• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Is the end imminent for AMD?

Right, we should compare products that aren't out yet, no wait, that's being pendant, also people did very much compare the 7970 to a GTX580, as those were the products out, and then when the GTX680 came out, it got compared to the 7970, as they are two products that are out.

And AMD recently launched Z60 as a "new" thing, even though it's not much more than a C-50/C-60 refinement, this was for the tablet/netbook area to compete with Clovertrail. Afaik, only Fuj have it in their Windows 8 tablet, and I haven't been able to find it.

EDIT : Also seems Vizio have it in a tablet seen in CES, Aand noticed it's the first they've seen.

Which frankly seems a little strange with the new platform due this year.

As it stands RIGHT AT THIS VERY SECOND IN AVAILABLE PRODUCTS, AMD aren't at an advantage in power consumption or heat or performance (Which is Z-60 parts, that will be quite short-lived), their IGP is still king over Intels in that arena however.

We compare current offerings to current offerings, take your biased crap elsewhere, when AMD's stuff comes out, and if it kills Intels stuff, I won't say "Compare it to Intels new stuff around the corner", I'll compare it to Intels current offerings.

So, yes it simply is true, someone buying today doesn't care about a product they can get if they wait an undisclosed amount of time, they want something that suits their needs right now, and in that area for heat/power/performance (bar IGP) in the mobile market, is that AMD? No.

Unless of course, you care to link me to one of these super AMD tablets so I can buy it?

EDIT : But don't bother replying, I've got FM13 to play and can't be fussed reading another wall of products that aren't currently available for purchase (As good as they may/may not be when they launch)
 
Last edited:
It looks like AMD has hired two experienced people from Qualcomm and Apple:

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/01/22/us-amd-hires-idUKBRE90L0D020130122

Edit!!

BTW,I would not get a Atom tablet purely down to the mediocre GPU. Intel as usual has craptastic segmentation and this essentially killed netbooks.

I would prefer one of the ARM SOCs.

I also think that Windows for ARM is also underbaked ATM,and it needs better optimisation too.
 
Last edited:
I wouldn't get an Atom tablet due to the GPU too, it's disappointing.
I've been so let down by the "Windows 8 movement" as it's just compromise after compromise.

But then with the Windows tablets, you're paying through the nose for a flipping Tegra 3, and then bending over to get anything better.

Abysmal.

What's more annoying is it's not an Intel IGP really, Clovertrail is a SOC using a PowerVR IGP, but they're not even using a good one, Apple's iPad 4 doesn't even need to pull down anyones trousers to give it one, it just shoots itself like a torpedo.
 
Last edited:
The problem is that the current X86 Windows 8 tablets are either a compromise or the ones which might be any good are too expensive. On top of this I get the impression the ARM version is not as well optimised as it could be. A Tegra3 can run Android fine and yet with more RAM struggles with Windows 8.

I really hope that Temesh gets more traction,as it would probably mean useable budget X86 Windows 8 tablets IMHO. Imagine a Temesh based Asus Transformer with Windows 8?? You could actually run normal MS Office on it and a whole lot of other software which you use on the desktop too!!
 
Last edited:
Tegra 3 frankly isn't that good though.
Although Windows RT seems fine with it though? Seems snappy enough from all the reviews.

But yeah, the tablets are deffo all about compromise, which is why I got a 11.6" touchscreen netbook and threw an SSD in it, i3 Ivy, would have preferred a trinity, but can't find a touchscreen windows 8 AMD Laptop/netbooks.
 
AMD aren't better at the moment in the lower power segment.
In that area all they have on Intel is the IGP, but Clovertrail uses a fair bit less power and produces better results than the current AMD CPU side in netbooks/tablets.

For AMD in consoles? If it's an APU, then it's no surprise.

Low powered APUs is exactly what I'm talking about.

I was just pointing out that outright top end performance doesn't matter to companies making consoles because it's not feasible for them to use top end stuff anyway.
 
Low powered APUs is exactly what I'm talking about.

I was just pointing out that outright top end performance doesn't matter to companies making consoles because it's not feasible for them to use top end stuff anyway.

Z-60 would fit into that low APU section and it's hotter and uses more power than Clovertrail and produces lower CPU results, (The IGP side is much better though)

Z-60 is a current AMD product, as is Clovertrail for Intel.

The next low powered APU stuff from AMD could well be different and beat Intel in both areas, but they don't currently.
 
But Intel simply cannot compete with the APU when you're talking performance of the GPU.

Which is what I'm talking about, I just refer to APUs as it seems like that's what they're going to use, and Intel's APUs aren't very good because their GPUs are poor.
 
AMD losses detailed:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01/22/amd_q4_2012_financial_results/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01/23/amd_seeks_profitability_by_end_of_this_year/

Losses were actually below what analysts had predicted,margins have increased somewhat and share price actually has increased slightly:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericsav...oss-smaller-than-expected-shares-inch-higher/

It seems the major component of the loss is actually due to their agreement with Global Foundries regarding wafers. Outside that they actual made lower losses than in the previous quarter. It really seems Global Foundries is more or less a big problem for AMD with their excessive charges!! :(

However,at least one good thing has emerged - nearly one third of all notebooks sold in Q4 2012 in the US used AMD CPUs!
 
Last edited:
AMD losses detailed:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01/22/amd_q4_2012_financial_results/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01/23/amd_seeks_profitability_by_end_of_this_year/

Losses were actually below what analysts had predicted,margins have increased somewhat and share price actually has increased slightly:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericsav...oss-smaller-than-expected-shares-inch-higher/

It seems the major component of the loss is actually due to their agreement with Global Foundries regarding wafers. Outside that they actual made lower losses than in the previous quarter. It really seems Global Foundries is more or less a big problem for AMD with their excessive charges!! :(

However,at least one good thing has emerged - nearly one third of all notebooks sold in Q4 2012 in the US used AMD CPUs!

Thats not bad. :)
Looses were expected as the PC industry is still shrinking, the good news is they did better the analysts in part because Mobile APU sales are up, but also because sales outside of their traditional Desktop CPU and GPU markets are also up.

AMD Fourth-Quarter Sales Top Estimates, Helped by Server Revenue

Their purchase of SeaMicro and partnership with ARM is now beginning to pay dividend.

Globalfoundries;

AMD Pays Globalfoundries to Reduce Purchase Commitment

Advanced Micro Devices Inc., responding to slowing chip demand and financial pressures, agreed to pay $320 million to manufacturing partner Globalfoundries Inc. to reduce purchases of processed semiconductor wafers.
The termination fee will be spread out over several quarters, reducing AMD's payments to Globalfoundries in the short term while triggering a one-time charge of $165 million in the fourth quarter.
AMD's wafer purchases comitment with Globalfoundries was ridicules and had been costing them a fortune in losses over the past couple of years.

They are out of it now so its not going to be a problem in the future, they should have done that 2 years ago.

This year is going to be all about;

AMD Sets Its Sights Beyond PCs

Enter Rory Read, Jim Keller, Charles Matar, Wayne Meretsky, and two new engineers. AMD has said that it wanted to reduce its dependence on PC sales to only 50 percent of revenue, leaving new technologies to fill in the gap. The company’s new chief executive, Rory Read, moved over from PC-maker Lenovo in 2011 to help improve the company’s efficiency…

In the most recent arrivals, Matar came over from Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM), bringing his knowledge of low-power and embedded chip design to his position as vice president of System-on-Chip Development at AMD. Meretsky came from Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), bringing his experience on iOS device processors to his position as vice president of software IP development. Two more engineers have been added whose roles were not immediately made clear. These new arrivals were preceded by Jim Keller, who came to be AMD’s chief architect last year after being in charge of mobile processor design at Apple.

The new lineup and new expertise can give the company a chance to push its technology into the smartphone and tablet market, which has boomed in popularity in recent years. AMD will continue improving its PC technologies, but wants to add more focus on non-PC devices, and is planning to ship a new low-power processor for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows 8 tablets and hybrid laptops early this year.

The new areas of development should help AMD ensure that its revenues do not slip as sharply as PC sales decline against the growth of smartphone and tablet sales.
Engineers from Qualcomm and Apple, Wayne Meretsky, over from Apple, was originally from AMD anyway, he was the brains behind the Athlon XP. looks good, welcome back Wayne.
We will see....

oh.. there is one more thing...

The next Xbox will feature an 8-core, 1.6 GHz., x64 CPU, a Blu-ray...

Thats now Nintendo and xBox, Sony, your up...:D
 
Last edited:
You know the noise about Intel using stacked RAM to improve performance of its IGPs??

It appears AMD might also be looking at the same thing:

http://www.i-micronews.com/upload/Rapports/3D_Silicon_&Glass_Interposers_sample_2012.pdf

i.imgur.com/I634RfM.jpg

http://semiaccurate.com/2011/10/27/amd-far-future-prototype-gpu-pictured/#.UQAeKmdgFe8

The PS4 seems to use an AMD GPU and stacked RAM.

Was that not a part of AMD's APU roadmap? Not in this detail but i'm pretty sure this was a part of the old (Fusion branding roadmap) infact there is one such slide in that PDF on the PS4 section with a picture of a demonstration chip.
so i think we can indeed say for certain the PS4 will have AMD hardware inside :D

Its all good, i would love to see one of these with some on-chip GDDR5, om nom...
New HTPC, yes please...

Funny how this imminent end for AMD thread has turned out... lol
 
Last edited:
Was that not a part of AMD's APU roadmap? Not in this detail but i'm pretty sure this was a part of the old (Fusion branding roadmap) infact there is one such slide in that PDF on the PS4 section with a picture of a demonstration chip.
so i think we can indeed say for certain the PS4 will have AMD hardware inside :D

Its all good, i would love to see one of these with some on-chip GDDR5, om nom...
New HTPC, yes please...

Funny how this imminent end for AMD thread has turned out... lol

The important thing is that AMD now has experience with stack RAM,not only Intel,so if Kaveri can introduce this technology,it will help a lot!! :)

Also,regarding the losses,most of it is down to the lopsided agreement with Global Foundries:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6690/...ing-out-a-rough-year-looking-towards-the-next
 
Intel are moving out of the traditional desktop market as well:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6685/...board-business-to-ramp-down-over-next-3-years

There's also the obvious motivation: the desktop PC business isn't exactly booming. Late last year word spread of Intel's plans for making Broadwell (14nm Core microprocessor in 2014) BGA-only. While we'll continue to see socketed CPUs beyond that, the cadence will be slower than what we're used to. The focus going forward will be on highly integrated designs, even for the desktop (think all-in-ones, thin mini-ITX, NUC, etc...). Couple that reality with low board margins and exiting the desktop motherboard business all of the sudden doesn't sound like a bad idea for Intel.
 
The important thing is that AMD now has experience with stack RAM,not only Intel,so if Kaveri can introduce this technology,it will help a lot!! :)

Also,regarding the losses,most of it is down to the lopsided agreement with Global Foundries:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6690/...ing-out-a-rough-year-looking-towards-the-next

Good Grief... Almost a Billion Dollars to Global Foundries in penalties for getting out of that stupid wafer commitment.
It accounts for 90% of their 2012 looses.

Global Foundries has been nothing but an endless drain on AMD's cash stash over the past few years for a potpourri string of reasons.
They never should have sold that foundry, they built it and its still the second largest on earth, just think of the business they could be drumming up with it today, and in the end, now, its probably cost them more than what they sold it for.
Et tu, Brute?

A Billion Dollars, just think of the R&D they could have used that for.

Well its done now, at least in 2013 and beyond they don't have any such silly money bills to pay and don't need to buy a mountain of wafers that even Intel couldn't sell.
 
AMD won't ever go under, because if PC desktop sales go so badly, they'll just stop, you've gotta remember they have their hardware in every major console right now, and it looks like they won the next generation too. Same with Intel, they have their tech in the military iirc so that's a pretty much unbreakable foundation for both of them to fall back onto.
 
Back
Top Bottom