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RE: AMD not dead yet?

FreakShow! — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 23:31:43 GMT

This asset light strategy is to be their saving grace, no idea what it actually is though.

If they sell off the older fabs and stick with the newer smaller ones (65nm and smaller) they could get a bit of cash there.

I still don't understand why people expect AMD to go under any moment. They won't.

RE: AMD not dead yet?

Bruce R — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:08:58 GMT

Hi Tom ;)
So far AMD have relied on contracted FABs to get their chips out, but their new chief exec is known to be uneasy about being hostage to having only one FAB source, without which you can't prove and then produce chips on any meaningful scale. They may well cross their fingers and rely on one FAB to get back on the road, but could indeed be well advised to end up with access to more than one FAB. Thing is, it's one thing to design chips, quite another to get them into reliable production on any scale, whilst FABs can get taken over and shut down, as happened in the UK quite a while ago. It also doesn't help that it takes a lot longer than an accountant's annual profit and loss figuring to get a new FAB into reliable production. :w00t:

RE: AMD not dead yet?

Tom Morton — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:18:53 GMT

Bruce. TBH that would just about sound the death knell for them - IMO. AMD need to sit down, get rid of ALL their fabrication and building plants (etc.) and concentrate on creating chips. They are trying to build into a company like Intel whilst at the same time tryign to develop competitive chips. Well, Intel has a good few years head start and so there is no way AMD could ever catch them - they need to focus on providing a competition, not being the biggest boyi n the locker room :)

RE: AMD not dead yet?

Jason — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 13:26:17 GMT

It doesn't sound as though it's going to be much of a performer, CPU-wise, as it's just a dual-core Phenom. It's behind the performance curve even before it's launched. The saving grace could be the GPU -- we've no idea what the Intel GPU is going to be like.

RE: AMD not dead yet?

Bruce R — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 13:23:44 GMT

If AMD still go ahead with their own FABrication plant, they could have 'more than one string to their bow' for economic recovery. What could also be interesting, will be seeing which combined chip is 'greener', Intel's or AMD's. ;)

RE: AMD not dead yet?

Tom Morton — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 11:47:22 GMT

If it doesn't do well though that's pretty much it for AMD and the consumer market I fear

AMD not dead yet?

wyliecoyoteuk — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 09:33:53 GMT

Be interesting to see the final version of [url=http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/05/amd_fusion_details_leaked/] this [/url] 40NM fab, moving to 32NM.