What's next for AMD?
Amidst shrinking marketshare in the x86 market, AMD's heading into 2012 with questions about its next moves. The company has confirmed it won't be exiting the x86 market, but it is trying to move out of the "AMD versus Intel" mindset by following industry trends towards lower-power processors and the cloud. We'll be keeping track of every step in AMD's next evolution right here.
AMD Jaguar: the Xbox One and PS4 cores that could power your next cheap laptop
AMD boasted that its Z-60 Hondo chip would bring Call of Duty to thin tablets, and its boasts were for naught, but it looks like the company's latest processor core is going to see a lot of use in the next generation of cheap laptops. Today, AMD has revealed its basic performance claims for its Jaguar core, the same one that's reportedly built into the chips in both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. The resulting Temash and Kabini APUs could finally have the combination of performance and...
PlayStation 4 tech specs revealed: AMD 'Jaguar' CPU, faster Blu-ray, 720p 3D camera
We still have absolutely no idea what the PlayStation 4 looks like, but we're getting a better picture of what's within: Sony's just released a list of tech specs for the console. Confirming months of rumors, the PS4 will primarily have AMD silicon inside, in the form of a "single-chip custom processor" with eight AMD Jaguar CPU cores, and a next-gen Radeon graphics engine capable of 1.84 teraflops of performance.
Here's the full spec sheet:
- Single-chip custom processor, with eight x86-64...
AMD hires Apple and Qualcomm senior engineers in bid to expand into new markets
AMD is hiring two senior engineers who previously worked at the company earlier in their careers before heading to rivals. Wayne Meretsky, a technical lead for Mac OS at Apple before joining AMD in 1999, returned to AMD once again in December after a stint at a robotics company and other roles. Reuters reports that Charles Matar is also returning to AMD as vice president of System-on-Chip Development following his departure from Qualcomm.
The two hires, described by AMD as an effort to...
AMD plans to sell 58-acre Austin campus and lease back space to raise cash during hard times
It's not surprising in the least that AMD is in trouble, but if any doubts remained, this week's news that the chipmaker will sell its Austin, Texas campus and lease it back to raise cash should be a clear indicator. According to the Austin American-Statesman, AMD is in the planning stages of making a deal that would see its massive 58-acre Lone Star Campus — opened in 2008 — sold for an expected $150 to $200 million. The company would then sign a deal to lease back the space, which it...
What happened to AMD?
There's blood in the water, and the sharks are circling around. AMD is in trouble, to the point where buyout rumors sound credible even when they turn out to be false. AMD's having trouble putting its processors into computers people want to buy. The company's losing money and some key personnel are abandoning ship. Under new management and after two rounds of layoffs, the stock price is practically as low as it's ever been, except once in late 2008 when the company was struggling to rid...
AMD CEO denies sale, says company is 'on the right path' in leaked memo
Earlier today we reported that AMD was considering an outright sale following its disappointing Q3 results last month. Well, CEO Rory Read quickly responded to the rumors with an internal email reinforcing the company's earlier official statement, saying "let me personally reinforce to you: we are not actively pursuing the sale of AMD or any of our significant assets. It's full steam ahead with our strategy … we absolutely are on the right path."
A likely reason the buyout rumor could not...
Reuters: AMD hires JP Morgan to explore options, including possible outright sale
AMD's woes are continuing today with news that the company has hired JP Morgan Chase to explore its options — one of which is a sale of the company. Reuters cited three sources "familiar with the situation" who say that a complete sale of the company is not a priority. Instead, other options like selling of its portfolio of patents may be more likely.
AMD has long been in a battle with Intel for desktop and laptop processor dominance, but with the rise of mobile computing and the ARM chips...
AMD loses $157 million on $1.27 billion revenue in Q3, will lay off 15 percent of workers
We'd heard AMD would have bad news this quarter, and here it is: a quarterly loss of $157 million, revenues down 10 percent, and a 15 percent workforce reduction. Today, AMD reported Q3 2012 revenue of $1.27 billion, a 10 percent decrease since last quarter and 25 percent since this time last year.
As a result, AMD's announcing a restructuring plan today, letting go of approximately 15 percent of the company's workforce this quarter. That should translate to about 1,700 fewer employees, as...
AMD may lay off 30 percent of workers, following disappointing earnings
Yesterday, AMD admitted that sales are going down. Today, multiple sources are reporting that the chip company is planning mass layoffs of as many as 3,500 workers. CNET, All Things D, Bloomberg and Reuters all cite anonymous sources who say that the company will announce layoffs soon, though certain anonymous individuals disagree on the number. Some say the company will let go of at least 10 percent, and up to 20 percent of staffers, and others say 30 percent layoffs have been discussed. The...
AMD details Z-60 'Hondo' chip, promises 'Call of Duty' will be playable on thin Windows 8 tablets
When Windows 8 and Windows RT arrive on October 26th, there's going to be a practically unprecedented array of devices to consider, each with their own tradeoffs in performance and battery life. If you're interested in tablet computing, three stand out, though. ARM chips like Nvidia's Tegra 3 will bring flashy Windows RT designs to the fore like the Microsoft Surface and the Asus Vivo Tab RT, while Intel's Clover Trail Atom chip will try to do the same for Windows 8 with a whole host of new...
AMD teases hybrid tablet announcement for October 9th
AMD has posted a video on its YouTube account that points to a hardware announcement on October 9th. Titled TECHnically Beyond Explanation, the clip is a parody of supernatural reality shows like Ghost Hunters. Set in an AMD test facility, it follows two "adventurers" that discover a mysterious laptop inside an old tower PC (something we've seen AMD do before). The pair are dumbfounded to find that "it's cold," and then the theatrics step up a notch. One of the adventurers proclaims "it's...
AMD sees opportunity in 'chaos' of Windows 8
The release of a new version of Windows always brings about a major upgrade cycle for the PC industry, transforming it in its wake. But Windows 8 looks set to bring about even more dramatic change than usual: a new touch-centric user interface, a deluge of new device sizes and shapes, and, for the first time ever, support for ARM processors make the newest Windows the most revolutionary update that Microsoft has ever attempted. This, says AMD's Leslie Sobon, can only be a good thing for...
Apple
Former Apple chip designer Jim Keller joins AMD as chief architect and VP
AMD has recently lost some prime talent, but now a long-departed chip industry veteran is returning to head its processor group. Jim Keller designed chips for AMD over a decade ago, but he's spent the last several years working as chief architect at Broadcom and — most recently — director of platform architecture at Apple, where he helped lead development of the A4 and A5 system-on-chip used in iOS devices and the Apple TV. Now that he's come back to AMD, Keller will be serving as...
Bob Feldstein, the man who helped AMD land the next console generation, leaves for rival Nvidia
You've probably never heard the name Bob Feldstein, but Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft surely have. He was the vice president of strategic development at AMD, and according to our sources, he brokered the deals that will see the next Xbox, PlayStation, and Wii U all use AMD hardware. He was vice president of engineering at ATI before it got acquired by AMD, and oversaw the Xbox 360's Xenos GPU and the original Wii's Hollywood GPU, among other things. Of the previous console generation, only the...
AMD reports Q2 2012 results: revenue down 11 percent, $37 million profit (update)
This quarter, AMD isn't alone in feeling a financial burn, but it does have profit to report: In the company's Q2 earnings report, the chipmaker reported a net income of just $37 million, down from $92 million last quarter and $61 million a year ago. Revenues came to $1.41 billion, compared to $1.57 billion this time last year, and $1.59 billion last quarter, down 11 percent sequentially. If that 11 percent sounds familiar, that's because AMD already announced the decline in a preliminary...
AMD expects an 11 percent drop in revenue for Q2 2012
AMD has announced its preliminary results for the second quarter of the year, and things aren't looking good, with revenue expected to drop by approximately 11 percent sequentially. The news comes after AMD reported a $590 million net loss in the first quarter of the year, at which point it forecasted an increase of three percent sequentially for Q2, "plus or minus three percent." The company cites both "softer-than-expected" sales in China and Europe as well as a "weaker consumer buying...
AMD will integrate ARM processors in its 2013 x86 APUs
AMD is to include ARM Cortex-A5 CPUs inside its x86 APUs (Accelerated Processing Units) starting from next year. AMD's APUs currently consist of an x86-based processor and an integrated GPU, but the chip maker is to add an ARM CPU as well in order to support advanced security functions.
AMD will integrate ARM cores into a select few products at first and will eventually incorporate the chips into all of its APUs. The Cortex-A5 won't be used to run user-focused applications, but instead will...
AMD's mountain: how the second-place PC chipmaker hopes to build cheaper, better laptops
"Think about the mountain," says AMD's John Taylor. He's talking about ultrabooks. "As you get up to $799, $899, $999, you've got 50 SKUs sitting up here, at this place. They're going to fall off." He shapes his fingers into a pyramid, so I can visualize the metaphor.
The fact that Intel has over 110 design wins for its proprietary laptop platform doesn't seem to phase AMD's director of product marketing very much. In his estimation, Intel's ultrabook initiative isn't just driving quality,...
An Ivy Bridge too far? AMD may have finally lost the battle against Intel's juggernaut
Welcome to Computex 2012, the coming-out party for Intel's Ivy Bridge CPU refresh and Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system. The two halves of an irresistible hardware-software combination that has dominated the PC world for so long that it has its own nickname — Wintel — came together in Taipei this week to once again reaffirm their supremacy. And AMD just stood on the sidelines, watching and scratching its head.
Think about all the marquee devices launched by the likes of Acer and Asus...
AMD E-Series Brazos 2.0 to bring 11-hour battery life to $599 ultra-thin laptops
AMD has detailed a pair of E-Series APUs (Accelerated Processing Units), the E1-1200 and E2-1800, which are be the successors to last year's Brazos chips. The E1-1200 and E2-1800 are 1.4GHz and 1.7GHz dual-core APUs manufactured with the same 45nm die process as the old Brazos APUs, but despite the increased clock speed use no more power than their predecessors. The pair are rated at 18W TDP for power consumption, which is competitive with Intel's 17W TDP ultra low-voltage (ULV) processors....
Microsoft
AMD shows off 11-inch Compal Windows 8 hybrid tablet (update: video)
We've seen Intel's vision for Windows 8 already, but don't count out AMD. The company is showing off a Windows 8 tablet from Compal here at Computex Taipei, and it's in the hot form factor of the moment — the detachable keyboard dock. We spent some time with the 11.6-inch device, and while it's not the most attractive or thinnest (at "under 20mm") Windows 8 machine we've seen this week we didn't have any complaints about the unspecified AMD chip's performance. AMD also says that the tablet...
Microsoft
AMD Trinity APU review roundup: good battery life, so-so performance
The first reviews of AMD's next-generation mobile Trinity APU (a CPU and GPU combined) have arrived, and the verdict is "so-so." Trinity is AMD's competitor to Ivy Bridge, but according to many reviews, it struggles to even keep pace with Intel's last-generation Sandy Bridge processors.
It wasn't all doom and gloom, however: AnandTech, Tech Report, Tom's Hardware, PC Perspective, and Hot Hardware have all reviewed the top-of-the-range A10-4600M Trinity APU and agree that it represents a...
AMD launches Trinity processors: the Ivy Bridge alternative
Trinity has arrived. We don't yet know when the first systems will ship, but the second-generation of AMD's accelerated processing unit (APU) promises considerable boosts in performance and battery life. AMD has spent quite some time playing second-fiddle to Intel's CPUs, and without some raw performance data, it'll be hard to see how the new Trinity APUs stack up, but AMD says that Trinity hits the performance threshold set by the first-generation Llano processor and purportedly remains...
Microsoft
HP Envy Sleekbook and Envy Ultrabook stretch definitions with AMD processors, cheaper components
HP's just-announced $999 Envy Spectre XT is the company's new premium ultrabook, but there's a cheaper way to obtain an exceedingly light machine. Remember the Envy 4 and Envy 6 that leaked out a few weeks back? Today, the company's made those 14- and 15.6-inch laptops official as the Envy Ultrabook series and Envy Sleekbook series, and they start at just $699.99.
Why two different names? They don't refer to size: "Sleekbook" is simply HP's name for a ultrabook-like laptop that doesn't match...
AMD loses $590 million in Q1 2012, blames the calendar for its troubles
AMD didn't have a great 2011, but it still managed to make $491 million in profit last year. Over the last three months, though, the company lost all that money and then some: AMD just reported a $590 million net loss for Q1 2012. AMD lost that money on $1.59 billion in revenue, which is fairly flat earnings as far as the company is concerned. Last quarter, the company reported $1.69 billion in revenue, and it had $1.61 billion in revenue this time last year.
AMD executives blame a...
PlayStation 4 'Orbis' chipset based on current-gen AMD A8 CPU and Radeon HD 7670 graphics?
The only thing we actually know about Sony's PlayStation 4 is that we shouldn't expect it anytime soon, but rumors are starting to pop: one week ago, Kotaku heard that a "PlayStation Orbis" might include both an AMD processor and AMD graphics, and now IGN's trusted sources say that's absolutely correct. According to the rumor, the next PlayStation will include AMD's A8-3850 APU and Radeon HD 7670 discrete graphics — both of which are included in PCs that you can buy today.
If you're...
AMD loses its graphics CTO to a yet-unknown suitor
One of AMD's leads on the graphics side of its business has left the company. Eric Demers, the graphics division's CTO and VP, joined ATI in 2000 and has been with AMD ever since it bought out the graphics company. The departure comes after layoffs of about 12 percent of AMD's workforce last year, as well as senior exits including CEO Dirk Meyer, who resigned in January, and Products Group GM Rick Bergman, who left last fall.
It certainly hasn't been smooth sailing for AMD recently — flat...
AMD open to ARM and other architectures besides x86
AMD may be fully "committed to the x86 market," but that commitment is beginning to look a bit more like an open relationship kind of thing instead of strict monogamy. Speaking last week, AMD's CTO Mark Papermaster (who famously joined and then left Apple) said that AMD would "work with all of the ISA [instruction set architecture] providers" as a part of a new strategy to make bespoke chips for a wider variety of customers. Asked specifically if AMD would consider using the ARM architecture,...
AMD's 2012 and 2013 roadmaps reveal next-gen APUs
At today’s 2012 Financial Analyst Day, AMD revealed its roadmap for mobile and desktop computing from now until 2013. There's a lot to discuss here, but in short, the company is honing its consumer-facing line down to a single family of CPUs, and will do its best to persuade us that x86 APUs are the future of the industry.
Later this year the company's poorly-received Bulldozer line will be replaced by Vishera, and there look to be no further refreshes to its high-end desktop CPUs on the...
AMD posts flat 2011 annual revenue of $6.57 billion, teases ultra-thin 17mm Trinity notebooks
AMD didn't have the best 2011 ever, but a sluggish Bulldozer and reduced marketshare didn't destroy the semiconductor company's balance sheet at all. While AMD lost $177 million in the fourth quarter (on revenue of $1.69 billion), it actually maintained flat revenue of $6.57 billion and took home $491 million in profit over the full year when all was said and done. Apparently even though the desktop chips failed to make a dent, the company's Fusion APUs, Opteron 6200 server processors, and...
Microsoft
Next Xbox coming late 2013 with Radeon 6000 GPU?
IGN is reporting that the next Xbox will ship in autumn 2013, with a GPU based on AMD's 40nm Radeon 6000 architecture and allegedly offering performance akin to the Radeon HD 6670 from last year. "Sources close to the project" are offering a ballpark figure of a six times performance increase over the Xbox 360, or 20 percent more power than the Wii U, though this doesn't really tell us anything in real terms. All this should obviously be taken as rumor and speculation, but it's worth noting...
Android 4.0 runs on an AMD tablet, thanks to the Android-x86 project
We just remembered there was one last curiosity we saw at AMD's suite at CES 2012: this AMD Fusion tablet, running Android 4.0. Before you get too excited, AMD was quick to point out that this MSI WindPad 110W didn't get Ice Cream Sandwich through any effort of its own. What you're looking at is actually the work of the Android-x86 project, which very recently released a test Android 4.0 ISO for AMD Brazos-based tablets like the one above.
The good news is that if you've got such a tablet...
Gaming
Debunk: AMD won't promote an ultrabook competitor, at least not officially
Let's clear something up real quick. You may have read that AMD will power ultrathin laptops designed to compete with Intel's ultrabook machine. You might even have heard rumors that those AMD-based laptops will be up to $200 cheaper than those powered by Intel. Some of that might be true, but there's a crucial fact to consider: AMD doesn't make laptops, it makes processors, and the company went on the record to tell us that many of the things that make the new wave of thin-and-light...
AMD reveals Lightning Bolt: USB 3.0, DisplayPort, and power combine for a single-socket docking solution
Now that Intel's Thunderbolt connectivity standard is starting to see adoption, AMD wants a piece of the single-cable action too, and it's not afraid to raise a few eyebrows to get there: the company's showing off a prototype of "Lightning Bolt" at CES 2012, which is designed to deliver data, uncompressed video, and power over a solitary connection. The name's not subtle, but the idea is actually rather impressive: by combining USB 3.0 and DisplayPort 1.2, the company says one Mini...
Gaming
AMD Trinity demo: full HD gaming, video playback, and transcoding
AMD's next generation of Accelerated Processing Units, Trinity, was shown off to us at CES this year with an impressive multithreaded workload. One display was running Dirt 3 in DirectX 11 mode, another was on the Windows desktop with a video transcoding app in full flow, and the third — part of the laptop running the entire operation — was playing back a full HD movie. The upcoming Trinity chip was handling all three tasks simultaneously, offering compelling evidence for AMD's bold claim...
Policy & Law
Quanta Computer sues AMD over defective NEC laptop chip
Quanta Computer is suing AMD for breach of contract and loss of prospective revenue, alleging that it was provided with faulty chips. Quanta is a Taiwan-based ODM that produces laptops for HP, Acer, Apple, and many others, though this suit only relates to machines built for NEC. The company claims that one of AMD's chips suffered from heat-related issues, though it didn't mention any specific models of chip or laptop. AMD's now-rebranded ATI graphics unit is mentioned in the filing, which...
Gaming
Radeon HD 7970 official: 28nm, 2,048 Stream processors, and a $549 price for January 9th
AMD today launches the Radeon HD 7970, its first graphics card built at a 28nm production process and the first member of its Southern Islands family of GPUs. As its name suggests, the HD 7970 is the replacement for AMD's fastest single-GPU graphics card to date, the HD 6970. The new card increases transistor count from 2.6b to 4.3b, cranks the engine clock speed up from 880MHz to 925MHz, and adds 33 percent more Stream processors, jumping from 1,536 to 2,048. VRAM is also up from 2GB to 3GB...
CES 2012
AMD refreshes A-Series APUs, adds overclocking support
AMD may be changing its focus to the mobile space, but it's not leaving desktop and performance-seeking laptop users behind just yet. The company has announced an update to its A-Series line of APUs, bumping clock speeds and adding overclocking to the desktop line. The new APUs combine up to 400 Radeon cores with multiple x86 cores, all integrated on the same chip. The notebook variants range from a dual-core 1.8GHz model to a quad-core 2.0GHz version, with the desktop line spanning from a...
Microsoft
AMD prepping ultrathin laptops to compete with Intel's ultrabooks
When AMD announced it was planning to shift focus in 2012, many assumed it was moving towards phones and tablets, but the company's stated it intends to power an "ultrathin" line of laptops that competes with Intel's ultrabook line. In an interview with The Australian, AMD Australia and New Zealand country manager Brian Slattery said that the first AMD-powered ultrathin laptop could be available in the region as early as next month. While the company hasn't said specifically what processors...
AMD still committed to x86
A report on AMD's future strategy made the rounds yesterday with speculation that the company might exit the x86 market, but that won't be the case anytime soon — AMD just told us that it "remains committed to the x86 market," but will be realigning around industry trends toward low-power devices and the cloud. That sounds like smartphones, tablets, and servers to us, but we'll see what the company has in store at its February strategy update — and what "committed" actually means as...
AMD to sell own-brand DDR3 RAM, probably no better than others
AMD recently announced a shift away from competing with Intel and promised a February strategy update. Perhaps part of that strategy involves selling DDR3 RAM — AMD will partner with Patriot and VisionTek to brand 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB modules ranging from entry-level 1,333MHz to high-end 1,866MHz speeds. But why would AMD start selling memory when the market is flooded, and prices are at a record low? AMD says it will add value by avoiding the gray market and testing on AMD systems to ensure...
AMD shifting competitive focus away from Intel in 2012
AMD has been fighting a battle for processor supremacy with Intel for years, but it seems to be realizing it needs to compete with Qualcomm and Nvidia instead. In a San Jose Mercury News profile, AMD spokesman Mike Silverman said, "we will all need to let go of the old 'AMD versus Intel' mindset, because it won't be about that anymore." And all that effort spent going after Intel instead of developing a mobile strategy hasn't gotten AMD very far: its marketshare in PC microprocessors sits at...
AMD lays off 1400 employees, including some senior execs
Things aren't going so well at AMD, which just laid off 1400 employees, or around 12 percent of its 40,000 strong workforce. The cuts hit every part of the company from top to bottom; VP of strategy Patrick Moorhead and Product Director Carrell Killebrew are among those leaving the company. A leaked memo from CEO Rory Read says the layoffs were necessary to "rebalance our skillsets" and "drive to a more competitive cost structure" — we're taking that to mean the company will put more focus...
