22. Re:Stocks fall by Crazyswedishguy · · Score: 2, Informative

      What I originally said is true

      Let me quote what you said:

      Remember, there is no way to properly value this company, the proper valuation is NEGATIVE because that's what profits are.

      The point that everyone above has made is that just because you have negative profits over a certain time period does not mean your valuation is negative.

      There are many ways to value a company, and although some companies trade at a multiple of their EBITDA, the most commonly used valuation tool in investment banks or consulting firms is the discounted cash flow analysis. Discounted cash flow analysis is technically the sum of all future cash flows of the company, discounted over time. This means that if you can show that profits are not going to remain negative, the valuation could very well be positive.
      A very simple example of this is that most new companies and startups have negative EBITDA in the first few years. Obviously this isn't the case of AMD (not a new company), but it doesn't mean they can't turn it around or don't already have solid strategic plans to do so, with new products in the pipeline, etc.

      So no, "the proper valuation is NEGATIVE because that's what profits are" is not a true statement.

      If you don't believe me, take a look at companies like GM, which had negative operating income for several quarters in a row.

      --
      This space up for sale.
    23. Re:Stocks fall by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Wow, you are a genius. You managed to pick ONE LITTLE POINT THAT IS TECHNICALLY INCORRECT and ignore the rest of my post. Good job. You are smarter than me. You win, and AMD still might go down the tubes.

      --
      Qxe4
    24. Re:Stocks fall by chubs730 · · Score: 1

      Don't count out VIA. In recent years they've begun focusing more on the general consumer. They've always been tops in small form factor anyways.

    25. Re:Stocks fall by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      I only hope you are right. In my opinion, AMD designs better chips (can't say so much for the manufacturing, but that is where Intel wins), and who would like that monster Intel to be the only game around? But this company is on the edge, and if you are buying AMD stock, it is a possibility you should at least consider.

      --
      Qxe4
    26. Re:Stocks fall by Wooky_linuxer · · Score: 2, Interesting

      No, you made a mistake here. The only thing that matters to stock is the POSSIBILITY of profit. Say you have a company that had a fenomenal loss this quarter, but are completely sure it will have tremendous success next one. You would buy it, and so would everyone that knew, driving the price up. Stock market is an exercise of futurology. I would go as far as say that what matters to stock is profit based on stock market itself, not the company.

      Think SCO here. Would you buy their stock when they claimed they owned Linux? As a short term investment, it looked like a good-buy. The price went up, due solely to the percetion of the market that it might own something from Linux or IBM. And SCO bussiness wasnt bringing them any revenue by then.

      --
      Where is that guy who'd die defending what I had to say when I need him?
    27. Re:Stocks fall by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Slashdot: where the entire conversation consists of people trying to point out where other people are wrong. Good point, the future profits are what matter. But I didn't make a mistake.

      --
      Qxe4
    28. Re:Stocks fall by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Everyone dies.

    29. Re:Stocks fall by setagllib · · Score: 1

      If that even worked, you'd inherit all the debts as well. If they were willing to give you a billion or so to relieve them of the debts, it means the debts are much more than the billion.

      Good luck with that :)

      --
      Sam ty sig.
    30. Re:Stocks fall by Crazyswedishguy · · Score: 1
      What? Did you actually read your post again before posting any replies? Here it is, if it makes any sense to you:

      It dropped 12% from its high yesterday, which was basically an artificial buildup in the hopes of something good. It is now at $4.6, which is roughly where it was before, I expect it will drop to $4.3 or even under $4 when this news settles. Remember, there is no way to properly value this company, the proper valuation is NEGATIVE because that's what profits are. Thus there is no bottom limit to what the stock will reach, it is only bound by the optimism of the stock's investors.

      I don't see what else there is in this post that I would actually comment on, except the absurd statement that there is "no bottom limit to what the stock will reach" (yes there is: $0.00).
      Your response to CodeBuster's post was just as dumb as your response to mine. I think CodeBuster's main point in his post was to argue your idea that valuation is negative because profits are negative. I quote him:

      but when valuing a company one must look not only a short term results

      So by responding to his post with some ridiculous statement about eigenvectors (I don't mean to judge, but you don't seem to know much about business) and still writing

      My point is, I don't really care. What I originally said is true

      ... you're just proving how dumb you are.

      If you still don't understand, here's a brief description of events:
      You: stupid statement about stocks being able to drop infinitely and how valuation is negative because profits are negative.
      CodeBuster: response to your post explaining why both your statements are wrong.
      You: "I don't really care. What I originally said is true" (obscured by a bunch of bull crap about eigenvectors first)
      Me: "No, it's not". I explain why.
      You: Try to make it seem like you had any other valid point in your post.

      You win, and AMD still might go down the tubes.

      Yeah, I think we both agree that AMD might not be in a good position right now and I'm definitely not suggesting that I'm going to buy their stock, but that wasn't the point of your original post, which you were arguing was true.

      --
      This space up for sale.
    31. Re:Stocks fall by Courageous · · Score: 1

      Um. Well, yeah, he really did kind of overlook that you pointed out future profit potentials in the very post he was contradicting.

      But to keep up the Slashdot ritual, how are we to interpret the meaning of negative stock value? You invest, and then you owe money? I'm not even sure what that metaphor is supposed to represent.

      C//

    32. Re:Stocks fall by Courageous · · Score: 1

      Intel is designing "better" chips at the moment, where "better" is defined as the chips buyers want to buy. That is the problem.

      It's no longer an issue of buyers not buying AMD because they don't know AMD is better. It's an issue, largely, of them knowing AMD is not better.

      Don't get me wrong. I am an AMD investor. I wish it weren't true.

      C//

    33. Re:Stocks fall by Courageous · · Score: 1

      Problem here is that he seemed to be (to me) to be "deliberately overstating for effect," and for some odd reason unwilling to admit it. I remember this funny phrase I heard once: "Man, that guy did a 180 so fast it was almost a 360". Obviously figurative, but funny.

      "AMD's stock is so untrustable right now, if you invest you might actually end up owing /them/ money."

      That would be funny, but obviously untrue.

      Oh well.

      C//

    34. Re:Stocks fall by Crazyswedishguy · · Score: 1

      I agree that he was probably overstating and he's not as dumb as he insists on appearing. I mean, I've heard people say "the stock dropped 200%". I ended up looking at his user history, and when he posts on topics he knows he doesn't sound as dumb.

      The problem is that he maintains that he's right on something that he clearly doesn't seem to have a good grasp of. Profit does not directly translate into valuation, period.
      The funny thing is that he tries to defend his position by obscuring it with mathematical terms like "eigenvectors". I was an engineering major, so although I wouldn't say I've used eigenvectors in a while, I know what they are. And now I work in business, and I sure as hell know I don't use eigenvectors when building a discounted cash-flow model :P

      In any case, Slashdot is a place where anyone can be an expert on anything. Everyone will post a somewhat stupid comment now and then (some more than others), but if you do that don't go on insisting that you're right.

      --
      This space up for sale.
    35. Re:Stocks fall by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      You: Try to make it seem like you had any other valid point in your post.

      What you are saying here seems to be that the entire point of my original post was to declare to have been to declare to the world that stocks actually can go under $0. No, I really did have a point, and that really wasn't it.

      --
      Qxe4
    36. Re:Stocks fall by Crazyswedishguy · · Score: 1
      Ok, I've taken your entire post (minus sig) without removing anything else, and broken it down into what I think are the main elements:

      It dropped 12% from its high yesterday, which was basically an artificial buildup in the hopes of something good. It is now at $4.6, which is roughly where it was before,

      1. Ok, good observation, but this really can't be your main point, right? I mean, this stuff happens all the time during quarterly or annual earnings reports. Stock goes up or down in anticipation of results, and the results aren't what was expected.

      I expect it will drop to $4.3 or even under $4 when this news settles.

      2. Alright, I see where you're going with this. You're saying AMD stock is probably going to keep falling based on the recent performance as the news sinks in. Valid point, I think many investors will agree that AMD is in trouble, and this will drive stock price down. I don't think anyone needs to comment on this.

      Remember, there is no way to properly value this company, the proper valuation is NEGATIVE because that's what profits are.

      3. Seems like this is where you were trying to be insightful (observe the caps for emphasis)... If you already made the point you wanted to make (that stock is going to keep falling), you wouldn't need to add this. So I take this as being one of your main points, and this is what I responded to in my post.

      Thus there is no bottom limit to what the stock will reach, it is only bound by the optimism of the stock's investors.

      4. Your last point. It makes no sense so I guess it was just dramatic exaggeration, but note that my initial post was NOT in response to this comment, but in response to (3).

      In short, (1) and (2) are perfectly fine comments although they don't really add much value. (3) is the one I responded to and it's just plain wrong. (4) is wrong too, but who cares.
      You should really just stop insisting on being right on this. I'm wasting my time at the office right now responding to your post.

      No, I really did have a point, and that really wasn't it.

      What is the point you were trying to make?
      If you want, I'll let you change as many words as you want to make a different point, ok? Just don't say that valuation is negative because profits are negative.

      I'm not trying to be a jerk, but you're being really stubborn. If you have a point, here's your chance to make it.

      --
      This space up for sale.
    37. Re:Stocks fall by DarkProphet · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Maybe next time you shouldn't try to be clever, and can just get to the point. You know, for all of us who obviously aren't as smart as you think you are.

      --
      What could possibly hurt the security of the American people more than giving our own government the ability to hide its
  3. For me, it's all about the graphics. by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

    For me, it's all about the graphics. Last computer I bought, I got an Intel CPU, since that was the only way I could get decent 3D. Fortunately, I had little need for high performance. I only needed passable 3D and stability.

    Anyone know what the status of ATI/AMD open source 3D is these days? This will seriously affect my next purchasing decision. If it's any good, then AMD (via ATI, at any rate) will be getting my money.

    --
    SJW n. One who posts facts.
    1. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by coolsnowmen · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I would rather drop a cheap nvidia card in a machine than deal with intel graphics 3d acceleration problems.

    2. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      CPU != GPU

    3. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by bigstrat2003 · · Score: 1

      Last computer I bought, I got an Intel CPU, since that was the only way I could get decent 3D.

      Clarify something here for me: what the hell does your CPU have to do with it? Your GPU is what's pushing the pixels, that's the key component.

      --
      "16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
    4. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Translation, he wants a 3D chip with an open source driver.

      The only way to get that is to buy an Intel board which necessitates an Intel CPU.

    5. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Serious question - what do you mean by getting an intel CPU for "decent 3D"?

      As far as I'm aware, unless you're at the absolute highest price bracket available, AMD has CPUs matching the performance of Intel's CPUs, and at half the cost. Is there some way in which this isn't true for "decent 3d"?

    6. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by Scotteh · · Score: 1

      From what I've heard, Intel graphics cards are much more Linux-friendly. My brother had a really hard time getting his old laptop working with an nVidia graphics card.

    7. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thanks for explaining. Still doesn't make sense, but that's his choice :)

    8. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by Dan93 · · Score: 3, Informative

      CPU != GPU

      He was probably talking about the Intel GPU.

    9. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by serviscope_minor · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Last computer I bought, I got an Intel CPU, since that was the only way I could get decent 3D.

      Clarify something here for me: what the hell does your CPU have to do with it? Your GPU is what's pushing the pixels, that's the key component.

      You may not have noticed, but Intel are the #1 GPU maker, in terms of sales and quality/stability/openness of drivers. Last time I checked you need an Intel CPU, since the GPU is integrated in to the chipset.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    10. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by bigstrat2003 · · Score: 1

      If anyone is using an Intel GPU, they aren't getting "decent 3D". Intel's GPUs are shit... or at least, every one I've run across was. If you want to get halfway-decent 3D, the first thing you should do with your Intel GPU is throw it out and slap an ATI/nVidia board in there.

      --
      "16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
    11. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by MarcQuadra · · Score: 1

      Sorry, that's not so anymore, nor has it been since the Core 2 came out. The Core 2 come in variants that are stripped-down and cheap, without being super-slow.

      I don't have the time to do all the research right now, but Intel has been trouncing AMD in the price/performance category for quite a while, and AMD keeps falling farther and farther behind.

      --
      "Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
    12. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by serviscope_minor · · Score: 4, Informative

      I didn't even know Intel made graphics cards!

      Only integrated graphics, as far as I know.

      The Intel integrated graphics is Crap. This is well documented. Not only is the hardware somewhat anemic, Intel does not give the engineers time to workaround all the bugs, so the drivers never mature to the state they should be in.

      The hardware is low-end (and low power, which is good). The drivers ahve always proven rock-solid to me. And all the features work out of the box with no tweaking. There was a bug related to screens larger than 2048x2048 for 800 series chips. This is well documented in xorg, and is unlikely to be fixed. What awful bugs are there in the 900 series? I've never had a graphics related crash from any Intel GPUs.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    13. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by Scotteh · · Score: 1

      My mistake. I didn't mean to say Intel graphics cards. I was talking about laptop hardware. I've been told to look for laptops that are entirely "Intel Inside" (not Intel CPU and ATI graphics or something) because it will most likely be supported easily in Linux.

    14. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by John+Jamieson · · Score: 1

      Get some sleep, you are not making sense.

      note, I am assuming it is sleep deprivation or drugs.
      But then again, maybe you created a BOT to do /. posts, and it just screwed up. lol
      If you did write one, you have to post a link to the code! But with a GPL 3 licence please, I wouldn't want MS to be able to use it, just think of /. being filled with MS fanboy jibberish! (yes, I know MS could technically use GPL 3.0, but they claim it is viral, and then they might have to opensource everything, lol)

    15. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by joostje · · Score: 1

      Clarify something here for me: what the hell does your CPU have to do with it?

      Until recently, the intel graphics cards were the only ones that had open source 3d drivers. So you have to get intel graphics cards, and thus(?) an intel CPU

    16. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by John+Jamieson · · Score: 1, Troll

      Well, if you are looking for PURE open source drivers right now, Intel may be your only choice.

      If you are looking for something that works, and has OS drivers coming in the future, it is not so cut and dried.

      Example, My wife has an dual core Turion, and I have a Core2Duo Centrino.

      My Centrino is all sorts of grief in Ubuntu and Mandriva (and Vista). The wife's has been flawless.

      Examples?
      I cannot play a movie in a 3D desktop, she can.
      I have constant problems trying to get wireless drivers to work in mine(native or ndis), I just install or upgrade on hers and it works.

      Even in windows, I have a difficult time playing simple 3D games in Vista on the Centrino, so I installed XP. Yes, the Intel engineers seem to to have gotten time to work out the flaws in Vista. (nor will they I hear)

    17. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by sumdumass · · Score: 1

      Intel GPU's aren't GPU's in the same sense as a Nvidia or ATI GPU. They rely heavily on system memory and system processing power. This is why a strong processor is needed with them and why the intel graphics don't hold a candle to ATI and Nvidia graphics on games and so on.

      When you think of Intel graphics, think of "win modem" instead of a real hardware modem. The reasons intel graphics are easier to support in linux and other alternative operating systems is due the the development of graphics subsystems and 3d altogether. It used to be that everything was done in the systems and the 3d accelerator just needed to support storing and combining the data. I remember years ago when I got my first 8 meg video card and could see 3d graphics. I them saw a huge performance increase by installing a 3DFX voodoo 3d graphics accelerator which could only do 3d and you had to cable the 2d graphic through it. But almost everything other then what is absolutely necessary for displaying the 3d was done by CPU. Eventually, the GPU concept was made and a lot of the processing was off loaded directly to the video card to get what we commonly refer to today as a GPU. BTW, I still have a few video overlay cards that at one time were necessary for proper DVD decoding and playback. Now the decoding is handled on chip by graphics cards or in software because the processors and memory are powerful enough to handle it. It wasn't always the case.

    18. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by puto · · Score: 1

      Intel has made graphic chips for years. If you have someone just crunching numbers, wood processing, that is all you need.

      And Intel does provide complete documentation and creates linux drivers.

      Sound like you just got your geek card.

      Puto

      --
      The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
    19. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by chrysrobyn · · Score: 1

      What awful bugs are there in the 900 series?

      The firmware needs to be patched to support 1400x1050, which is very common on laptops. In Linux, we usually accomplish that with 915resolution, although I've heard newer versions of Xorg build the workaround right in.

    20. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by 0xABADC0DA · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The hardware is low-end (and low power, which is good).

      Are you sure about the power? I got their new atom board with Intel graphics and everything minus processor and peripherals draws about 25 watts. I'm assuming their graphics is drawing most of this power. If not, Intel have some pretty inefficient other chips on there.

      With a 4w processor I didn't expect 30w just to turn it on with no drives or peripherals.

      Incidentally, that mobo (BOXD945GCLF) is really poor compared to any of the many AMD systems I've made, built from cheapest mobos even. It draws an excessive amount of power, the bios is slow and buggy, has flaky rgb output, etc. Hoping AMD gets its act together again...

    21. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by andreyvul · · Score: 1

      If you have someone just crunching numbers, wood processing, that is all you need.

      So the Intel GPUs are powerful enough to render porn in real time?

      --
      proud caffeine whore
    22. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by k-zed · · Score: 3, Informative

      Haven't experienced a crash yet? Then try a dual monitor setup with an intel 945 (even when it works, it actually often draws garbage all over the screen... I haven't seen something like that since the DOS days).

      The xorg intel drivers suck - but "luckily", they can't possibly suck as much as the ATI drivers... which are still, after all the open sourcing and linux support and whatnot, completely unusable. (At my company, we do some end-user linux OpenGL devel, and after a few weeks experimentation, we now shamefully have a company-wide "buy nvidia only" policy. We honestly just couldn't get the ATI drivers to work (on dual monitor setups; with a single monitor they're somewhat better). How does that work out for the corporation bottom line, guys?)

      --
      we discovered a new way to think.
    23. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by mrchaotica · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The Intel integrated graphics is Crap.

      Nevertheless, that's still better than an Nvidia or ATI card that is not accelerated at all due to lack of drivers!

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    24. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by samhend · · Score: 1

      Only integrated graphics, as far as I know.

      Actually, they did make a discrete card the i740. I owned one, it was expensive and slow. They are apparently gearing up for a new GPU codenamed Larrabee.

    25. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by BlackSnake112 · · Score: 1

      On laptops that is easier said then done. Non gaming stuff, the newer laptop GPUs have been better. The ones I have seen in stores and read about. The Intel GPU for desktops those mostly have been no so good. It looks like the laptops ones were better then the desktop ones. Most laptops do not give you the option of adding in a video card. It would be to Intel's advantage to but a better GPU in there.

    26. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      Haven't experienced a crash yet? Then try a dual monitor setup with an intel 945 (even when it works, it actually often draws garbage all over the screen... I haven't seen something like that since the DOS days)

      I have frequently used Intel graphics with an external monitor, on two different computers. To be honest, I don't know if either of them is a 945. One is a Dell 830, so it might be a more recent chip. It has been exceptionally solid, though. The other is an eee 900, which I think is a 900 series Intel chip. Never had a problem with that either.

      I have had some problems with the stupid binary Atheros WIFI drivers. I assumed that there would be OSS drivers on Linux, since OpenBSD has them. It seems that the porting effort isn't complete, and OSS drivers will be ready `soon'. :-(

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    27. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by adisakp · · Score: 2, Insightful

      >>The Intel integrated graphics is Crap.

      >The hardware is low-end (and low power, which is good). The drivers ahve always proven rock-solid to me. And all the features work out of the box with no tweaking.


      It's wouldn't be that bad except that Intel claims their integrated graphics are Vista-ready and 3D-game ready which are both lies.

      There are no decent 3D games out there that are less than 5 years old that run at a decent framerate on Intel graphics and even the Vista Aero interface is too overwhelming for the Intel graphics to run quickly.

      Having solid drivers that always work doesn't mean the chips are any good if dragging a window around in Vista slows your machine to an unuseable crawl.

    28. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Its probably the chipset. The low-power chipset for atom was delayed so they are using one targetting Core that draws more power.

    29. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by AnObfuscator · · Score: 1

      I didn't even know Intel made graphics cards!

      They don't yet, but they plan to.

      --
      multifariam.net -- yet another nerd blog
    30. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

      The person posting this must be a Linux/BSD user.
      Also they must be a hard core FOSS GPL or die kind of person.
      Intel has Open Sourced their drivers. Well the truth is they sort of have open sourced the drivers. Intel and not the community write the drivers and the code is semi obscured but right now it is the only "modern" FOSS video driver that supports 3d.
      That will change as the ATI free drivers mature.
      Me? I run AMD with Nvidia under Linux. I am just not that hard core.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    31. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      Having solid drivers that always work doesn't mean the chips are any good if dragging a window around in Vista slows your machine to an unuseable crawl.

      This says more about vista than intel. I really only care about xorg performance.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    32. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by petermgreen · · Score: 1

      My experiance with intel graphics on linux has been terrible. They supposedly support 3D but planetpenguin-racer was unplayable and google earth causes X to crash (and I get many sporadic X crashes at other times too).

      nvidia cards can be a bit of a pain to set up especially because they need a propietry driver to get 3D and nvidia cant/won't maintain one driver that works with all of them but once set up they seem to work decently under linux.

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
    33. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by Vancorps · · Score: 1

      With my HP laptop I've no trouble doing dual monitors with ATI. Big Desktop took all of two minutes to setup. Of course with OpenSUSE it's even easier. Those guys have their act together in regards to multiple monitor support.

      The only thing I've yet to figure out is how to have the laptop detect that I'm not longer in the docking station and thus that I don't want Big Desktop running which uses the gpu at full power so the battery life of the laptop sucks in the meantime.

    34. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by Vancorps · · Score: 1

      Which cards are lacking drivers?

    35. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Tell me where it is you work? I'll remember never to buy anything from your shitty company.

    36. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by Daengbo · · Score: 1

      True, the radeon driver has 3D, but the nv driver is 2D only. Hopefully, the new radeonhd created from ATI's released specs becomes viable soon. If that happens, I won't buy anything but ATI for a few years after that.

    37. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "What awful bugs are there in the 900 series?"

      OK i'll bite.

      Intel x3100 - google for x3100 and blacklisted. Yes, do not try to use this chipset for Compiz and expect everything to work.

      This would not be my first choice for a chipset to use in Linux

    38. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by Rob+Simpson · · Score: 1

      I've never had a problem with Intel drivers, but whenever I've tried installing Nvidia drivers, I've had nothing but frustration and crashes. Even seeing the "Envy" icon is enough to piss me off. When looking for a computer to install linux on, I don't even bother with non-Intel graphics.

    39. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by owlstead · · Score: 1

      Also, they don't use the latest technology for their chip sets. This was OK some years ago when power usage was not as important, but nowadays the technology should be at least only be one step behind, not 2 or more as they are now. They should be able to make chip sets that don't take too much die space, so they should get cracking right away. Just using the older machines is probably the cheapest way for producing chip sets.

      The best way is of course using a SoC design if you regard power, but that might be rather difficult to pull off for machines having all the desktop functionality.

    40. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by owlstead · · Score: 1

      VIA CL400 drivers are actually way worse than both Intel & ATI /rant Currently I've tried setting up Ubuntu on two machines. One fails possibly due to the Soundblaster live PCI issues (it works under Windows) and the other because VIA is not supported. In both cases the complete machine freezes. Annoying like hell, I was going for an all Linux server/client config.

    41. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by FuturePastNow · · Score: 1

      They hardware accelerate more and more stuff with each generation.

      --
      Give a man fire, and you warm him for the night. Set a man on fire, and you warm him for the rest of his life.
    42. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by sumdumass · · Score: 1

      Who does? Intel? They do their acceleration in software for the most part. But over all, the video card industry are moving more and more with each generation directly to hardware. I would agree with that.

    43. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by FuturePastNow · · Score: 1

      Yes, Intel.

      The GMA 950 (and previous generations) lacked hardware T&L and vertex shaders. GMA X3000/X3100, however, added T&L and vertex hardware. GMA X3500 upgraded the shaders to SM4.0 and DX10. And each generation adds another video format or two to the list of things it can decode in hardware.

      I agree it's not much, but it's something.

      --
      Give a man fire, and you warm him for the night. Set a man on fire, and you warm him for the rest of his life.
    44. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. by sumdumass · · Score: 1

      Interesting, I wasn't aware that they were actually doing the computing for it in hardware now.

      I was always under the understanding that they used software for that and just provided access to the switches in order to do the display directly. I guess I learn something new everyday.

      Thanks for the info.

  4. Don't invest in AMD... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And don't invest in ANY company that pays executives millions of dollars while they piss away the entire value of the company.

    Hector Ruiz ran AMD into the ground (presiding over a catastrophic loss of close to 75% of the value of the company). He got paid millions and millions of dollars to do that? Wake up people.

    1. Re:Don't invest in AMD... by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It's up to the shareholders to hold the company to the fire. I have no idea why every shareholder of every company out there isn't forcing the companies to put in performance clawbacks. Imagine if a CEO were faced with the possibility of having to return their bonuses, and maybe even a portion of their salaries, if the company did a nosedive like AMD has. But since shareholders are either too stupid or too frightened to start pushing their weight around, this CEO bonus crapola continues. Oh well, I'm not investing in AMD, so if they want to pay a fucking retard millions to screw their share value, then my hats off to them.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    2. Re:Don't invest in AMD... by smooth+wombat · · Score: 5, Informative

      I have no idea why every shareholder of every company out there isn't forcing the companies to put in performance clawbacks.

      Because it is the Boards of these companies that set pay policies, not shareholders. Further, it is all but impossible to get a measure on the proxy vote to force the Boards to change pay policy. The best one can hope for is to make a 'recommendation' to the Board to change pay policy.

      Unless is it is specifically stated somewhere in the corporate bylaws, the final decision as to executive compensation rests with the Board, not the shareholders.

      --
      We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
    3. Re:Don't invest in AMD... by afidel · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It's simple, the board of directors of most companies who are the ones setting things like CEO contracts are full of CxO's of other companies. It's felt that there is a major quid pro quo going on where the board of one company raises the pay for executives then the senior executives at company A talk to their friends who sit on the board of the companies B,C,D where the board members of company A are executives and increase the salary of the executives at B,C,D.

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
    4. Re:Don't invest in AMD... by AvitarX · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Because companies want good CEOs.

      Imagine you are an excellent CEO, and are offered 2 contracts.

      In one you are guaranteed 10 Million a year, in another you may make 20, but have it all taken away due to the economy.

      Not only to shareholders not care, stocks go up when these huge deals are cut, because shareholders want a good CEO.

      When they find out later it was a bad fit they do the same again.

      --
      Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
    5. Re:Don't invest in AMD... by MarkvW · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Corporate management and boards of directors comprise an overcompensated incestuous club that everybody wants to join. There won't be any change--politicians want to be in on the club too. Fat brain-damaged companies can be beaten by leaner companies, but as soon as prosperity pokes its head into the lean company's corporate boardroom, most management hurries off to join the club. Who can blame them? They want to be rich, too!

    6. Re:Don't invest in AMD... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And thus we have what's known as the "free market", where corporate owners have little to no say in how they're actually run.

    7. Re:Don't invest in AMD... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      IMO CEO and other high level management positions should have their compensation DIRECTLY tied to company performance. You rape the company, well then the company shouldn't have to pay you and then pay you even more to leave.

      As it is, most high level management at companies don't do anything anyways. At better run companies, most of the time the CEO and upper management probably wouldn't even be missed for years, so why pay them millions to do just about nothing. Then we have the other 2 cases, where upper management can completely destroy an otherwise stable company and, currently, walk away with millions if not billions in cash and stock OTOH we have the case of the company where upper management literally drag it kicking and screaming from the brink of self-destruction, e.g. Apple. But by FAR most companies fall into the they will run fine w/o interference for long periods of time. Management pay is so out of whack that it's entirely assinine.

    8. Re:Don't invest in AMD... by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      Good point.

      With Yahoo the shareholders are throwing their weight around of course with Icahn at the helm they will likely toss their CEO out really soon.

      But other companies its really hard to fire a CEO because the CEO picks the board of directors who in return elect the CEO. Fannie May's CEO just made $19 million in bonuses and they are about to go bankrupt. If I were a shareholder I would be calling murder and trying to get rid of this guy too. Maybe even suing him for fraudelent loans (if I were wealthy enough).

      Perhaps the shareholders should have more of a say with the board of directors and CEO compensation. Someone at the board I assume would lose his or her job and friends if they did not vote for an increase in their boss performance. MEantime the CEO can give the director a performance cut back. ITs corruption fair and simple.

      But AMD's board did the right thing in firing the CEO. As a shareholder I would elect a whole new board and not hire this clown either. 1.2 billion in losses is pretty incompentent.

    9. Re:Don't invest in AMD... by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      THere should be an end to this in publically traded companies as its a personal conflict of interest.

      THe board of directors should be made of the companies employees ( as in someone who really works for the company)and not someone who flies in twice a year to vote but works for company C fulltime. Maybe the VP's could be the board of directors but I assume another conflict of interest would arrise as the CEO would fire any one of them for not voting for a pay increase for him or herself.

      The board is scared and wont touch a CEO unless their own job is on the line. Since they work for the CEO only a shareholder revolt can replace them. Maybe Icahn can actually do some good if he would invest in companies like Fannie May but I doubt he would do this as there is no money involved.

      But some new regulations need to be put into effect. If I ever owned a company I would make any bonus impossible for any executive officer if a single layoff occured. Why should we buy yatchs and homes in Hawaii when Joe is going to lose his house because we laid him off?

    10. Re:Don't invest in AMD... by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      Its a lack of a free market.

      There is a monopoly on who sets the price for CEO compensation due to the board of directors picking the CEO and having the CEO be their boss. Or like the parent suggested the actually directors work for other companies and they vote for salary increases for each other at shareholder and employee expense.

      The system needs to go for publically traded companies as greed and conflict of interests are clearly at work.

    11. Re:Don't invest in AMD... by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      Actually studies have shown the opposite is true. Yes the shareholders love rockstar CEO's but "Good to great" companies typically have insiders take top positions and they perform better as a result.

      Rockstar CEO's are raiders and have friends who are other CEO's become part of the board of directors. THis in return means they continiously vote for salary bonuses at company expense. This practice needs to be reformed or illegal.

      Insider CEO's do not get paid that excessively and care more about the company than their own ego's and wallets. They wont sell short to make a quick buck and care more about long term profitability. Yes long term growth does matter mathmatically for shareholders even though they vote otherwise thanks to their bosses.

  5. The beginning of the end for AMD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    Bummer. There was a time when I would choose AMD every time over Intel just for sheer "stick it to the man" value. The fact is though that Intel dualies outperform their AMD counterparts in nearly every way. I guess when a mediocre CPU manufacturer merges with a mediocre GPU manufacturer this is what you get.

    1. Re:The beginning of the end for AMD by Spatial · · Score: 5, Informative

      I guess when a mediocre CPU manufacturer merges with a mediocre GPU manufacturer this is what you get.

      At the moment AMD's GPUs are the best value you can get. The Radeon HD4850 and 4870 are exceptional cards while Nvidia seems to have botched their latest line - although they're faster, they're hideously expensive for only moderate performance gains above AMD's parts, and have very large power needs. And just for the record, every GPU I've bought has been an Nvidia one. I'm no AMD/ATI fanboy.

    2. Re:The beginning of the end for AMD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      NVidia fan here, but I have owned ATI before (9800 xt, DECENT CARD), however, I presently own an NVidia 8800GTX!

      Now, on your point(s)? Hey - I will give you them by all means!

      ATI/AMD, right now in the 4870 series, has a better "bang for the buck" overall, mainly, than does NVidia!

      (NVidia, I think @ least, tends to "overprice"... Doubtless to get monies from 'early adopters' &/or speed-fiends, who could care less about cost - they just want & can afford the "latest/greatest + fastest").

    3. Re:The beginning of the end for AMD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, to be fair nVidia also invests a little more time in non-Windows compatibility. ATI drivers suck big hairy testicles.

    4. Re:The beginning of the end for AMD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Just for the record AMD/ATI technically have the fastest single board Video card on the market smashing nvidia on pure raw power 2.4TFLOPS admittedly their is some creative thinking behind it but it is the king

      http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=14178&page=1

       

    5. Re:The beginning of the end for AMD by petermgreen · · Score: 1

      I notice that there are two chips "crossfired" together on one card, does this mean that it can't be "crossfired" with a second card?

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
    6. Re:The beginning of the end for AMD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Binary blob drivers do not count. Where are the open source NVIDIA drivers? Oh wait, there are none. EPIC FAIL!

    7. Re:The beginning of the end for AMD by Lord_Breetai · · Score: 1

      Check out the last pic on this page. There is a crossfire connector on the top right edge of the card, much like the 3870x2 which can crossfire 2 boards.

      --
      "You are only young once, but you can be immature forever." -www.animemusicvideos.org
    8. Re:The beginning of the end for AMD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      I just got a 4850 a couple of weeks ago (my last 3 or so gen of cards were from Nvidia).

      As long as AMD/ATI is willing to open source the drivers and are reasonably priced, I (and so my clients as well) will support them.

      In another couple of hours, I will be getting a 4870 for a friend of mine.

      I am doing my part to keep a company which seems to be giving me what I need alive.

      Are you?

  6. Fix it! by raijinsetsu · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I fell in love with AMD many years ago. They had the price and performance edge, and were also more stable than Intel. I think they need to take a step back an evaluate what the hell they're doing. They need to find a way to pull out of the competition while they clean up their act so they can start giving their customers what they want: cutting edge technology. I've read many articles about proposed AMD technologies, but I haven't seen many come to light (glueless HT, is one that comes to mind). Clean up your act!

    1. Re:Fix it! by Threni · · Score: 1

      > They had the price and performance edge, and were also more stable than Intel.

      Er.. no. They were faster for a given amount of money, but I wouldn't say they were more stable. I finally went for Intel on my current PC because they'd lost the price advantage (I couldn't get anything like as powerful a chip for the money, nor the number of cores). Many companies would never touch AMD for stability reasons.

    2. Re:Fix it! by Amouth · · Score: 1

      i agree AMD did for a while have a great price/speed point.. but i have never found AMD (overall) to be nearly as stable and of high quality for CPU's as Intel

      the number of AMD cpu's i have RMA'ed vs. Intel's i have RMA'ed is sickining.

      for now i am sticking with Intel - they have redeamed them selves after the Netburst crap

      --
      '...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
    3. Re:Fix it! by John+Jamieson · · Score: 1

      Well, AMD CPU's often had less OCing headroom but they were not less stable.

      The reason for any "CPU" instability was poor chipsets. (Thanks VIA and all)

      Benefit of the doubt...Maybe you meant that AMD did not have "STABLE PLATFORMS" for business. Where they lock everything in for a given amount of time so business can buy the same (crap) hardware for two years to minimize maintainance. That was true.

    4. Re:Fix it! by Amouth · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      oh god please don't remind me of VIA - i have worked hard the past 8 years to block their existance from my mind..

      --
      '...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
    5. Re:Fix it! by Anne_Nonymous · · Score: 2, Informative

      R&D Spending FY2007

      INTC $5.755 billion
      AMD $1.847 billion

    6. Re:Fix it! by fishbowl · · Score: 2, Interesting

      >I fell in love with AMD many years ago.

      The 386DX40 was what made it possible for me to have a home computer again (I'd started in the 1970s with various 8-bit things, but by the mid 1980s, and until 1991 or so, I could not afford any kind of new computer). I really loved my AMD 386. The "performance to application" ratio was better than it's ever been since. I'm saying that even today with my quad-core desktop and dual-core laptop, the equipment is only marginally suited to the task I use it for. But in 1991-1992, the performance was actually *there*, and the problems were in the area of storage capacity and data transfer rates. Not saying I'd go back, or anything. Just that AMD made it possible for me to continue the hobby at the threshold where it became a career.

      --
      -fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
    7. Re:Fix it! by Trojan35 · · Score: 1

      Maybe people should have considered that the AMD processor that was faster & cheaper wasn't leaving enough $ to invest in future R&D?

    8. Re:Fix it! by guacamole · · Score: 1

      I am not sure what you mean by "more stable". I rarely used AMD products but managed hundreds of computers with other CPUs. I have never had any stability problems due specifically to Intel processors (something I can't say about older Sun products).

    9. Re:Fix it! by Courageous · · Score: 1

      Honestly, I think it's several small, but strategic problems that very quickly led to a very bad place.

      First, Intel was /misexecuting/, throwing good money after bad on Itanium. Now they're not.

      You could end the story there, almost.

      But let's look at AMD's errors:

      1. Dumb error not creating a strap-on 4 core to tide over their business. They could have done this faster and better than Intel did, but insisted on theoretical purism over market pragmatics. Dumb. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

      1a. But they're showing signs that they are more driven by pragmatism now. Question is, how hard is Intel really driving their own efforts? "Tick, tock" could almost put AMD out of business, and it won't really be AMD's fault.

      2. Indigestion and distraction over the ATI acquisition.

      Really, I think this superficial analysis is about as deep as one needs to go.

      Feel free to comment. :-)

      C//

    10. Re:Fix it! by symbolic · · Score: 1

      Me too. I haven't had an Intel box in I don't know how long. And I hope I will be able to continue.

  7. Don't let the door hit you Hector by gr8_phk · · Score: 4, Funny

    Back at MOT (now freescale) I hear they called him Hector the Sector Director. People were happy to see him go. After his time at AMD, I'd call him "Hector Ruinz".

    1. Re:Don't let the door hit you Hector by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      RTFA:

      "Ruiz will remain with the company as executive chairman."

    2. Re:Don't let the door hit you Hector by angryfirelord · · Score: 0

      I agree. When AMD released their K8 architecture to the wild, they really gained a lot of momentum from it. But I was disappointed when Hector really didn't seem to care keeping that lead (since he always wanted to increase his salary) and now AMD is struggling to catch up. Good riddance to you Hector.

    3. Re:Don't let the door hit you Hector by oblivionboy · · Score: 1

      That doesn't quite rhyme though. You could try something else in stead like Hector the Destructor Vector.

    4. Re:Don't let the door hit you Hector by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I heard it was "Hector the Sector Wrecker"

    5. Re:Don't let the door hit you Hector by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It was Hector the Sector Wrecker. Some people around here still hate him more than they probably should.

    6. Re:Don't let the door hit you Hector by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, he was called "Hector the Sector Wrecker."

      He was known to be an idiot years and years ago.

  8. Buying ATI = idiocy by Spy+Handler · · Score: 5, Insightful

    if instead of buying ATI, the dude spent the money on R&D and actually coming out with products that can compete with Intel CoreDuo, he might not be resigning...

    1. Re:Buying ATI = idiocy by Steauengeglase · · Score: 1

      But then Intel would have nothing to buy out if/when AMD goes belly up.

    2. Re:Buying ATI = idiocy by moosesocks · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The problem was that Intel wasn't spending money on products that could compete with CoreDuo. They got really, really, really lucky.

      The Core line of chips were originally developed as low-power laptop chips based around an older technology than Intel's "mainstream" chips of the day. Intel's roadmap up until very recently focused on further development of the Pentium 4 and Itanium lines (both of which ultimately proved to be unsustainable)

      One of Intel's development teams in Israel saw the huge potential that the old Pentium III architecture had to be fast and power-efficient, when coupled with a more modern manufacturing process. In the end, the low-end power-efficient chips began to outperform their power-hungry Pentium 4 desktop offerings, and Intel quietly rebranded the line, and began to offer the Core chips as their flagship desktop offering.

      Intel also made a great many mistakes with the development of Itanium, and their reliance on RAMBUS (which was proprietary, expensive, and actually slower in many cases than plain old DDR SDRAM). Their failure to embrace x86-64 could have also easily spelled disaster for the company. In terms of 64-bit development, AMD has always been the clear leader.

      Intel should be counting its blessings, as they've made far more missteps than AMD have. Fortunately for them, they have a massive marketing team and extensive manufacturing facilities, both of which AMD lack.

      Hopefully AMD can make something out of their R&D relating to GPGPUs, and stay viable as a competitor.

      --
      -- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
    3. Re:Buying ATI = idiocy by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Intel should be counting its blessings, as they've made far more missteps than AMD have. Fortunately for them, they have a massive marketing team and extensive manufacturing facilities, both of which AMD lack.

      But more importantly, lots and lots and lots of money. Intel had the financial wiggle-room to come back from some rather colossal errors over the last decade. AMD simply did not. It could stay competitive providing it had a focused plan, but the ATI deal was precisely what AMD could not afford.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    4. Re:Buying ATI = idiocy by Otter · · Score: 5, Insightful

      One of Intel's development teams in Israel saw the huge potential that the old Pentium III architecture had to be fast and power-efficient, when coupled with a more modern manufacturing process. In the end, the low-end power-efficient chips began to outperform their power-hungry Pentium 4 desktop offerings, and Intel quietly rebranded the line, and began to offer the Core chips as their flagship desktop offering.

      I'd hesitate to call that luck, let alone "really, really, really lucky". It sounds like terrific teamwork by engineering, production and management.

    5. Re:Buying ATI = idiocy by puto · · Score: 1

      As much of a fan as I have been over the years of AMD the intel core line is nice, even it might be considered a rehash, it still runs cool and quick, and that is what the game is. all about.

      Intel ran with the ball this time.

      There 386 and 486 clones were great chips, and far better than their intel counterparts.

      I remember the Cyrix k5, pretty sucky chip. Then the K6 first runs were hot dog cookers, and the first athlons generated a fair amount of heat as well. I just sunsetted an athlon 1.8 I bought some 5 years ago. Ran well, but a little hot.

      --
      The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
    6. Re:Buying ATI = idiocy by corbettw · · Score: 1

      Fortunately for them, they have a massive marketing team and extensive manufacturing facilities, both of which AMD lack.

      OMG! Someone on Slashdot praised a company's marketing team, if only in part, as the reason for their success. Heretic! /sarcasm

      --
      God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
    7. Re:Buying ATI = idiocy by mr_mischief · · Score: 1

      Actually, buying a graphics and chipset vendor was a great idea. They just bought the wrong one. Via was the obvious choice, but probably wouldn't sell for what AMD could pay.

      With Via they'd have gained S3 graphics, Via chipsets, and Via and Cyrix CPU tech, and Via's low-power CPU tech. That'd be a bigger win than when they bought NexGen.

      If AMD does sell instead of coming back or folding, don't expect the FTC, the SEC, and the DoJ to allow Intel to be the buyer. IBM, perhaps. Via, too. Freescale, TI, Sun, Siemens, Fujitsu, Sony, or HP wouldn't be out of the question. Even Apple or SGI could make a strategic move to stave off Intel price increases that would surely happen if AMD were to fold.

    8. Re:Buying ATI = idiocy by moosesocks · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I'd hesitate to call that luck, let alone "really, really, really lucky". It sounds like terrific teamwork by engineering, production and management.

      I'd agree 100%. Intel's R&D group in Israel pulled off a small miracle with their work, and should be highly commended for it. However, from what is publicly known, it seems as if it were almost a sort of "skunk works" project, largely independent of the main R&D efforts of the company. I don't think that there was terribly much being expected from them, and the fact that they were able to deliver an extremely viable product was a fortunate coincidence.

      Intel's main R&D efforts were terribly misguided. It was common knowledge that RAMBUS Itanium, and the P4 line all had serious limitations, and yet Intel continued pushing forward with these products.

      --
      -- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
    9. Re:Buying ATI = idiocy by A+beautiful+mind · · Score: 4, Funny

      It sounds like terrific teamwork by engineering, production and management.

      Oh, you mean luck!

      --
      It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
      Be yourself no matter what they say
    10. Re:Buying ATI = idiocy by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 1

      I'd hesitate to call that luck, let alone "really, really, really lucky". It sounds like terrific teamwork by engineering, production and management.

      No, it was luck. That entire line of development was more of a skunkworks operation rather than the Official Direction. It was only when AMD's threat became reality and they started shipping products which Intel's Official Direction could not compete with that Intel scrambled around and found this little bit of great engineering that it had previously overlooked before. If the guys in israel hadn't been autonomous enough to be able to do their own thing for laptops, Intel would have had no where to start from in catching up with AMD.

      --
      When information is power, privacy is freedom.
    11. Re:Buying ATI = idiocy by Phroggy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Exactly. Intel got lucky in the sense that this little R&D group in Israel was able to come up with something brilliant, and the company was able to capitalize on it. If the Israeli group hadn't done so, the situation might be much much different.

      That doesn't mean the Israeli R&D group got lucky - they're just brilliant. The company got lucky.

      --
      $x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
      $x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
    12. Re:Buying ATI = idiocy by Otter · · Score: 4, Insightful

      But the Israeli group *did* exist, they *were* given the autonomy to do that work, the management *did* recognize the merits of it and decide to change course, and the production people *did* make it happen! That's not luck! If you don't understand how remarkable all of that is, you've never worked for a huge company.

      What you people all seem to be arguing for, putting all your eggs in one basket and having it work out as you'd planned -- *that* is luck!

    13. Re:Buying ATI = idiocy by ravyne · · Score: 1

      Actually, ATI was a good move. They may have overpayed, but the logic is sound.

      To compete with intel, which is the basis of your claim, AMD needed in-house chipsets so that they can offer package deals on the core logic like intel does. The graphics were needed because the writing on Intel's wall was clear: We're going after the streaming computing market, and we're going to piggy-back that on the GPU (Larabee). nVidia has done the same, and has not been bashful about stating how their ultimate goal is to make the CPU unimportant.

      Buying ATI gave them all of these things, and has been fruitful (look at x4800 vs GTX 200 and the wonderful 780g chipset). Right now, ATI is the bright-spot in the company.

      Even if they had foregone the ATI purchase, and even if they had made a competitive processor (which frankly is impossible on that timescale anyhow) they would still be facing Intel's chipset bundling strategy and have no technology to compete with nVidia's existing or Intel's upcoming stream computing platforms -- They'd simply be in a different kind of hurt.

    14. Re:Buying ATI = idiocy by jollyreaper · · Score: 2, Insightful

      But the Israeli group *did* exist, they *were* given the autonomy to do that work, the management *did* recognize the merits of it and decide to change course, and the production people *did* make it happen! That's not luck! If you don't understand how remarkable all of that is, you've never worked for a huge company.

      The real question is how likely this will be repeated for the next product.

      We don't know how much autonomy this group was granted initially, we don't know how much effort went into this, we don't know what sort of management battles were fought to avoid the smart decision here.

      If Intel has good management, this sort of feat would be easily repeatable and good products will continue to be brought to market. If this smart move turns out to be more of a fluke, if we don't see anything like it again, then it was luck.

      I think it was Patton who said that the army that wins the war is the one that makes the fewest mistakes. AMD has done well taking advantage of Intel's shortcomings. Then again, Intel can afford to blow through a lot of cash in order to get it right; AMD has far less buffer in that regard.

      --
      Kwisatz Haderach
      Sell the spice to CHOAM
      This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
    15. Re:Buying ATI = idiocy by saleenS281 · · Score: 1

      Depends entirely on whether or not it was a skunkworks project. To me it sounded like a small team in Israel ignored management directives and decided to go back to the drawing board instead of continuing to *extend* the P4 line-up. Finally someone internally ate crow and admitted the P3 design decisions were in fact a better choice than netburst.

      Of course... I've yet to hear an honest internal intel account of the whole fiasco, so it's all just conjecture.

    16. Re:Buying ATI = idiocy by scamper_22 · · Score: 1

      Say what you want about Israel politically, but their high technology sector seems to be quite vibrant.

      I used to work for a certain telecom manufacturer. They worked closely with Tier1 providers and what not (ATT, Verizon, Sprint..). These providers would actually request that hardware be developed by the Israeli team. Bastards don't trust Canadian hardware :P I had no idea they even knew which team developed products. Yet, apparently, they do, and they want the same quality again.

      It really doesn't surprise me that the Israeli team pulled this miracle off for Intel.

    17. Re:Buying ATI = idiocy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Intel's R&D group in Israel pulled off a small miracle with their work, and should be highly commended for it.

      The chips designed in Israel (Dothan, Merom, etc.) were small improvements on a successful existing design, the P6 / Pentium II. I wouldn't call them "miracles".

    18. Re:Buying ATI = idiocy by dpilot · · Score: 1

      One might also ascribe Intel's "luck" to a design team in Israel, sufficiently far from management in California. They were able to do things that made technical sense, instead of following the Company Line. As Intel's fan started getting very brown from NetBurst, someone realized that they had this thing called Banias that was actually pretty good, and might be usable in places other than niche laptops.

      Seems like all too often success is snatched from the jaws of defeat by some "rogue group" in a company.
      I wonder in general how often such rogue groups have hurt the company and how often they have saved it.
      I wonder how often the "company line" puts companies in such bad shape, and how often the "company line" is "valuable discipline that focuses and directs execution properly."
      I wonder why companies can't figure this out, especially at the salaries executives get. Most of us had figured out that NetBurst was a nightmare far before Intel management did.

      --
      The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
    19. Re:Buying ATI = idiocy by certain+death · · Score: 1

      Ummm...AMD already has the transmeta CUP tech. Why ANYONE would want Cyrix is beyond me...I remember the Meida GX processor!!!!

      --
      "My immediate reaction is "WTF? What kind of moron doesn't make things 64-bit safe to begin with?" Linus
    20. Re:Buying ATI = idiocy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That entire line of development was more of a skunkworks operation rather than the Official Direction.

      And you know this.... how?

      It was only when AMD's threat became reality and they started shipping products which Intel's Official Direction could not compete with that Intel scrambled around and found this little bit of great engineering that it had previously overlooked before. If the guys in israel hadn't been autonomous enough to be able to do their own thing for laptops, Intel would have had no where to start from in catching up with AMD.

      It takes years to design a modern desktop CPU and bring it to production-ready status -- these days the figure is somewhere around 4-5 years (really!). If you rush it too much, you end up with poorly performing chips with terrible bugs. At launch, Core 2 appeared to be reasonably bug-free, and was without question a very solid performer in the two metrics which are now important (performance and power consumption). This means the project was not a hasty response to AMD's success; it would've already been in the works when AMD released the products which began to cause Intel pain.

      If you want an example of a chip which was rushed too much due to competitive pressures, look at AMD's Barcelona. AMD had several K8 successor projects fail and get canceled over the years, leaving them with nothing in the works to provide a good response to Core 2. In their desperation, they had to rush a K8 tweak (four cores on 1 die instead of 2, plus some enhancements to the core and cache structure) into production. Even though Barcelona is very closely related to K8, and therefore not as big and long a project as a new design, the short schedule has resulted in a ton of problems for AMD: early production versions of the chip were buggy and probably should've been recalled, clock speeds have been very disappointing, and power consumption is high.

      Also, are you aware that the guys in Israel derived Pentium-M from Intel's P6 core? The P6 core dates dates all the way back to the Pentium Pro (by the time P-M started, it had been developed into Pentium II and Pentium III). Intel's Israeli division was not a maverick operation. They were given an existing design and told to redesign it for low power consumption, and they did so. Intel was fully aware that the P4 design was inherently power-hungry and therefore a poor match for laptops; it was not luck at all that they chose to design a power-efficient CPU for that market.

      Later on, when it became obvious that P4 was hitting a thermal wall and future desktop CPU designs would also require attention to power efficiency, they were able to use P-M as a starting point for Core and Core 2, but none of that was skunkworks from the perspective of Intel management. Sure, they didn't talk about it much to the outside world, but that was because they had to sell P4s for a few years until the new architecture was ready. By no means was it any kind of unplanned or lucky success.

    21. Re:Buying ATI = idiocy by Agripa · · Score: 1

      Intel has historically always had multiple development teams. It is very expensive to have a fabrication plant come online without anything to produce so each one has a design team for products that include simpler things like shrinks and improvements to older designs. Intel was also originally a memory company with a little sidestep into microprocessors so changing strategic objectives in a short business time frame is not exactly foreign to them.

      Intel's plans for x86 at one point included no successor to the P4 and a transition to IA-64. AMD was able to take significant advantage of that until Intel redirected their efforts. nVidia had better either hope that Intel does not become serious about replacing GPUs or have a transition plan to not exclusively rely on GPU sales.

    22. Re:Buying ATI = idiocy by Agripa · · Score: 1

      If AMD does sell instead of coming back or folding, don't expect the FTC, the SEC, and the DoJ to allow Intel to be the buyer. IBM, perhaps. Via, too. Freescale, TI, Sun, Siemens, Fujitsu, Sony, or HP wouldn't be out of the question. Even Apple or SGI could make a strategic move to stave off Intel price increases that would surely happen if AMD were to fold.

      I am not an expert on this but doesn't AMD's cross licensing agreement with Intel preclude selling to someone without an already existing x86 license unless they are not going to continue to produce x86 processors? I have seen it said that the agreement requires them to fab at least a significant percentage (half?) of their x86 chips themselves which complicates any move to become fabless.

    23. Re:Buying ATI = idiocy by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 1

      And you know this.... how?

      Because I read the trades before, during and after initial release of banias and watched as Intel dropped out of the gigahertz race, completely re-writing their nda'd but widely leaked cpu roadmap to focus on yonah.

      --
      When information is power, privacy is freedom.
    24. Re:Buying ATI = idiocy by downix · · Score: 1

      I don't know, the final steps of the ATI merger will not be appearing till early next year. As the saying goes, "it ain't over till the fat lady sings" and the GPGPU approach of AMD looks to be a mighty big lady indeed.

      Using the Phenom design, but swapping two of the cores for last-years GPU, the numbers I'm crunching tells me that this can be big, real big.

      I, for one, am holding off on upgrades till the 780g chipset is more commonly available, because, dayum that thing is sweet!

      --
      Karma Whoring for Fun and Profit.
    25. Re:Buying ATI = idiocy by 0111+1110 · · Score: 1

      I agree that the ATI purchase made some logical sense. I also think that my purchase of a $500,000 electric roadster would makes sense. In the long run it would save me money on gas. AMD simply couldn't afford it. It doesn't matter how desirable a purchase is in the long term when you don't have the money to buy it. If AMD closes its doors in the next few months would you still believe that the ATI purchase made sense? If AMD survives long enough to start making money again and pays off their insanely high debt then we will all agree that the ATI purchase made sense in retrospect. If not, then they will be fondly remembered and missed while we have to deal with monopoly pricing and lack of innovation from an Intel without even a hint of competition. Hector seems to sink every company that he is at the helm of. Maybe he's a communist and lives to bring down giant corporations. I wonder who's next.

      --
      Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
    26. Re:Buying ATI = idiocy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      While Core Arch from Israel was a blessing when needed, it was originally an Israeli design group that fucked up Intel's P3-based SoC project by including Rambus in the first place (against many US engineer's vocal complaints.) due to the promise that Rambus production would have scaled to the point of being cheaper than SDRAM/DDR by release time (which obviously never happened). In addition there were temperature and timing issues with the memory in use in these and P4 northbridge parts, which were slowing development on it. And most of this stuff was due to the CEO at the time getting some sort of kickback agreement worked out with Rambus, which a lot of guys in the trenches didn't understand.

      Furthermore the Itanium 2 chipset is STILL Rambus based, with converter hubs to DDR (Which was actually the rub for the SoC part, adding a repeater hub would've bumped the cost up too much to meet the low price point the SoC parts were intended to compete at.)

      Much like with AMD, you shouldn't judge the whole company on the basis of a few bad decisions, and you also shouldn't praise specific groups who may have made screwups of their own, which they got lucky enough to make up on later projects.

    27. Re:Buying ATI = idiocy by Phroggy · · Score: 1

      And as a consumer, I hope Intel starts taking GPUs seriously. Their on-board video chipsets have great open-source drivers, but they don't have the power to compete against nVidia or ATi for gaming, and I can't go out and buy an Intel video card.

      --
      $x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
      $x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
    28. Re:Buying ATI = idiocy by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      The Core and Core 2 are two entirely different microarchitectures. The Core is based on the Pentium M, while the Core 2 is entirely new. The Pentium M is not just the Pentium III dusted off and manufactured with a new process either. It is based on the P3 core, but has the Netburst branch predictor, new vector units, and a load of other improvements. Core 2 adds micro-op fusion and a raft of other novel techniques.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    29. Re:Buying ATI = idiocy by Courageous · · Score: 1

      The real question is how likely this will be repeated for the next product.

      Intel was almost ignoring their x86 product line in terms of strategic development. They have subsequently focused in on this with laser intensity. You can count on them not misexecuting for a while. The entire "tick, tock" strategy could put AMD out of business entirely if Intel ratchets it down hard enough.

      They will probably deliberately let up if it looks like it will really do that, though.

      C//

  9. Huh? by Junta · · Score: 1

    How would have AMD impeded use of good 3D cards? Even if you thought nVidia SLI was the only 'good' answer, there are nForce chipsets for AMD with SLI too... I personally don't buy into the price-power-performance ratio of SLI or CrossFire, btw.

    --
    XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
    1. Re:Huh? by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      How would have AMD impeded use of good 3D cards? Even if you thought nVidia SLI was the only 'good' answer, there are nForce chipsets for AMD with SLI too... I personally don't buy into the price-power-performance ratio of SLI or CrossFire, btw.

      You can't get an AMD computer with a 3D card with decent drivers under Linux. My experiences with the NVidia drivers have been less than stellar.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    2. Re:Huh? by PunkOfLinux · · Score: 0

      If you haven't tried the new ati linux driver (yes, it's a binary blob, waaah) then you should. Ever since AMD took over, it's gotten a lot better.

    3. Re:Huh? by serviscope_minor · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If you haven't tried the new ati linux driver (yes, it's a binary blob, waaah) then you should. Ever since AMD took over, it's gotten a lot better.

      What's with the "waaaah" comment? These days, I steer clear of binary drivers. I spent many years on proprietary hardware with binary drivers. I have used binary blobs in Linux as well. I have consistently found that open drivers provide a better experience, with more stability, better implementation/larger quantity of features, and greater longevity of the hardware, since support stays around. Binary drivers (and closed software too, as it happens) have always come back to bite me sooner or later. Are you saying I should:

      1) Ignore my years of previous experience

      2) Support manufacturers who do not supply products I like

      because you think I'm needlessly complaining?

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    4. Re:Huh? by PunkOfLinux · · Score: 1

      Things change. If you're not going to try the new drivers (which are very stable and updated about once a month) then don't complain. If you have an older one, and don't want to use compiz and stuff, then just use the open source driver. But don't complain when you get crappy performance, which is MY experience with the OSS drivers.

    5. Re:Huh? by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      Things change. If you're not going to try the new drivers (which are very stable and updated about once a month) then don't complain.

      I don't see why I can't complain. You're telling me that I should spend money on a card on the off chance that thre drivers might be both decent and supported in 5 years? ATI's record are very much against them on this one (and yes, I do expect to get years out of a computer). Of course I won't spend that money. I have been burned enough that I need stronger proof. Strong enough proof will only come in the form of OSS drivers.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    6. Re:Huh? by PunkOfLinux · · Score: 1

      I never said that, I said don't knock it till you've tried it. And the OSS drivers are, at least for ATI, horribly buggy, slow, and barely do 3d. And you're already spending money on a card anyway, so you should get one for performance, not ideology. Learn to be pragmatic.

    7. Re:Huh? by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      I never said that, I said don't knock it till you've tried it. And the OSS drivers are, at least for ATI, horribly buggy, slow, and barely do 3d. And you're already spending money on a card anyway, so you should get one for performance, not ideology. Learn to be pragmatic.

      Why are you simply incapable of understanding that the intel card is the pragmatic choice? The drivers are better, much more solid, and will still work with a new version of Linux and xorg in 5 years time? Can you say the same about the ATI drivers?

      I used to be what you call pragmatic. I bought in to binary software and closed drivers. I got bitten repeatedly. Turns out that it isn't so pragmatic after all. Now I buy OSS supported hardware, and use OSS software. I have yet to be bitten.
      So tell me, how is this not the pragmatic choice?

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    8. Re:Huh? by PunkOfLinux · · Score: 1

      Because the intel card sucks on performance.

  10. Can't by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    You can't have a price performance edge as you put it and cutting edge tech. You have to get $$$ for R&D and to get it, you build it into your prices - like Intel does. That's why Intel's price/performance isn't as good as AMD's.

    If AMD followed your advice, their prices would increase and their price/performance will match Intel's or worse - especially if they keep all their R&D here in the US.

  11. Get 'em while they're cheap by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Better grab those Intel processors while they're cheap, because once AMD goes under, you just know Intel will return to the good old days and jack prices up through the roof.

    Must be nice having no competition in the market.

    1. Re:Get 'em while they're cheap by mmullings · · Score: 2, Interesting

      This is what I loved about AMD. When I built a 100+ render farm, I was saving mega money on AMD CPU's. Same bang, less buck. And I strongly believe that AMD is the reason the Intel chips dropped in price so much over the last few years. Wont belong before we buy from Microtel....

      --
      I remember when MOD was an audio format, and DOS wasn't a network attack....
    2. Re:Get 'em while they're cheap by bigstrat2003 · · Score: 1

      What the hell? They're cheap now? Looking on newegg, Core 2 Duos seem to hover around $200, while Athlon 64 X2s hover around $100. If 2x the price of your competitor is "cheap", what the fuck is "expensive"?

      --
      "16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
    3. Re:Get 'em while they're cheap by poofyhairguy82 · · Score: 1
      Looking on newegg, Core 2 Duos seem to hover around $200, while Athlon 64 X2s hover around $100.

      .

      For less than $100 you can get a Pentium Dual-Core, which is just a cut down Core 2 Duo. These chips are big with enthusiasts because they overclock very well. Intel decided to keep the Pentium brand around because it had better public recognition than celeron (which is basically what they are, but Intel still makes even weaker and cheaper celeron chips based on Core2duos for the absolute bottom of the market). These chips compete well with comparably priced AMD offerings.

      Also another important area where Intel kills AMD is in Quad-Cores. The Q6600 in my computer is the same price as a Phenom Quad core at the same clock speeds, but is often faster in real world usage. Also my Q6600 has been out for more than a year than the equivalent AMD chip. AMD's troubles have to do with the fact that they lost a cycle by designing a "real" Quad core in the Phenoms, while Intel's Quad core consisting of two Core2Duos glued together was able to come out much faster and offer similar or better performance than the more "elegant" AMD solution. Even AMD now admits they should have make a glued Quad core, instead of rushing the Phenoms. When the Phenoms came out their many documented bugs really hurt AMD's reputation.

      Intel tried the gluing idea with the Pentium D's when the X2s came out as competition prior to the Core2duo design, but I can tell you that my Q6600 is much better because the Core2Duos produce much less heat allowing less elegant solutions like gluing to work. The Pentium D system I have sounds like a vacuum cleaner all the time. (As a side note: gluing is my way of saying two different chips on the same die).

      But don't take my word for it. I am an admitted Intel fan boy because I prefer how Intel employs developers to work on X drivers for their GPUs (including the king of X himself Keith Packard), rather then AMD/ATI's way of releasing the specs and allowing others to do that work for them. Even though AMD is starting to hire people for this very recently, but there is a lot of ground to make up. Also I love how my Intel computer can (illegally I admit) run OSX for on a Quad Core for less than $2000. The people that try to stick OSX86 on AMD hardware seem to have many more problems.

    4. Re:Get 'em while they're cheap by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What the hell? They're cheap now? Looking on newegg, Core 2 Duos seem to hover around $200, while Athlon 64 X2s hover around $100. If 2x the price of your competitor is "cheap", what the fuck is "expensive"?

      I recommend looking at the prices for Intel's Core 2 Extreme line if you want to see "expensive". :)

    5. Re:Get 'em while they're cheap by Walter+Carver · · Score: 1

      If you now get Intel, you are helping bring the "good old days and jack prices up".

  12. If you meant OSS 3d.. by Junta · · Score: 1

    I can see your point, and it probably won't be until the October/November timeframe at best before distributions will make current-gen AMD/ATI graphics have 3D out of the box in an OSS way.

    I personally used nVidia recently, though this laptop is AMD with their binary driver, which has been improving at least.

    --
    XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
  13. Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger by damonlab · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I bought and recommended AMD products up until a few years ago. I did that then because they had the fastest / better CPUs on the market at that time. During the last few years I have went with Intel because they have the better products now. If AMD wants my future business, they need to come out with something that beats what Intel has.

    1. Re:Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger by John+Jamieson · · Score: 4, Informative

      Sure, but you are part of the 3% that buys leading edge products.(right?) As long as you are in the mainstream BOTH have strengths and weaknesses.

      As long as you are buying a low-mid priced system, AMD competes with intel. If you are a gamer, all that really counts is the Video Card anyway.

      And don't get me started on the Intel Chipsets... remember when they were king? Well, my Core2Duo Centrino laptop chipset has so many bugs... The video performance under Vista and Linux STINKS big time. (WinXP is decent, but not near AMD/ATI's level with the 780g chipset, that chipset rocks )

      AMD is a bit weaker on Laptops now, they have new silicon coming that will change that.

       

    2. Re:Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "As long as you are buying a low-mid priced system, AMD competes with intel."

      Maybe if you're talking ultra-bottom-barrel single core solutions. What does AMD have to compete with the $70 E2180? The $120 E4600? Right now you simply get more for the money with Intel. Two years ago it was different (hell, 1 year ago AMD was still competitive in some lines). As for the "GPU is all that matters" line, you still need a CPU in your computer, and getting a better chip for less lets you spend more on that GPU.

    3. Re:Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger by avandesande · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If this was true AMD would still be making money, but the fact is they have to discount their middle range parts below cost to stay competative with Intel.

      Right now AMD cannot compete with Intel.

      --
      love is just extroverted narcissism
    4. Re:Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger by ZaskarX · · Score: 1, Troll

      Exactly right, AMD's Phenom chips get a bad rap from enthusiast sites who overclock and attempt to squeeze every last ounce of performance at the expense of stability and longevity. AMD makes excellent mainstream CPUs, telling Joe computer user to buy Intel over AMD is like telling someone shopping for a family car to buy a Malibu instead of a Camry because performance wise the Corvette beats the crap out of anything Toyota has to offer. The 780g chipset is hands down the best integrated graphics chipset on the market and don't forget that AMD offers the least expensive quad core CPU. AMD needs PR help more than they need the "fastest" CPU on the market

    5. Re:Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger by poot_rootbeer · · Score: 1

      During the last few years I have went with Intel because they have the better products now. If AMD wants my future business, they need to come out with something that beats what Intel has.

      Are Intel products significantly better than AMD products, or just marginally?

      If AMD goes out of business and Intel is left as the sole x86 provider, you can look forward to another round of market-blind dead-end technologies like Itanium and RAMBUS.

    6. Re:Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger by oddfox · · Score: 1

      don't forget that AMD offers the least expensive quad core CPU

      Sure, if you're happy with their most powerful quad core being just as expensive as the entry-level Intel quad core (Phenom 9850 Black Edition at 205$ and Q6600 at 209$, respectively) with less performance. Seriously, the Phenom processors are a joke, even my lowly Q6600 romps it in every single review and benchmark. And sure, you could spend 169$ and get a low-end Phenom junker when the Q6600 is what, 40$ more expensive? Least expensive doesn't mean much in the way of value in this particular scenario, and one only has to look at the market to see that.

      Dunno much about that 780g, though I am a huge fan of what AMD has done with the Radeon 4xxx series and I don't much care for the onboard video my G33 has.

      --
      "We invented personal computing." - Bill Gates
  14. Doomsday? by Trayal · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What's with all the doom and gloom predictions and massive stock declines every time one of the 'underdog' companies (AMD, Apple, etc.) has a rough year? These up and down cycles are a natural part of business. AMD still has a lot going for it, and a lot to offer, even if they don't currently hold the technological 'edge' in the x86 market. Given a few years, the picture between Intel and AMD may well switch again - unless too many investors bail out prematurely, of course.

    1. Re:Doomsday? by X0563511 · · Score: 1

      unless too many investors bail out prematurely, of course.

      You answered yourself. Such doom/gloom FUD encourages investors to flee, bringing the FUD to fruition. I wouldn't be surprised to discover that Intel was connected to a lot of this kind of news.

      --
      For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
    2. Re:Doomsday? by FredFredrickson · · Score: 1

      I was wondering that too.. seems everybody here finds it popular to jump ship at the first sign of bad weather.

      --
      Belief? Hope? Preference?The Existential Vortex
    3. Re:Doomsday? by tyler.willard · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Such doom/gloom FUD encourages investors to flee, bringing the FUD to fruition.

      There is only one case where fleeing investors, and thus dropping stock prices, affects a company: if they need to issue more stock to raise more capital.

      Other than that the stock price doesn't hurt the company since it's already been sold (during the IPO).

    4. Re:Doomsday? by EastCoastSurfer · · Score: 2, Informative

      What's with all the doom and gloom predictions and massive stock declines every time one of the 'underdog' companies (AMD, Apple, etc.) has a rough year?

      70%+ of all stock trades are now done by a computer making a decision. These computers aren't trained to look at the long or even medium term. The look at the day to day, week to week trends and trade accordingly. Knowing this, when companies slip up and drop, it can represent buying opportunities. If you think AMD is going to comeback and have another Athlon type performance then this is a great time to buy them.

      Personally, I've seen this coming for years. Prior to the Athlon I did a research/write up comparison on Intel vs. AMD. I concluded that AMD would eventually fail so I wouldn't own their stock, bonds or lend them money. Obviously I would have missed the Athlon runup, but it was something that just wasn't sustainable. For all of Intels screw ups, it's their manufacturing methods that have kept them grounded. Their yields are unbelievable. Their scale gives them advantages AMD could never achieve at their size. In the end, it's AMD who got lucky with the Athlon. All it did was delay the inevitable.

    5. Re:Doomsday? by CaymanIslandCarpedie · · Score: 1

      Actually it can hurt the company even if they don't actually need to raise more capital via issuing more stock. Health of the stock is also a factor in financing rates (loans, corporate bonds, etc). This does lead back to your point on issuing more stock, but often a company won't actually want to do that, but having a healthy stock price means you have the potential to do so, thus making you less of a risk to loan capital to through traditional channels.

      That may not seem too huge of a deal, but how capital intensive CPU production can be (many billions for a new plant), even a 1/2 percentage point difference in the financing can have a major impact on the companies bottom line.

      --
      "reality has a well-known liberal bias" - Steven Colbert
    6. Re:Doomsday? by rachit · · Score: 1

      don't forget also the hit to employee morale.

    7. Re:Doomsday? by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      Yeah, seems like it might be time to buy some more AMD stock.

    8. Re:Doomsday? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is only one case where fleeing investors, and thus dropping stock prices, affects a company: if they need to issue more stock to raise more capital.

      Other than that the stock price doesn't hurt the company since it's already been sold (during the IPO).

      Tell that to Yahoo.

    9. Re:Doomsday? by mvdwege · · Score: 1

      Health of the stock is also a factor in financing rates (loans, corporate bonds, etc).

      No. Just, no.

      Banks and other financiers look at cash flow, assets vs. liabilities, and market prospects when deciding on the rates for a bond. Not stock price, unless stock is used as collateral for the bond (as in a convertible).

      And note that a loan is very rarely declined. The borrower may not like the rates, and the market may end up with a worthless junk bond if the company crashes, but very few banks decline to underwrite a public bond. Private loans are a different matter, but stock price still isn't a deciding factor.

      Mart

      --
      "I know I will be modded down for this": where's the option '-1, Asking for it'?
  15. Enough time to turn around? by Junta · · Score: 3, Interesting

    As it stands, it's pretty dire. The question is, can AMD turn around and match the 45nm process with a decent design before the Nehalem generation? I wonder that explicitly because the last bragging point they have is their interprocessor architecture and memory controller, which Nehalem matches. If Intel releases that and the rest of AMD's tech remains as disadvantaged as it is, watch for some of the 4-socket and above space that AMD still has some sway in move to Intel.

    --
    XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
    1. Re:Enough time to turn around? by MightyMartian · · Score: 3, Interesting

      My feeling at this point is that AMD is hosed. About the only thing we can hope for is that regulators block Intel from buying them when it finally becomes clear that the show is over. Any other big multigazillion dollar companies with a few billion to spend who want a chip manufacturer? I'd say IBM, but their interests seem to be elsewhere.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    2. Re:Enough time to turn around? by PhysicsPhil · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Any other big multigazillion dollar companies with a few billion to spend who want a chip manufacturer? I'd say IBM, but their interests seem to be elsewhere.

      If AMD goes under, I'd bet the Chinese would take a crack at it. Being in such an important industry, government support for a multi-year development effort isn't out of the question.

    3. Re:Enough time to turn around? by the_humeister · · Score: 1

      Microsoft?

    4. Re:Enough time to turn around? by Beefpatrol · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I really don't think AMD is hosed. AMD still has lots of assets, not all of which are centered around processors and (now) GPUs. They could unload some of these assets to stay afloat if need be. Additionally, I think a lot of the press about Phenom being completely owned by the Core 2 architecture is a bit biased and exaggerated. One thing that people don't seem to talk much about is the fact that on a Phenom die, all cores share a common L3 cache. Core 2 Quad processors do not share *any* cache among all 4 cores. This means that if a process gets moved to a core on the other die of a Core 2 Quad, the cache needs to be reloaded, which means going through the relatively high latency memory access process again. As I understand it, "processor affinity" code in OS kernels is still fairly non-optimal, so this probably happens fairly often. I'm sure someone out there in Slashdot land knows some value about how often this actually happens. If so, it would be good if you'd post it, since I'm curious to know what it is. :)

      With regard to benchmarks, situations where multiple processes share a chunk of memory and situations where processes get shuffled around to different cores frequently are examples of when a Phenom might be a Core 2, other things being equal. I have not been able to find any benchmarks of these two architectures that include, for example, PostgreSQL serving a large number of queries simultaneously, (thereby using all cores most of the time.) The benchmarks all seem to revolve, at best, around measuring the performance of a single process, possibly while something else is also running. It wouldn't surprise me if Phenom spanks Core 2 in some situations that aren't talked about in the reviews much.

      Reviews that consider some of these other situations that identify some places where Phenom beats Core 2 could do a world of good for AMD.

    5. Re:Enough time to turn around? by citylivin · · Score: 1

      "My feeling at this point is that AMD is hosed"

      2 years ago the same thing could be said about intel. They made crappy chips ever since the first p4 rolled off the line (i know i owned one @ 1.4 ghz and it got schooled by p3 1000s and athlon xps). AMD had better designs but lately all their chips have to come with massive rebates in order to sell at all. The performance just isnt there. The point is alot can change in 2 years. I never thought I would buy an intel machine again.

      --
      As a potential lottery winner, I totally support tax cuts for the wealthy
    6. Re:Enough time to turn around? by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      No one would have said that of Intel a couple of years ago. Even at their worst, Intel had a helluva lot of cash to play with. As I said, Intel is far better poised to survive its own major screwups than AMD is.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    7. Re:Enough time to turn around? by kesuki · · Score: 1

      AMD isn't hosed, loosing 1 Billion in a down economy is bad news, but it's hardly earth shattering. there are a lot of really cool new technology like using lasers to 'correct' errors in microprocessors, that neither AMD nor intel are using yet. a big problem with moore's law has been that as you shrink all the parts, minor flaws are rendering parts of the chip defective, simply because the size of the flaw relative to the size of the part is growing as part sizes shrink to keep moore's law going. one of the reasons why intel was floundering around a few years back, when AMD had the lead, was because the continued die shrinks were preventing them from getting the clock speeds they desired from parts...

      but now, if you can use a 'laser' to fix flaws, not only do the fixed parts perform faster, you also get higher die yields.

      now, it might not make sense to use correction on every part but performance parts are a minority of the market, you can also use the technique on low power chips, to cause them to waste less power, because they don't have power draining defects..

      if AMD licenses and uses the laser correction tech before intel does, they could temporarily exceed what intel is capable of doing, while hoping their R&D can catch up to intel when they need to.

      worst case scenario is that there is a global depression, in that case AMD might well be hosed, since Intel can just wait the depression out, by laying off a lot of people and moth balling plants. But there are a lot of billionaires out there that seriously don't want to see a depression cycle, the world is completely different from how it was in the 1930's

  16. What about the video cards? by joshtheitguy · · Score: 1
    Though the new series of ATI cards the HD 4870 are doing extremely well against Nvidia GX 260/280 in terms of price vs. performance right now.

    Is this not even enough to save AMD?

    1. Re:What about the video cards? by pdusen · · Score: 5, Insightful

      AMD is fine. They are having a rough spot that is worse than the ones Intel goes through due to Intel being far more diversified. People in these comments touting the death of AMD are being melodramatic.

    2. Re:What about the video cards? by Amouth · · Score: 2, Insightful

      the number of video cards sold vs. the number of CPU's sold is jsut a small fraction.

      and considering the price distrubution of products bought - having the best on the high end doens't help too much as it is out of the price range of most computers sold.

      so no - it isn't going to save them - while it helps - it willnot save by any means.

      --
      '...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
    3. Re:What about the video cards? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just wait until AMD releases a CPU that has an integrated ATI GPU per core. Seeing as GPUs spank current CPUs at floating point, this could make an incredibly powerful processor.

      3GHz Phenom with integrated R700 GPUs to replace or supplement the FPUs in addition to whatever GPUs you have on your video card(s) = pwnage.

    4. Re:What about the video cards? by avandesande · · Score: 1

      AMD has always been in a bad credit position, and if you have been watching the financial news lately banks are pulling back on investment.

      There is a very real possibility that AMD could go out of business now.

      --
      love is just extroverted narcissism
    5. Re:What about the video cards? by mpoulton · · Score: 1

      the number of video cards sold vs. the number of CPU's sold is jsut a small fraction.

      Really? I would think there is almost a 1:1 relationship there. Most systems have one of each. A "small fraction" of installations have a few CPUs per GPU, but most machines are still plain old single-processor desktops.

      --
      I am a geek attorney, but not your geek attorney unless you've already retained me. This is not legal advice.
    6. Re:What about the video cards? by mrchaotica · · Score: 1

      I would think there is almost a 1:1 relationship there. Most systems have one of each. A "small fraction" of installations have a few CPUs per GPU, but most machines are still plain old single-processor desktops.

      Nope. Most systems (don't forget to include laptops!) have one CPU but zero discrete GPUs.

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    7. Re:What about the video cards? by Kneo24 · · Score: 1

      I want to disagree with you, but you're essentially right.

      However, both ATI and Nvidia scale back their design for cheaper cards. While they push out 512MB/1GB cards for $xxx amount, they can push out 64MB variants at the $30 range.

      Now, what I'd like to see is companies like Dell making deals with these guys to put in these low end cards into their desktops instead of using on-board video, instead of using only their high end cards for their over priced PC's. The extra cost would be minimal.

      It would make huge leaps and bounds for the PC gaming market. Now instead of the average person most likely having no video card in their box, they now at least have one. It might be weak, but it's a better base-line to work with. I have seen numerous of these casual games, like Roller Coaster Tycoon 3, have extremely poor framerate on those type of PC's where even with the onboard GPU, they exceed the minimum system requirements, and some of the PC's specs far exceed the recommended system requirements.

    8. Re:What about the video cards? by lavaface · · Score: 1

      Diversification is important. Intel and many other companies in the semiconductor industry are putting a lot of effort into solar cell research. AMD is one of the few that has no solar program. Unfortunately, they diversified by buying ATI, which has proven to be a boondoggle. They would be wise to get with the solar program.

    9. Re:What about the video cards? by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      Intel varies between making lots of money and making even more than that. AMD varies between losing lots of money and making a little bit. This has been going on for a long time. If it continues, AMD dies.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
    10. Re:What about the video cards? by Amouth · · Score: 1

      also don't forget servers - LOT's of CPU's there and zero GPU's.. racks apon racks of them

      --
      '...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
    11. Re:What about the video cards? by Amouth · · Score: 1

      i agree it would be nice if they did that - and that is what i belive Intel has realized - cause when it comes to dell you will 99% of the time end up with an Intel inegrated graphics card - and here lately (sence AMD bought ATI) intel has been working damned hard in stepping up to the plate and giving people like dell a reason NOT do do just things.

      i was very very plesently supprized with my laptop (dell D420 - the ultralight one) and the intel integraded graphics - it acutaly can play games - and do it well - sure it isn't as good as a midranged ATI or nvida card - but the do a good job to keep the frame rate up and have it playable

      would i want to play games on it all the time? no - i use my desktop for that - but when i am out of town or over some place.. it does fine

      --
      '...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
  17. AMD by mlwmohawk · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I love my AMD systems. What the hell? How can you have a GREAT product, market share, and blow it as often as AMD has.

    I hope they can come back. ATI was such a mistake, EVERYONE knew it was, I shake my head at what passes for management or vision these days.

    You just know the guys that destroy good companies get many millions of dollars while the stock holders get shafted and the stake holders get ignored.

    1. Re:AMD by Amouth · · Score: 2, Insightful

      i agree buying ATI was amistake for AMD - i never in my mind would have seen that comming..

      if nothing i would see AMD buying nVidia and Intel buying ATI. that to me seems like a better match up.

      now Intel woln't use ATI chips on boards as that is supporting their competitor - so they forced Intel into competing the graphics market - which i will say they seem to be doing quite well with.

      while i like ATI (alwasy have like their cards compared to nVidia - i liked that ATI designed and built the cards them selves - you got exactly what you though you where getting when purchaseing) at this point i am left wondering what to do. but i do know i am not going to the AMD camp again.. their defect rate is way to high for my sanity

      --
      '...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
    2. Re:AMD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Our courts failure to pursue the antitrust allegations against Intel until very recently plays a significant role in AMD's problems as well.
      Have any of you, who keep spouting out off about AMD's financial blunders, ever stopped to think about how unfair market practices might affect a smaller company?

    3. Re:AMD by Bj�rn · · Score: 4, Insightful

      ATI was such a mistake

      If the future is an integration of CPU and GPU, ATI might have been a necessary, if expensive, purchase for AMD. Also note that what AMD got was not just the ATI graphic cards, but also the chipsets. The support chipsets were always AMD's week spot.

      --
      Never express yourself more clearly than you are able to think. --Niels Bohr
    4. Re:AMD by Lust · · Score: 1
    5. Re:AMD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      The support chipsets were always AMD's week spot.

      Yeah, but it should only take AMD 7 days to turn that around.

    6. Re:AMD by Kneo24 · · Score: 1

      AMD tried to buy Nvidia, but Nvidia said no. They went after number 2 in that market, ATI.

      And why exactly was buying ATI a bad move? ATI cards have come a very long way in a very short time since AMD has bought them. Who's king of the hill in the GPU market now? ATI. Why? It's because the driver support has significantly improved. ATI cards have always had better hardware for them afaik, that was never the issue.

      ATI's new cards spank Nvidia's with moon rocks, hard. Not only do they perform better, they're also significantly cheaper.

    7. Re:AMD by kestasjk · · Score: 1

      ATI was such a mistake, EVERYONE knew it was, I shake my head at what passes for management or vision these days.

      Not true, it's still way too early to say whether it was a mistake or not.

      But one thing we can be sure of; if it turns out to be a wise investment /. will say "It was obviously the right move, everyone knew it, I predicted this, etc."

      --
      // MD_Update(&m,buf,j);
    8. Re:AMD by 0111+1110 · · Score: 1

      By what percentage does the HD4780 "spank" the GTX280 exactly? Are we talking twice as fast? Maybe 10 times as fast? Just curious. And the ATI purchase was a bad move because they simply didn't have the money. It is the reason why AMD may be closing up shop by 2009. It doesn't matter how badass their cards are when they are gone. But I guess you can email all the out of work AMD employees and congratulate them on what a fabulous decision it was to buy ATI. I'm sure they will appreciate it. And which part about losing over a billion dollars last quarter did you miss exactly?

      --
      Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
    9. Re:AMD by Kneo24 · · Score: 1

      By what percentage does the HD4780 "spank" the GTX280 exactly? Are we talking twice as fast? Maybe 10 times as fast? Just curious.

      It depends on the game. HL2: EP2 shows a massive 30% gain. ET:QW? A few percent. Crysis? The GTX 280 wins (not by a whole lot). Oh, and the GTX 280 will cost you a couple hundred dollars more too. It has the price and performance over Nivida. I just hope they aren't losing money on these cards like they have with their processors. When was the last time an ATI card was king of the hill in the GPU segment?

      AMD's acquisition of ATI has really improved driver support for ATI cards. It shows. No longer does one have to fear that their game won't run correctly with an ATI card.

      And the ATI purchase was a bad move because they simply didn't have the money. It is the reason why AMD may be closing up shop by 2009.

      And they simply couldn't have afforded not to either. AMD needs to stay competitive. The only way they're going to do that is by constantly reinventing the wheel like they've done in the past. The new idea of a GPU processor put into your CPU will probably be the next generation.

      AMD closing its doors next year is all speculation anyway. Hopefully their new CEO will turn things around.

      It doesn't matter how badass their cards are when they are gone. But I guess you can email all the out of work AMD employees and congratulate them on what a fabulous decision it was to buy ATI. I'm sure they will appreciate it. And which part about losing over a billion dollars last quarter did you miss exactly?

      Wow, there's a lot of irrelevant flamebait there. Them buying ATI a couple years ago has nothing to do with the money they lost this year. Or were you too busy trying to bait me to notice that?

  18. If I lost $1.2 billion... by afabbro · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...I'd try to think where I'd last seen it and look there.

    In this case, AMD should be looking at 2005.

    --
    Advice: on VPS providers
  19. old CEO was from Motorola by Dan667 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The way they mis-managed their semi-conductor division pretty much made that the kiss of death. Great technology and good folks there at both AMD and Motorola, but folks that use to be Motorola Management might as well run around in a bunch of robes chanting for their ability to screw things up.

  20. Timing is everything by buddhaunderthetree · · Score: 5, Informative

    Hmmm, perhaps just a coincidence but the EU has just expanded it's anti-trust investigation into Intel.

    http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080716-report-eu-to-expand-intel-antitrust-investigation.html

    --
    "Technology.....the knack of so arranging the world that we don't have to experience it." Max Firsch
    1. Re:Timing is everything by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is AMD ever going to see any money from that?

    2. Re:Timing is everything by kestasjk · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      The EU smells free cash. "Want to do business here? Pay up." Extortion.

      --
      // MD_Update(&m,buf,j);
    3. Re:Timing is everything by magus_melchior · · Score: 1

      You're talking about taxation, not extortion, and the investigation hardly sounds anything like what you're describing. In fact, Japan and Korea already found Intel in violation of anti-trust laws, and the US trial is still in discovery phase. The overriding theme: Intel gave discounts to customers who agreed not to use AMD chips.

      --
      "We are Microsoft. You shall be assimilated. Competition is futile."
    4. Re:Timing is everything by ISoldat53 · · Score: 1

      I wonder what happened to the investigation into Intel paying Dell under the table not to buy AMD?

    5. Re:Timing is everything by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So what, even if they did? If they can show it was at below cost, they might have a case. Otherwise, a discount is a discount. If you sell 10000 units, and I sell you 5000 chips I might give you a 3% discount. Then tell you if you sell 5000 more of my chips I'll give you an additional 2% discount. Oh, noes! Horrible, horrible me! I should be executed! The HORROR OF IT ALL!!!!!

    6. Re:Timing is everything by INowRegretThesePosts · · Score: 1

      You probably are not that stupid and I am feeding a troll, but I'll answer.

      McDonnalds gives you a discount for buying craploads of soft drink (so 500 ml is not 67% more expensive than 300 ml)? Legal.
      McDonnalds gives you a discount for *not* buying at Burger King? Illegal.

      Is that hard to understand?

  21. That would be interesting.. by Junta · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Though I doubt it would ever happen.

    IBM buys AMD, uses circumstances to:
    -Advance the fab capabilities of AMD generally (hopefully invest to actually keep up with Intel instead of lagging by a year or so)
    -Release a Cell processor variant, replacing the PPC core with an x86 core.

    It seems far fetched, but at the same time, the #1 supercomputer is already an AMD/Cell hybrid (two Cell processor packages for every AMD package). However, I wouldn't anticipate that core being any more performance than the PPC core, just a different instruction set. It *could* really cause some grief for intel if it caught on though. The ability to run Windows and games like normal (maybe with a penalty), but SPU enabled software could really make for some amazing media manipulation and incredible games.

    --
    XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
    1. Re:That would be interesting.. by mr_mischief · · Score: 4, Interesting

      If the fab tech is the biggest issue, TSMC or Chartered would be a natural match. They do contract chip fab for everything from DRAM to CPUs, including the XBox CPUs and some AMD CPUs (Chartered) and some of AMD's ATI GPUs and chipsets (TSMC).

      It'd make sense that if you're keeping your equipment busy making stuff for a customer, you'd want to keep that revenue. The best way to ensure that is to start making the same products for yourself.

    2. Re:That would be interesting.. by Junta · · Score: 1

      I think fab is a significant problem, but ultimately, at this point, AMD's offering catching up is insufficient to be interesting. Going above and beyond (like when they brought about x86-64) is really what they need right now.

      --
      XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
    3. Re:That would be interesting.. by BlackSnake112 · · Score: 1

      IBM could buy AMD but they couldn't sell the CPUs to the general public. Remember that IBM is forbidden from selling CPUs for home desktops. If IBM didn't have this issue there would be no Intel. IBM has a much larger fab facilities then Intel had (maybe still). How many hundreds of CPUs are in those mainframes?

    4. Re:That would be interesting.. by AnObfuscator · · Score: 1

      Though I doubt it would ever happen.

      IBM buys AMD, uses circumstances to: -Advance the fab capabilities of AMD generally (hopefully invest to actually keep up with Intel instead of lagging by a year or so) -Release a Cell processor variant, replacing the PPC core with an x86 core.

      It seems far fetched, but at the same time, the #1 supercomputer is already an AMD/Cell hybrid (two Cell processor packages for every AMD package). However, I wouldn't anticipate that core being any more performance than the PPC core, just a different instruction set. It *could* really cause some grief for intel if it caught on though. The ability to run Windows and games like normal (maybe with a penalty), but SPU enabled software could really make for some amazing media manipulation and incredible games.

      I have thought along similar lines, and I agree such a setup would be amazing.

      The only problem is, IIRC, AMD's x86 license has a clause preventing its transfer if AMD is bought out, and IBM doesn't (to my knowledge) have an x86 license of its own.

      --
      multifariam.net -- yet another nerd blog
    5. Re:That would be interesting.. by LWATCDR · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "Remember that IBM is forbidden from selling CPUs for home desktops."
      Huh?
      Since when? IBM made the PPC for Macs for years.
      So where is your documentation on this?

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    6. Re:That would be interesting.. by karvind · · Score: 1
      IBM has a much larger fab facilities then Intel had (maybe still).

      No, they do not. There only 300mm line is in East Fishkill, NY. The aging 200mm line in Burlington will not be upgraded. IBM doesn't have capacity for low price and high volume manufacturing. IBM's main business is servers which always demand more than the best available in the market. Since there is huge profit margin on servers, IBM invests in getting that extra performance even if it is not yield friendly. You don't sell millions of big iron (Z series) machines. The development cost of that technology is becoming prohibitively expensive. That is why (among other reasons) decided to go with partnership model where the cost is amortized. The partners get access to latest and greatest technology in return.

    7. Re:That would be interesting.. by mr_mischief · · Score: 1

      Well, if they could successfully scale down the Phenom to TSMC's 32nm process and skip the 45nm node altogether, that would be a start. The clock speeds and power usage that would allow would be really nice. They could probably scale their CPUS to 6 or 8 cores pretty easily at that size, too, and add a whole load of cache.

    8. Re:That would be interesting.. by petermgreen · · Score: 1

      IBM made the processors for the higher end macs until very recently, they also did the actual manufacturing of the cyrix 6x86 chips and sold some of them under thier brand.

      Who is forbidding them from selling theese chips and under what authority?

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
    9. Re:That would be interesting.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Cell is PPC for a reason. x86 has stuck around for quite some time, but the PPC is a much more fitting design choice for modern times. Microsoft may drive the market but it sure as hell doesn't drive advancing technology. See http://www.osnews.com/story/3997

    10. Re:That would be interesting.. by Courageous · · Score: 1

      I think there are issues with the AMD-Intel x86 license agreement that make it difficult to impossible for a buyer of AMD to also have those licenses. Well, so I've heard it said.

      C//

  22. As always, luck is simply hard work by SuperKendall · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The real deal is that Intel had some time ago cut back on R&D spending, and AMD made them pay for it.

    Intel realized this, increased R&D spending, and voila - "luck" magically happened.

    Do you think a company with tight R&D funding would have been having ANYONE look at older processors for potential? That's not luck, that's willingness to fund even avenues that might not seem like they have potential.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  23. bunch of whiners... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I offered to pay for the losses myself but they said they did not have change for my EUR 50,- .

    Hector.

  24. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. Opp'ty??? by davidsyes · · Score: 1

    Isn't this an opportunity for AMD??? Does AMD partner with Acer and other Taiwan/Korea/Asia-based laptop and desktop makers? If AMD went on an offensive to make ONLY Linux-friendly computer GPU's/cards, it could create a massive shakeup...

    --
    Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
  25. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. Opp'ty??? by Scotteh · · Score: 1

    That would be true if a higher percentage of people used Linux. As far as I'm aware, Windows users still hold the majority of the market. If that's still true, it would be a very bad choice for AMD to make only Linux-friendly GPU's/cards.

  26. AMD dont fail us now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    well lets go out and buy some AMD and ATI stuff then. Their stuff is pretty decent be it a slow come back I think AMD will just hang in their by the skin of their teeth. They do technically have the fastest single board Video card out their be it a little creative thinking in design, none the less its faster than nvidea and the spider platform is a brilliant concept and looks to work quite well they have also just launched Puma and i dont care what any one says AMD are very attractively Priced so all they need now is a stonking processor to cream the centrino and they will be back watch this space AMD or we are screwed I would hate a world ruled by Intel

  27. You know what they say about lost CEOs by kitsunewarlock · · Score: 2, Funny

    There always in the last place there is to look.

    --
    Ginga no Rekshiya Mata Each page.
    1. Re:You know what they say about lost CEOs by evilviper · · Score: 1

      I've lost a CEO.. literally _lost_. he responds to e-mails, signs documents, the business continues to run completely, I just can't figure out where in the building the CEO is.

      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
  28. Wrong by KaeseEs · · Score: 1

    How would have AMD impeded use of good 3D cards? Even if you thought nVidia SLI was the only 'good' answer, there are nForce chipsets for AMD with SLI too... I personally don't buy into the price-power-performance ratio of SLI or CrossFire, btw.

    You can't get an AMD computer with a 3D card with decent drivers under Linux. My experiences with the NVidia drivers have been less than stellar.

    This comment is months out of date. Just go to Phoronix and get the facts - AMD's open-source graphics drivers are quite good, and their proprietary graphics drivers have great performance. This has been true ever since the major-overhaul-of-their-driver-stack cum release-of-specs some time ago.

  29. Well.. by saboola · · Score: 1

    ..the first place I would check is under the couch cushions. I always find CEOs months later in there.

  30. What do I do with my stock cert? by tuaris · · Score: 1

    I have the original certificate for 10 shares of ATI stock. Should I trade that in and sell the stock? Or should I keep the certificate for nostalgic purposes and hope that one day the certificates will be worth something as a collectors item? ATI was a great company, AMD, is total crap.

    --
    President/CEO Pacy World http://www.pacyworld.com
    1. Re:What do I do with my stock cert? by alexander_686 · · Score: 1

      Scripophily [collecting stock certificates] is an odd hobby. Most brokers will charge you a fee to convert your certficate. Let us say $50 - not exaclty pulling the number out of thin air. I have no idea on how many AMD shares you will get. Is the stock certtificate pretty? I know a lot of people who either have Disney or Playboy [back when the cert had the Feb 72 playmate on them. Alas no longer]

  31. It's all about the architecture by jdb2 · · Score: 4, Informative
    Back in 2003, when rumors were circulating about an AMD "K9" processor, everyone thought that a new, revolutionary, designed from the ground up processor architecture was in the works. Actually, it was. AMD was designing an *8-issue superscalar OoOE* 64-bit x86 processor. Basically the Alpha EV8 reincarnated in the form of an x86 chip. ( remember that AMD inherited a substantial portion of the Alpha design team after DEC was swalloed up by Compaq )

    Unfortunately, as usual, management could only see 6-months ahead and the chip was canceled in favour of a 64-bit processor that was cheaper and easier to design and consequently would increase short-term revenue.

    The processor that was hailed as a "revolutionary" x86 design, the Opteron, was, in fact, *directly* based off of the *K7* design. It was basically a K7 with a beefed up datapath, support for SSE2 and other miscellany, an on-board memory controller, and a high speed serial point-to-point interconnect as a replacement for the front side bus ( Hypertransport ) bolted on.

    Now, you would think that the new Barcelona architecture was a great innovation, but not so much. It, like the Opteron, is a heavily leveraged design based off of the previous processor generation, namely the K8.

    To get to the point, the fact is that AMD never truly created a new processor architecture -- they never truly innovated beyond bolting new crap onto old designs. In fact, the basic architecture of AMD's latest design, when you boil it down, is the same as the *K7*. Barcelona is just a ( very ) beefed up K7.

    When you keep designing architectures like this you eventually hit a wall and start to stagnate due to the law of diminishing returns. So, while AMD basically did nothing essentially new with their architecture over the years, it gave Intel ample time to design, *from the ground up*, 5 new processor architectures : The Pentium-M, Core, Core 2, Nehalem, and Atom.

    AMD's worst mistake was the cancellation of the Alpha EV8 inspired "K9" in 2003. Now they are paying for it.

    jdb2

    1. Re:It's all about the architecture by rizzo320 · · Score: 1

      When you keep designing architectures like this you eventually hit a wall and start to stagnate due to the law of diminishing returns. So, while AMD basically did nothing essentially new with their architecture over the years, it gave Intel ample time to design, *from the ground up*, 5 new processor architectures : The Pentium-M, Core, Core 2, Nehalem, and Atom.

      I don't disagree with your AMD analysis, however, your post seems to directly contradict a previous comment on this article that the Core processors were derivatives of the Pentium III. If that's the case, then Intel's designs have been similarly "bolted on" and not designed from the ground up either. I tend to agree more with the simple theory that both companies have made mis-steps, but that Intel has the fabs, money, and size to make up for their mistakes much more quickly, and without as much of an effect on their bottom line.

    2. Re:It's all about the architecture by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bullshit. The Pentium-M and friends owe their heritage to the good old P3. Very innovative, isn't it? Now, what was your point about walls and old designs in this context again?

    3. Re:It's all about the architecture by jdb2 · · Score: 1
      The following can be corroborated from other sources besides Wikipedia :

      If I may quote http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Core_microarchitecture :

      The Intel Core Microarchitecture is designed from the ground up, but similar to the Pentium M microarchitecture in design philosophy.

      Furthermore, if you do some searching, you'll find that the Core microarchitecture was almost completely designed by a team in Israel.

      jdb2

    4. Re:It's all about the architecture by KZigurs · · Score: 2, Interesting

      You probably mean one - pentium-m. Core and core 2 is direct spinoffs of it, atom is a beefed up/scaled down modern pentium III.

    5. Re:It's all about the architecture by jdb2 · · Score: 1
      Hello Troll.

      As all Trolls, you have no reasoning ability. In the context of this discussion, Intel would have to have bolted more crap onto the NetBurst Architecture, but they didn't -- they saw that they were running into a wall and changed design philosophies. Sounds like innovation to me. Also, Intel designed the Pentium-M around the general architecture/design-philosophy of the P-III architecture -- they didn't directly copy it or reuse its RTL code. The fact that they took what general design philosophies were good in the P-III and ran with them, strikes me as insightful, having the ability to recognize ones mistakes and when one strayed from the correct path, and especially very *innovative*. Those ideas *evolved* ie. innovation. They did not stay static.

      Thank you for letting me deconstruct your "argument" Mr. Troll.

      jdb2

    6. Re:It's all about the architecture by jdb2 · · Score: 1

      This is completely wrong. If you would have read the rest of the thread you would know that the Core architecture was a ground-up design that got it's *inspiration* from some of the ideas implemented in the Pentium-M and from completely new ideas. Ideas aren't born in a vacuum. Innovation takes old ideas and combines them into something that is more than the sum of its parts.

      jdb2

    7. Re:It's all about the architecture by gcfreaky17 · · Score: 1

      Actually, the true original design from Intel Israel's team was the Pentium M (which itself was heavily based on both the Pentium III and the Pentium 4 branch prediction and FSB). The Core architecture wasn't a truly "ground up" design, it relied on the Pentium M design. It even inherited the Pentium M's weak FPU (which was redesigned for the Core 2).

    8. Re:It's all about the architecture by AnObfuscator · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Back in 2003, when rumors were circulating about an AMD "K9" processor, everyone thought that a new, revolutionary, designed from the ground up processor architecture was in the works. Actually, it was. AMD was designing an *8-issue superscalar OoOE* 64-bit x86 processor. Basically the Alpha EV8 reincarnated in the form of an x86 chip. ( remember that AMD inherited a substantial portion of the Alpha design team after DEC was swalloed up by Compaq )

      Unfortunately, as usual, management could only see 6-months ahead and the chip was canceled in favour of a 64-bit processor that was cheaper and easier to design and consequently would increase short-term revenue.

      No, they canceled it because it was over-ambitious and couldn't work. The thermals of the design were impossible to manage, and the frequency scaling was predicted to be horrible.

      No halfway-successful CPU company thinks "6 months down the road" like you claim. CPUs take years to design, tape-out, and manufacture, and CPU company management knows this.

      The processor that was hailed as a "revolutionary" x86 design, the Opteron, was, in fact, *directly* based off of the *K7* design. It was basically a K7 with a beefed up datapath, support for SSE2 and other miscellany, an on-board memory controller, and a high speed serial point-to-point interconnect as a replacement for the front side bus ( Hypertransport ) bolted on.

      ... not to mention AMD64, a new ISA based on x86 -- something Intel wrote off as "impossible". It includes 2x the number of GPRs (from 8 to 16), and eliminates tons of legacy cruft instructions from x86.

      The "mode switching" behavior that allows K8 to switch between 32bit and 64bit modes on the fly is pretty impressive, as well.

      So, while AMD basically did nothing essentially new with their architecture over the years, it gave Intel ample time to design, *from the ground up*, 5 new processor architectures : The Pentium-M, Core, Core 2, Nehalem, and Atom.

      AMD's worst mistake was the cancellation of the Alpha EV8 inspired "K9" in 2003. Now they are paying for it.

      jdb2

      What the fuck? Pentium-M, Core, Core 2, etc are not "revolutionary, from the ground up" architectures. In fact, the basic architecture, when you boil it down, is nothing more than a "very beefed up" P6 -- AKA Pentium Pro -- which predates even K7.

      I don't disagree that K9 is a disappointing warm-over of K8, but truely "new" cpu architectures don't come around all that often. Power6 is "beefed up" Power5, which is "beefed up" Power4, etc. A good architecture can last a very long time, and it's wasteful and dangerous to throw out a proven design for an unproven "new" design -- see NetBurst for an excellent example.

      --
      multifariam.net -- yet another nerd blog
    9. Re:It's all about the architecture by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      I think it's more like one - Core. The Pentium-M was a PIII with some tweaks. Core took that inspiration and worked it into a modern processor, and Core 2 evolved that design.

    10. Re:It's all about the architecture by jdb2 · · Score: 1

      I think everyone has their own version of what a "ground up" design should be. When I talk about a "ground up" design ( with respect to a processor ) I'm talking about minimal re-use of RTL code. Just because a design re-implements a functional construct or block of a previous design in brand new RTL code, it doesn't mean that the previous construct/block was "copied over" and as such is based on or a "spinoff" of the previous design, no more than one would say ReactOS is "based on" or a "spinoff" of Microsoft Windows. If you're referring to concepts alone, then that's another matter. Under the above definition, the Core architecture is ground-up just as the intuitive software counterpart of this definition means that, say, a new operating system is "ground up" even though it incorporates various pieces of code from other OSs, like a tcp/ip stack.

      jdb2

    11. Re:It's all about the architecture by petermgreen · · Score: 1

      Afaict the naming is rather confusing, the "core duo" series of processors were not based on the core microarchitecture they were based on the P6 microarchitecture (that is thier basic design was based on the line that started from the PPro)

      The core microarchitecture is used in the core 2 range of chips and thier corresponding xeons.

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
    12. Re:It's all about the architecture by jdb2 · · Score: 1

      Back in 2003, when rumors were circulating about an AMD "K9" processor, everyone thought that a new, revolutionary, designed from the ground up processor architecture was in the works. Actually, it was. AMD was designing an *8-issue superscalar OoOE* 64-bit x86 processor. Basically the Alpha EV8 reincarnated in the form of an x86 chip. ( remember that AMD inherited a substantial portion of the Alpha design team after DEC was swalloed up by Compaq )

      Unfortunately, as usual, management could only see 6-months ahead and the chip was canceled in favour of a 64-bit processor that was cheaper and easier to design and consequently would increase short-term revenue.

      No, they canceled it because it was over-ambitious and couldn't work. The thermals of the design were impossible to manage, and the frequency scaling was predicted to be horrible.

      Then they should have put it on ice until the K8 had generated enough money and enough time had passed for the process technology to be good enough. Or they could have had a small team working on the design in parallel. There's no excuse.

      No halfway-successful CPU company thinks "6 months down the road" like you claim. CPUs take years to design, tape-out, and manufacture, and CPU company management knows this.

      Apparently you have problem understanding hyperbolic prose, although I do admit I should have said "week" or used "myopic" instead.

      The processor that was hailed as a "revolutionary" x86 design, the Opteron, was, in fact, *directly* based off of the *K7* design. It was basically a K7 with a beefed up datapath, support for SSE2 and other miscellany, an on-board memory controller, and a high speed serial point-to-point interconnect as a replacement for the front side bus ( Hypertransport ) bolted on.

      ... not to mention AMD64, a new ISA based on x86 -- something Intel wrote off as "impossible". It includes 2x the number of GPRs (from 8 to 16), and eliminates tons of legacy cruft instructions from x86.

      The "mode switching" behavior that allows K8 to switch between 32bit and 64bit modes on the fly is pretty impressive, as well.

      A *new* ISA. I think that's a "bit" of an overstatement. Getting rid of some useless opcodes ( if they would have gotten rid of "tons" there'd be little left of the x86 ISA ) and introducing new instruction prefixes could be done by any 15 year old teenage Demoscener who hacks assembly. When I was that age I fully understood the x86 instruction format and I can tell you that this "innovation" is really inflated.

      Oh and doubling the GPRs along with the datapath, now that's really innovative. I mean, no one's ever done that in the history of the microprocessor.

      As for the "mode switching behavior" now that's an innovation. I mean, nobody has ever thought of a way to save such a complicated processor state , oh, wait, there was this thing introduced by Intel called Virtual 8086 mode -- you could easily switch to protected mode and back with that hmmm......

      So, while AMD basically did nothing essentially new with their architecture over the years, it gave Intel ample time to design, *from the ground up*, 5 new processor architectures : The Pentium-M, Core, Core 2, Nehalem, and Atom.

      AMD's worst mistake was the cancellation of the Alpha EV8 inspired "K9" in 2003. Now they are paying for it.

      jdb2

      What the fuck?

      The use of profanity usually signals that one is unable to articulate ones argument because there is none or one knows it is flawed.

      Pentium-M, Core, Core 2, etc are not "revolutionary, from the ground up" architectures. In fact, the basic architecture, when you boil it down, is nothing more than a "very beefed up" P6 -- AKA Pen

    13. Re:It's all about the architecture by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh, yes everyone who disagrees with you is a troll. Of course. Please feel free to continue living in your little bubble of bad, broken logic. God damn idiot.

    14. Re:It's all about the architecture by MtViewGuy · · Score: 1

      Actually, the smartest move Intel did this decade was to drop all further development of the Prescott-core Pentium 4 (which was running WAY too hot) and to base its CPU designs on the excellent Pentium III-M CPU, which was a fast, very cool-running core to start with (after all, it was designed specifically for laptop applications).

      The result was the Conroe-core series of CPU's, which single-handedly got Intel back its technological edge that it has yet to relinquish.

    15. Re:It's all about the architecture by MtViewGuy · · Score: 1

      Actually, the Conroe-core CPU did borrow a lot from the design of the Pentium III-M, especially in the way it did power management to keep the CPU running cool. But the result was perhaps Intel's best CPU since the 80486DX.

  32. EU Antitrust Charges. Don't blame the Victim. by Erris · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Thank heavens for representative government that works better than our own. The EU has been watching Intel for more than 8 years and already has outstanding charges that Intel thwarted AMD sales by selling at a loss. We've all seen how they crushed OLPC. Good for the EU for doing something, we can only hope it's not too little too late given worsening economic conditions.

    The story's "AMD sucks" slant is puzzling. Advantages come and go, but AMD has almost always been better for number crunching since 2000. They also have had significantly better interconnects and architecture for multi core processors. It's like blaming the victim.

    Another factor in this sad story is the Vista failure which has hurt all hardware sales. In the last year or so, we've seen spectacular bargains like $500 and less dual core laptops on clearance and the collapse of CompUSA and other big box stores. AMD will suffer more in this downturn because it comes as they were gaining share.

    --
    DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
  33. Re:EU Antitrust Charges. Don't blame the Victim. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The story's "AMD sucks" slant is puzzling. Advantages come and go, but AMD has almost always been better for number crunching since 2000. They also have had significantly better interconnects and architecture for multi core processors. It's like blaming the victim.

    None of that matters when you can't run the company, which is what happened to AMD. Of course the 'victim' is being blamed, they did it to themselves.

    Another factor in this sad story is the Vista failure which has hurt all hardware sales.

    LOL, what does Microsoft have to do with anything? Are you implying that CompUSA collapsed because of Vista? WTF?

    That last paragraph... seriously, I kept reading it and you're not even saying anything.

  34. There is still Via by Bonzodog01 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You have all forgotten about about Via Chips. They are building x86 procs now again.

  35. Re:STFU Lin-sux user. by jslater25 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I didn't realize that you could both 'Think Different' and 'Think APPLE'. Isn't that pretty much polar opposites? Once you an Apple fanboi, always ....

  36. Fill his shoes? by PPH · · Score: 1

    Stepping up to fill his shoes will be Dirk Meyer, previous company president and COO.

    I'd think that the guy who lost $1.2Bn would have already filled his own shoes, so to speak.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  37. Re:EU Antitrust Charges. Don't blame the Victim. by unity100 · · Score: 1

    None of that matters when you can't run the company, which is what happened to AMD. Of course the 'victim' is being blamed, they did it to themselves.

    there is no 'when you cant run the company' in a situation that your only competitor does malpractice. intel is charged with other stuff than monopoly practices in korea, where their high level people have engaged in dirty tricks to outmaneuver amd.

    just like microsoft.

    well, you are what your friends, are, as the saying goes.

  38. dont worry by unity100 · · Score: 1

    once eu fines intel for monopoly, and then starts fining them a few hundred thousand bucks a day if they dont follow up on what eu ordered, intel will shape up its act.

    they are straightening up microsoft as such in europe. they've been fined a few million for media player lawsuits, they dragged foot and delayed complying, and eu started fining them daily for latency. whoopss - thats the way to whack a bully.

    1. Re:dont worry by mobby_6kl · · Score: 2, Insightful

      And what, exactly, did all that accomplish?

    2. Re:dont worry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And Intel will simply stop selling processors to the 5 people who own computers in Europe. Who do they think they are anyway! Fining American corporations like this!

    3. Re:dont worry by unity100 · · Score: 1

      yea. surely they do not need that 5 people.

  39. AMD had the better CPU and intel bullied there p4 by Joe+The+Dragon · · Score: 1

    AMD had the better CPU and intel bullied there p4 in to the OEM's at the time and that was bad for amd and that give intel the time to come out with there better cpu.

  40. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. Opp'ty??? by compro01 · · Score: 1

    Since when does "Linux friendly" imply that the card won't work in windows?

    --
    upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
  41. Price edge mainly by Crazy+Taco · · Score: 1

    I fell in love with AMD many years ago. They had the price and performance edge, and were also more stable than Intel. I think they need to take a step back an evaluate what the hell they're doing. They need to find a way to pull out of the competition while they clean up their act so they can start giving their customers what they want: cutting edge technology

    I agree with you saying they need to step back and look at what they are doing, but I don't agree with you on the cutting edge performance part. Granted, I want them to get back that that point, and so do a lot of other people, but I don't think they absolutely need to have the greatest performance in the industry to do well or attract new customers. The reason I started buying them was that they had the best price to performance ratio of anyone out there. To use an oversimplification, I got more megahertz for my money. That's what they did right.

    So when it comes to fixing the company, they need to quit putting all their marketing dollars and hype into graphics and ati, or even into noise about how fast their latest and greatest processer is going to be. In fact, they especially need to quit hyping the perforamance of their upcoming processors, because if they are late (45nm anyone?), bungled (barcelona anyone?), etc, that's a big embarrassment. And even if everything is going to come off without a hitch, saying "we are going to have the fastest processer by the end of the year" only reinforces that you definately do not have it now. That's a negative differentiator for them, and they aren't going to win there.

    Intel is faster than them right now, period. What they have to do is start heavilly marketing their price performance edge, because that is the one good differentiator they have in their favor right now. I'm one of those people that games, programs, and wants the fastest CPU possible, but I learned years ago I can't ever have it because I can't afford it, especially from Intel. However, I found I could get some great performance from AMD for a fraction of the price of a comparable Intel processor, and I've been hooked ever since. I'd be willing to bet they could hook a lot more customers just like me, especially in this economic climate. When they get the performance edge back, then they can start talking about that again, but the key to marketing is to play to your products' strengths, and price to performance is their current strength.

    This last paragraph is kind of an afterthough... AMD might have a strong future as a business that makes most of its money on volume. An example of this would be Wal-Mart, which sells massive amounts of goods and makes almost zero profit on any of them, but sells so much of them that eventually those tiny little fractions of profits add up to billions. Intel is a premium product being sold at a premium price. There is no way that they should be selling more CPUs overall than AMD, especially on low to midrange PCs. AMD ought to be able to corner a vast portion of the market, maybe not making very much on each CPU, but surviving on volume. Its performance is good enough for most, and its price is better than Intel's, and having that kind of steady market share would give it a more permanent platform to compete from, and give it a steady enough source of income to take a shot at the performance crown again. But that all goes back to AMD realizing what strength it currently has, and playing to that strength, and we'll have to see if that ever happens. I think they had better hurry up though, because VIA is starting to make a play on that low end market, and if they get entrenched there, with Intel at the high end, AMD will have no place to go and will literally be squeezed out of the middle.

    --
    Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it.
  42. Neither do reviewers by DRAGONWEEZEL · · Score: 1

    The real price/performance ratio of SLI is skewed high to the price side. Allways has been, allways will be, until you add a second card and get >50% boost (not going to happen).

    Economically, the problem is the same reason why buffets are allways money makers. Yeah you serve a crapload of food to a few fat guys who haven't eaten all day so they can go to the buffet, but you more than make up for it by the fact that most people don't need more than 1 plate of food, and even if they choose the most expensive portions, they are still under the price of admission. A meal at DQ costs 6 bucks or you can go to the buffet, pay 10-15 and get all you can eat, but really your going to eat as much as you would at DQ...

    So ...

    SLI gives you a HELLUVA performance boost, but if you don't buy the two fastest SLI cards at the time they come out, soon a single card solution will be almost as good (or better) and cost 1/2 as much. You get top teir performance for maybe 6-12 months.

    And you still can't run Crysis. 8')

    The folks at Maximumpc have long said in their mag and on their podcast (paraphrased)

    SLI is for those who want it all and have the money to pay for it all right now. It provides the best performance you can get, but at a cost that is significantly higher.

    --
    How much is your data worth? Back it up now.
  43. Mod Twitter's comment UP. by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Twitter is obviously very intelligent, but under-challenged. Give Twitter a challenging job so he has something to do besides be annoying on Slashdot!

    However, he should not be moderated down when he makes very sensible comments. If Intel is making money because of anti-competitive prices, then Intel should be sued by the EU, as the story says.

    The biggest reason why AMD and Nvidia are near year-to-date lows is because of competition expected from new GPU products from Intel.

    1. Re:Mod Twitter's comment UP. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Yes indeed, let's mod him up so he can organize crapfloods like these with his 12 accounts. We should all be so lucky to have our trolling go unnoticed and people like you to shill us up.

      You don't even see the problem here - you even called him twitter, yet his posting with another account.

  44. Hardly ignoring management by snuf23 · · Score: 1

    This wasn't a case of someone just doing it against management wishes. If you look at the time frame Intel was struggling because the Pentium 4M (mobile) chips were not power efficient. They were hot and sucked down battery life. As a result Pentium 3 mobile chips were still being sold in laptops that were designed for mobility versus the desktop replacements (P4M). Initially the Pentium 3 Mobile Tulatin core was released in speeds up to 1.4GHz.
    From Tulatin the Pentium M was developed by the Israeli group which then lead to the Core and Core 2.
    Intel was aware that it needed a mobile replacement for the Pentium 4 and this drove development of the Pentium M and Core processors.
    The Core2 processors were the first to be used as Intel's primary desktop CPU as well as mobile CPU. At this point the Core2 outperformed the Pentium 4 and didn't suffer from the P4's problems with power and heat generation. It isn't as though the Core2 just popped out of nowhere. The CPU was part of Intel's evolutionary plans for a mobile CPU going back to the P3 mobile.

    --
    Sometimes my arms bend back.
  45. Not quite accurate... by Junta · · Score: 1

    The way you speak, it's like you install the latest vintage of the popular vintages of distributions and ATI hardware should magically have drivers loaded.

    It also makes it sounds like the 3D goodness of the OSS driver is mature and even working nearly immediately after spec release.

    It also suggests that the ATI binary blob has not been plagued with problems.

    The simple fact is, the 3D support isn't still fully baked even in the source control trees, especially not in any distribution. The effort to run those drivers is not insurmountable, but it does require checking out code, compiling it, etc etc. It's not in something that people would declare a release. Note even demo, proof-of-concept glxgears on one system was actually a couple of months after the specs released.

    And while the binary driver has markedly improved, you still have high incidents of 'unsupported hardware' watermarks, some corruption, suspend problems, and more depending on hardware. Speaking from experience as a Radeon driven laptop that has been chasing the code. Yes, the 3D performance finally got respectable, and AIGLX finally got implemented, but it's still quite rough around the edges.

    That said, I hope by Intrepid in ubuntu world and Fedora 10 in that world, they include OSS ATI goodness, as those drivers are really coming into their own on their development trees.

    --
    XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
  46. Some givens.. by Junta · · Score: 1

    The fact of the matter is neither nVidia nor ATI is used to dealing with the pace of linux changes. This is made more complicated by the reality of trying to support so many distributions at different points in that spectrum while trying to patch your own bugs. Doing this while at the same time preserving the relatively straightforward task of presenting a simple, single, versioned package is staggering.

    As a result, frequently they have problems and non-compliance issues. Right this second, for example, the closed drivers don't play perfectly well with xrandr, and you have to use proprietary tools to change multihead configuration.

    As much as I love linux as a user, some of the design decisions make it really hard for one vendor to support multiple distributions. If they open source it, then each distribution of note will make the effort to bring it in and customize it.

    --
    XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
  47. crashing all the time in our department by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    we are having a hard time. The g33 (not shure on the 33) is crashing quite a lot. It seem graphics related since the monitor only syncs every second and there are funny pixels.

    My good ol ati r200 has some problems with signal quality on the DVI but no crashes!

  48. Re:For me, it's all about the graphics. Opp'ty??? by SomeGuyTyping · · Score: 1

    Also, Linux users are mostly computer geeks. We tend to buy computers and parts more often than most.

    --
    My posts are definitive. Reality is frequently inaccurate.
  49. This is a sociological and psychological problem. by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 1

    That's why I say, help the man find himself a job, so he can use his intelligence for a good purpose.

    Instead of complaining, help solve the sociological and psychological problem. *grin*

  50. GPU Virtualization by Belial6 · · Score: 1

    I don't know, right now virtualization is the big thing. Both AMD and Intel currently have hadware virtualization in the CPU, but as far as I know, there is no hardware virtualization in any of the GPUs. If AMD can use ATI's tech to bring out a GPU/CPU platform that would allow a GPU hypervisor to control 3D surfaces that were each virtualized GPUs via hardware so that any OS running on top of the virtual machine thought it had complete control of the GPU, AMD would be poised for a HUGE win. If I could run WindowsXP (work copy), WindowsXP (Gaming Copy), Ubuntu, and maybe even an experimental OS or two, without having to give up 3D, I would replace my PC today.

  51. You take the forum far too seriously. by Joseph_Daniel_Zukige · · Score: 1

    Insanity does not preclude useful perspective.

    1. Re:You take the forum far too seriously. by Daengbo · · Score: 1
      Interesting that the comment sitting below you right now is:

      frothy pee wee

  52. On what was AMD unstable? by Joseph_Daniel_Zukige · · Score: 1

    Just asking, because I remember iNTEL has a compiler that some claim to have proven biases its code output against AMD.

    It's a little hard to talk about embrace and extend when iNTEL owns the original rights to x86, but is there a possibility that the instability was due to attempting to run opcodes that AMD hadn't emulated?

    I know, if you start digging into these sorts of questions, there doesn't seem to be any end, but these are precisely where Microsoft established its monopoly. Sometimes, it's necessary to take a performance (or price/performance) hit, as an investment in the future plurality of the marketplace.

    1. Re:On what was AMD unstable? by Threni · · Score: 1

      > On what was AMD unstable?

      That's the perception generally - probably for a number of factors: hotter than Intel, crappier at overclocking, often used with unstable VIA systems. On one hand, not really AMD's fault. On the other hand - those problems historically haven't existed for Intel.

  53. Re:This is a sociological and psychological proble by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Euthenasia would serve the same purpose and also stop him from continuing to abuse /. with his multiple sockpuppets and inane rantings.

  54. Re:EU Antitrust Charges. Don't blame the Victim. by ozmanjusri · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Sigh... twitter, when are you going to stop this annoying game?

    Are you seriously trying to blame Twitter for Vista's poor reputation? Take a look outside Slashdot for a second;

    Google search:

    Results 1 - 10 of about 9,170 for "Vista failure". (0.18 seconds)

    Do you really think Twitter is that influential?

    --
    "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
  55. Fud, BS, and Baseless Comments All at Once by JoeSixpack00 · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I've read most of the comments, and the amount of FUD and baseless comments is amazing

    1) From a technological standpoint, Intel is no better off than AMD. The Q9300 is only about 6-8% faster than their previous CPU (the Q6600), and it trails at many task because it has 2MB less L3 Cache than the Q6600. In addition, not only does it run hotter, but it doesn't overclock nearly as well. Of course you could go up to the Q9450, but you'd be paying $325 for a CPU with an 8X multiplier and a faulty temperature sensor (which is a known problem for their 45nm CPUs).

    2) In terms of efficiency, nothing Intel makes comes even close to the 4850e. 2.5Ghz Dual Core CPU, running at only 45w. That's more than enough muscle for the average joe, and quite impressive if people weren't so thirsty for quad cores they don't even need.

    3) The AMD A770 and 780G are both excellent chipsets, and the 3800 series GPU's marked the return of ATi, while the 4800 even further closed the gap from nVidia. Meanwhile, the G35 chipset has compatibility issues with DDR2 1066, as well as another chipset (who's name escapes me at the moment), and the GeForce 9600GT suffers from the Black Screen of Death. Now, can someone PLEASE tell me why purchasing ATi was such a bad idea, seeing how they're the only division of AMD that's actually gaining momentum at the moment?

    The only part of AMD that need to be fixed is their flagship CPU department. The Phenom is an exact repeat this idiot CEO did with the 64-Bit transition. In short, he let the Athlon XP line go completely to shit because he knew Hammer was coming soon. Only this time when he put his all his eggs in one basket, the basket had a hole in the bottom of it. Granted, needing a better flagship product is quite the problem to fix, but to say that the company sucks from top to bottom is hyperbole at its finest.

  56. Well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They kinda turned the gun against NVidia with the latest cards, if they can keep it up, I'm sure they can cook something for the processors...

  57. Its not just Intel's Core that stomped AMD by minion · · Score: 1

    Intel's Core technology is good. However, AMD still maintains a lead when it comes to 64bit Linux, running MySQL.

    Although we're no longer buying AMD systems for our 64bit database servers... Why? Nvidia.

    Almost no one uses AMD's chipsets. Finding a decent system with a Broadcom (ServerWorks) chipset is extremely hard. All of the damn "server class" chipsets are using Nvidia! And Nvidia is far from server class. In every DB server we have, in 64bit, no matter what revision of the kernel (we're had this running on 2.6.25), extremely high load on the network interface causes the interface to barf. If you look at the downloadable NIC driver from Nvidia's site, its the "forcedeth", reverse engineered driver, which doesn't work properly.

    Not having a properly functioning NIC on a server class board is a problem. For one, it forces us to use up a PCIe slot and install a different NIC. So now we're down a slot, and out extra money for something already built onto the motherboard.

    This futher complicates things, as you cannot use IPMI with an addin NIC. In addition, IF the stupid Nvidia NIC actually worked, the implemention of IPMI on any NIC non-Intel is flawed. Intel's IPMI implementation binds to the NIC's MAC, whereas all of the other implementations I've seen (Nvidia's and Broadcom's) use a separate MAC, thus a separate IP, for management... Without the benefit of having a secondary NIC for out-of-band management.

    AMD has concentrated too much on the desktop, where there is no money to be made. They've let their server platform suffer, and as a result, are loosing money in that sector because Intel, unfortunately, delivers a better enterprise-class ecosystem.

    --

    -- If we don't stand up for our rights, now, there will be no right to stand up for them later.
  58. Re:EU Antitrust Charges. Don't blame the Victim. by Gentlewhisper · · Score: 1
    Google search:

    Results 1 - 10 of about 7,110,000 for linux failure. (0.15 seconds)

    Do you think 9,170 is so significant? If anything Vista is a roaring success!

  59. Re:EU Antitrust Charges. Don't blame the Victim. by PetoskeyGuy · · Score: 2, Informative

    Now if you search correctly with quotes...

    Google Search:
    Results 1 - 10 of about 4,570 for "linux failure"

    Not that either search means much. But lets at least compare similar items.

  60. Re:STFU Linux user. by HJED · · Score: 1

    Lin-sux lost the desktop to OS X, and is now in the process of losing the server to OS X as well. OS X will take over every niche Lin-sux holds simply because it is backed by idiots, and programmed by amateur morons who have no considerations for security, performance, features, usability, etc.

    Lin-sux DESERVES to die, and I for one hope that it happens sooner rather than later so that more people can know the true beauty that is OS X.

    Think Different. Think Better. Think APPLE!!!!

    linux is most definatly not programed by amateur morons it wouldn\t have lasted 5 seconds if it was.

    also linux is FREE this makes it vastly superiour to Apple

    linux is more secure than apple in many areas becouse it is patched so much faster.
    it is also takes advatage of the latest and grearest technologies wich is both usefull and fun

    --
    null
  61. Re:AMD had the better CPU and intel bullied there by MtViewGuy · · Score: 1

    The AMD Athlon was a superior CPU over Intel's Prescott core Pentium 4 because 1) the Athlon's CPU core was a more modern design and 2) it ran WAY cooler than the Pentium 4 CPU's of that period.

    But once Intel struck back with the Core and Core 2 Duo CPU's with its cooler-running technology borrowed from the Pentium III-M CPU plus a new CPU core, Intel got back its technological lead that it has yet to relinquish.

  62. Quickpath is not open by DrYak · · Score: 1

    their interprocessor architecture and memory controller, which Nehalem matches.

    The big difference is that Hypertransport is an open standard.
    Whereas Quickpath is an Intel technology that has to be licensed.

    There's already have been problems between nVidia and Intel to come to some licensing terms. And if there's no quickpath in nVidia chipsets, you won't be seeing any nvidia based motherboard for nehalem with support for SLI.

    Also Hypertransport support has been announced for lots of different products, including FPGAs that can plug into processor sockets. I have yet to hear Quickpath being announced on anything but Intel processors.

    In short, quickpath and hypertransport are technically comparable. But AMD's offers possibility for a whole ecosystem to grow around it, Intel's will probably limited to communication between Intel branded CPUs and Intel branded chipsets, with maybe a couple of licensee who'll throw the necessary money.

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
  63. Re:EU Antitrust Charges. Don't blame the Victim. by ReinoutS · · Score: 1

    As an EU resident I must inform you that the European Commission isn't a government, and neither is it representative. The European Parliament is the only European institute that is directly elected by the population, however, its powers are quite limited.

  64. Re:EU Antitrust Charges. Don't blame the Victim. by jZnat · · Score: 1
    --
    'Yes, firefox is indeed greater than women. Can women block pops up for you? No. Can Firefox show you naked women? Yes.'
  65. I am completely familiar with PPC v. x86 by Junta · · Score: 1

    And the technical tradeoffs. However, the fact remains the ability to execute x86 and x86-64 opcodes is of vital importance practically speaking.

    --
    XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
  66. That's not the way I remember it. by mosel-saar-ruwer · · Score: 1


    My recollection is that MSFT was dragging their feet on the introduction of a "mainstream" 64-bit Windows for literally years and that the AMD people were screaming bloody murder about it, and that "mainstream" Win64 only miraculously appeared at about exactly the same time that Intel was ready to release EM64T, so that, as a result, AMD completely lost their chance for a competitive advantage.

    Now if my memory is faulty, then have at it - but I'm pretty sure that that's the way it went down [and no, I don't feel like Googling the dates - I seem to recall that there was a very buggy AMD64 Windows 2003 Server for a while, which got almost no traction in the marketplace, and then AMD64 Windows XP coincided more with the release of EM64T - whereas, by contrast, there had been an IA64 Windows XP for Itanium all the way back in 2001, which probably sold all of about 2 or 3 copies worldwide].

    PS: Whether MSFT deliberately dragged their feet as a favor to Intel, or whether the AMD people bungled the corporate negotiations to get MSFT to port to AMD64, I know not, but I definitely remember that there was a good year or 18 months when all you could run on AMD64 was Linux or FreeBSD, and that was precisely the year or 18 months that AMD needed to seize control of the marketplace [which opportunity, as we have since seen, has been lost forever - or at least until the marketplace decides to switch from 64-bit to 128-bit address spaces, and someone else gets a chance to upstage Intel].

    Moral of the story being that the greatest hardware in the world is utterly worthless without useable, productivity-enhancing software to run on it.

  67. Re:EU Antitrust Charges. Don't blame the Victim. by KingBenny · · Score: 1

    so ... it's supposed to be a free market ... that doesnt mean that the best product is always allowed to survive ... in general i'm afraid we'll have to put up with the general stupidity of general human kind ..

    --
    Free speech was meant to be free for all... how can anyone grow up in a nanny state ?
  68. Re:This is a sociological and psychological proble by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's why I say, help the man find himself a job, so he can use his intelligence for a good purpose.

    How long to you think someone whose version of entertainment is to piss people off would last in a job? How long would someone who is so insecure as to have shill accounts so he can prop up his opinions last?

  69. For me, AMD and nVidia by Life2Death · · Score: 0

    After digging for price per performance, I concluded that the cheapest rig I could get the most out of was an AMD X2 system with an nVidia card. Sure, Intel's crap is faster, but its just as expensive, and my system came with onboard 6100 so i can dual monitor it with dual gpu's. This segrigates memory in a way I thought ATI's cards could do only before. Yeah, I can even run Crysis on my $300 machine. Eat that. And my $500 laptop. and my $450 gaming pc. All are in the same basic config. All are AMD X2 3800/4000 or TK55 or whatever the jesus it is. All have nVidia 6100 (secondary display, mind you)/6800/8400GT/8800GTS Run vista and xp just fine.