@ThiMamakakris120890: Did it suddenly become 2004 again?

ConfuciusMax

@araddatz: or nvidia... or motorolla...

urbanturban666

My first Processor was AMD 3200+ 3 years ago. Its still in my main computer that my family us. I use a laptop Intel celeron style.

ThiMamakakris120890

IBM needs to get on top of these light-based processors and squash both theez fools.

araddatz

So is this going to raise the price of AMD chips now since they are now adding another middle man.

Tweak

hopefully they still keep the radeon hd cards rolling out...

urbanturban666

Nooooooooes! Going to miss you :(

biskut23

I don't see this as a death sign for AMD at all. The country of Abu Dhaib (sp?) is behind all this, and they are not exactly "poor" from making bad business decisions. I would say that with them upping their stake in AMD to 19%, Intel is prolly sweating. I'll admit I can't see how this is good for AMD, but I would never bet against that country. They are quite smart in investing.

hypereric

@apeguero: I don't know that they make their own chips. Regardless, they're a competitor only in the low end (e.g. Netbooks), so that doesn't do much to keep the pressure on Intel to improve their chips (other than Atom).

ARP

Well Matt, at least Nehalem will be FUCKING AWESOME, so you'll get one more excellent generation of chips before complacency starts.

I think AMD needs to figure out if either it will be a leader or follower in this game, they don't have the money to out R&D Intel in the cpu market, but they could challenge Nvidia for gpu's as well as potentially system on a chip (soc's).

Log1c

I honestly believe this is a much bigger problem for Intel as it will probably increase their vulnerability to an antitrust suit with each market share they have in light of a viable competitor.

okenny :) ...building bridges (to hide under)

@biskut23:
Seriously, I've always been an AMD fanboy, but when Intel came out with their Core 2 Duos that was a pretty huge step in finally getting ahead of AMD in the Gaming/Graphics world let alone the entire processing industry. I think this is pretty much going to be t final nail in the coffin.

DakotaEpic

So, by saying: "Intel is now the only company left that designs and makes its own chips, a fact that will likely increase its advantage over AMD.". You really do mean "price" instead of "advantage" in that last sentence, right?

I'm no fan of any in particular since I use a Mac Pro and a Macbook (so I gues that makes me an Intel fan by association??) but, AMD being around is keeping CPU prices from blowing up right? So this is not a good thing happening to that market.

Also, doesn't Via design and make their own CPUs as well? I know they may be a small company but this might just be the break they've been waiting for.

apeguero

If I was Intel, and my chief competitor got a $6 billion injection of cash allowing them to take advantage of $1.2 billion in incentives from the NY State government (cf NY Times), I wouldn't be happy.

Having your chips made by a company full of your former employees where you have 44% actual ownership but equal voting control seems pretty close to making them yourself.

JBanister

Why is this bad? Fabs on the cutting edge lose a lot since equipment for next-generation processes depreciates quickly. Without a fab to weigh them down, AMD can pay for chip production on an as-needed basis and not have to keep equipment on the books while they're not at full production capacity.

I see this making AMD chips cheaper in the long run and allowing them to shop around fabs when demand increases beyond production like it did in '05.

dingus

i hope i still get my digital walls.

yungjerry703

@Log1c:

Well, given their recent acquisition of ATI I'm pretty sure that they equal or exceed Nvidia in the GPU space (this week anyway...). My hope thus far has been in fact that AMD would soon follow ATI in the upward climb from suckiness. Nvidia's been eating ATIs linch for quite a while, but now the competition is back in full swing. With a large infusion of cash, new chips already set to drop in the next few months, and an innovative new design like Fusion on the horizon, I think AMD is poised to take a serious shot at recovering from Hector-Ruiz's-Funhouse-o-corporate-stupidity.

It is sad though. We spectators like to see two monolithic entities hash things out mano-a-mano, having friends jump in kinda ruins the feng shui of the whole fight. But as long as I get good chips at low prices, I think I'll get over it...

We'll see...

OddManOut

AMD stock is up..

Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude

This is a fantastic thing for AMD. Get rid of the debt, focus on what you do best... design. We all know that Intels fab technology is ahead of the game. Lets Dubai drop some coin and make the process better. AMD will still own 44% of the new company, Foundry. Hector will also be the chairman.

denalijb

It's not like AMD is closing it's doors. They are just restructuring to allow for the manufacturing of other products to increase profits. The chip design side will remain though.

Xenocide

this company is still relevant? wow..

KeithJ

@apeguero:
VIA designs, but i think TSMC does the manufacturing.

Intel WILL have a major advantage. it means their processor engineers and their foundry engineers can work together to maximize the performance for every new process technology and architecture, while AMD essentially has to work with whatever the "foundry company" chooses to work with.

we may already see this happen soon- AMD uses silicon-on-insulator and designs their chips for that, while the "foundry company" will switch over to the more common bulk silicon to get more orders from other companies. AMD may have to re-engineer future chips.

willyolio

Doesn't IBM still "design[] and make[] its own chips"? How about Samsung and others for non-CPU chips? I believe Toshiba has fabs, but they don't make the Cell that they helped design.

automandc

@KeithJ: obviously you have no clue what competition does to prices. no shit they're relevant. they always have been.

willyolio

I forgot that I also had an Athlon 1600+ at one point as well. But you get the point... :)

fsusmithc2

I've been an AMD fanboy since a home robbery ended up taking my IBM Aptiva S-series machine with its Pentium II 266 MMX chip and the insurance company replaced it with an Aptiva E-Series having an AMD K6II 350.

I later built my own machines and have never used Intel. Athlon 700mHz (cartridge), then Athlon XP 3200+ in my current desktop and an Athlon 64 X2 in my newish lappy.

AMD has never done me wrong so I see no reason to switch. I don't use my compys for anything hardcore anyhow so the extra expense of Intel chips isn't worth it to me. When AMD merged with ATI it was like a dream come true as ATI is my favorite graphics company.

I hope their new structure affords them the opportunity to innovate and dominate once again.

fsusmithc2

You are crazy if you think this is a bad thing. This is a step in the right direction for AMD as they need to focus more on design and spend less money on fab.

efenili

AMD has really been getting hammered by intel ever since the c2d came out. Hopefully this move will help them get the right minds working on the right projects and get efficiency (power) and efficiency (per clock) back up to where they need to be to beat intel. ATI is finally starting to give nVidia a fight again, I don't see why AMD can't be back there in a couple years as well.

RamV10

This is indeed one of the darkest days in computing history.

boobox

WHY is this SAD NEWS!? Doesn't anyone read? AMD is not going anywhere thanks to this announcement... They have accumulated a huge amount of debt and the credit crisis is not making it easier for them to keep paying the bills. Now they are getting rid of the debt infected factories and receive cash from one of the richest people in the world. WE SHOULD BE HAPPY FOR AMD!

MasonAuge

NOOOO! I LOVEDED YOU AMD!

But if this helps them start kicking Intel's ass again like they did last time Intel decided to rest on its laurels, I'm in favor of it...

Con Seannery

This is a GREAT thing to happen, it means AMD can design newer chips without worrying about spending money on new foundries to create them. Plus the deal got rid of most of AMD's outstanding debt. If you think this is bad for the industry you don't know what's going on.

Charles

Truly a sad day. I actually used AMD chips in all of the boxes I built (mainly for cost reasons), from the old K6 architecture right up to the Athlon 64 X2 lines. But... when I switched to quad-core I had to go Intel. Picked up a Q9650 about a month ago and never looked back. Thanks for the good times AMD!

PS - the use of "prolly" when one means to say "probably" is extremely poor grammar. Almost as shameful as AMD throwing in the towel.

EnochLight

@Charles: One of Intel's advantages—besides having a lot more money—is that it can closely align developments in chip design with developments in manufacturing. So we'll see whether or not this really helps AMD. I hope it does.

matt buchanan

@urbanturban666: Radeon chips have never been made in AMD's fabs. Always by TSMC.

FuturePastNow

@biskut23: Fortunately, they're not going anywhere.. ^^

At first, I thought it was "Break Down"... which would be a huge thing.. but not very surprizing giving the market conditions nowadays.

But I hope AMD can keep up after this. I'm not a fanboy, but I did have an AMD computer years ago, and I think the hardware market has much to thank to this company.

Played a big part in making technology advance, and prices go down.

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

"Intel is now the only company left that designs and makes its own chips, a fact that will likely increase its advantage over AMD"

How do you figure that is an advantage? As AMD have shown, keeping up with ever decreasing fab sizes is an expensive business. Each time the fab size is decreased, they essentially have to build a whole new foundry at massive cost. AMD and even Intel have to rely on credit to make it happen, something that isn't a good idea in this economy. By outsourcing fabrication, AMD can get access to better fab technologies for a fraction of the cost (IBM and TSMC both have 32nm and 28nm fabs in development). This could allow AMD to leapfrog over Intel in terms of processor fabrication size. On top of that, by outsourcing to multiple fabs, they can guarantee supply and keep costs and therefor prices low.

Both ATI and nVidia have been fabless for years now, and going fabless hasn't killed them.

Incidentally, Intel isn't the "only company left that designs and makes its own chips". IBM still designs chips for high end workstations and mainframes, they also own their own fabs, which also do plenty of outsourcing work.

nimblesquirrel

@automandc:

Yup, IBM does design and make its own chips. IIRC so does Freescale. None of them run the x86 (and derivitaves) instruction set which is what I think they meant.

bytepusher

I think this headline could be too easily misread as "AMD brOke up"... even more because of the "sad news" thing... but hey for responsible journalism!

JrezIN