AMD takes a $950m hit in Q2 AMD has bitten the write-downs bullet and will take an $880m impairment charge on parts of its ATI Technologies acquisition in its second quarter results. The struggling chip vendor revealed the massive write-down in an SEC filing today, which also disclosed a series of comparatively small charges which will nevertheless swell …
It is a shame that AMD can't see that Intel has beaten it at it's own game; giving customers what they want.
Specifically, providing longevity and performance in a family of processors AND leaving room for over clockers.
PERFORMANCE
Last year I was due an upgrade of two PC's at home, one for me and one for my son. The AMD range was being clocked flat out to match the Intel Core Duo 2 chips. I did a spreadsheet of all the CPU's and found that the only way AMD could match the performance was to overclock it which created more heat and more power requirements.
LONGIVITY
I also looked at what I might upgrade to in a year or so, AMD had not launched it's latest chips but the one thing I new was that it would not be compatible with anything I bought last year, So I bought a low end Intel E2160 and a high end E6750 and 2 Gigabyte motherboards that will support the next generation of 45nm chips from Intel. This means that I can buy a new E8200 as an upgrade and give my E6750 to my son in due course, I can also overclock all of these chips to obtain noticeable improvement without risking overheating. Essentially this means that my computer will last longer and I can upgrade the CPU without changing the memory or motherboard.
When the AMD Phenom™ came out it did not leap frog Intel in Performance and Longevity but rather caught up on the performance. The next Intel range WILL have a socket change and so this is the time for AMD to bring out chips that provide value, performance and longevity whilst keeping the heat down. Keeping the heat down is the new buyer criteria, it leaves room for the thing to provide serious overclocking and for other keeps the chips cool and consuming less power and generating less heat.
I have not seen any tangible benefit to the industry or shareholders from the ATI purchase and think that this should be sold off.
The Industry needs AMD to keep Intel on its toes but it needs to do what it has always been best at; producing compelling performance at a good price with an architecture that lasts, but it needs to do this while keeping the chips cool. AMD is in a David and Goliath role and I hope it comes back but it may take 2 to 3 years as that is how long the average user will get out of his/her Intel investment.
Why Paris, because she bought an AMD Phenom™ on the advice of a friend.
AMD pulled a Ballmer with the ATI takeover (I shouldn't have to explain that. Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, all that shit. Same thing). They still make chips with a great value/money ratio, but they kinda have to stop and catch their breath now. That's BAD (for their , hem, image, I mean). But as stated by Zap (and by others, including me sometimes), no matter how more stable Intel stuff might be (not always true, btw), Intel stuff is so pricey that it takes a few years of _theoretical_ enhanced stability to buffer the initial price gap. Not worth on a laptop or a desktop (average lifetime 2-5 years). Worth considering on a server. Provided you're lucky enough to dodge Intel SNAFUs. But. If stability REALLY matters, and you're going to spend some real cash on it, why would you go for a x86 architecture anyway? If you want a cheap thing, go for AMD. If you have the money and want reliability, ditch the x86 thing completely, IBM, Sun and others are literally dying to give you what you want.
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