AMD Not Competing with Intel Anymore, Goes Mobile

[Correction]

AMD Not Competing with Intel Anymore, Goes Mobile

In a move than could very well be interpreted as exchanging one problem for another, Advanced Micro Devices has decided to stop focusing so much on the PC business and get its act closer together on the mobile front.

The Bulldozer disaster, as it is known in some circles, must have persuaded AMD's leadership that the PC side of their business wasn't flying very well and far anymore.

Though everyone was expecting much from 8-core processors, the performance was, in the end, well lower than some of AMD's own previous-generation chips.

Whether because of this or something else, it was reported that Advanced Micro Devices has chosen to distance itself from its competition with Intel.

That is to say, it will focus less on processors for PCs and pay more attention to the mobile market.

As such, it will probably start to customize its Fusion platform in such a way as to create tablet and smartphone chips.

"We're at an inflection point," said AMD spokesman Mike Silverman, according to a Mercury News report. "We will all need to let go of the old 'AMD versus Intel' mindset, because it won't be about that anymore."

If anything, 2011, with more than half a year of lacking an actual CEO, was a clear symptom that Advanced Micro Devices had to do something, and soon.

The company has a new leader now and, sure enough, the man took some fairly drastic measures, and that includes more than this latest change in direction, as well as a branded RAM project.

The workforce also suffered, especially the PR and marketing departments AMD axed large portions of each as part of its plan to cut total worldwide employee count by 10%).

The complicated thing about the focus on mobile is that ARM already has that well enough in hand, and NVIDIA just launched the Kal-El too. AMD may just be exchanging one headache for another with this.

Something to ponder if you're building yourself or someone else a computer this holiday. Somehow I feel this is only the beginning of AMD's problems.

[Purrrfect]

My 1055 will become a collector's item?!

[avelle]

I can't say I'm surprised, Bulldozer was a major disappointment and Intel is pretty untouchable atm as a result.

[Isiolia]

My 1055 will become a collector's item?!

Only as much as a Cyrix 6x86 is.

Really not that great a thing for the industry, as competition keeps innovation high and prices low. Then again, with so much of the focus these days on ultraportables and tablets, it might prove to be smart for them. Still, probably bad for the desktop consumer.

[Vandole]

2600klub 4 lyfe

[Pikarya]

RIP amd

[Isiolia]

RIP amd

They still have the GPU business at least.

[Sonomaa]

it sucks that they are so light in the game, makes me wonder if intel will raise prices but I hope not

[Pikarya]

inb4 monopoly/antitrust.

[Sonomaa]

inb4 monopoly/antitrust.

seriously, I bet within the next year there will be another one of those suits so AMD can get more shit from intel and make a valid processor again just to be invalid.
intel canceled like half their processors for this generation just to not get hit with the antitrust shit, giving AMD time to release their new bulldozer, now we find out that its a waste of time compared to the intel k series

[Jefe]

AMD's Bulldozer breaks OC records

Eh, they need all the publicity they can get, their stock is pretty much toilet paper right now. Both, AMD and Intel need to embrace mobile processors or their future will be horrendous.

[Correction]

AMD Responds

AMD still committed to x86

By Nathan Ingraham on November 29, 2011 04:38 pm

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 figures out what's next. AMD's full statement is below:

AMD is a leader in x86 microprocessor design, and we remain committed to the x86 market. Our strategy is to accelerate our growth by taking advantage of our design capabilities to deliver a breadth of products that best align with broader industry shifts toward low power, emerging markets and the cloud.

Still sounds like they're not going to try to surpass Intel in the desktop market anymore. Speculation is they'll partner with ARM and start making tablets or netbooks instead.

[Jefe]

AMD's Bulldozer breaks OC records cont'd

What? You missed the point in its entirety. ARM processors have around 70k transistors compared to a billion~ from Sandy Bridge processor. What differentiates ARM architecture and the reason why their processors are so outstanding are, its simplicity, low power consumption, and are super cheap to produce. (...)

Time to buy some cheapass stocks.

[Dmitry]

I just bought another Phenom II. If the price drops some more I'm going to be a little upset.

[Senji]

Getting the Wii vs PS3 vibe, except AMD doesn't have anything cool like Zelda.

And we don't have a 360 to pressure for the high end.

[Buffy]

I love AMD, but intel been kicking the shit out of them for close to two years at this point. No surprise really. My upcoming rig gonna features sandy bridge...nothing really compares right now.

[Deadgye]

I've always been an Intel CPU person.. so as long as AMD continues making GPUs I'm happy.

[Callisto]

I've always been an Intel person too...but am I the only person who is worried that Intel quality is going to decline now that they don't really have any major competition?

[hey]

I've always been an Intel person too...but am I the only person who is worried that Intel quality is going to decline now that they don't really have any major competition?

Yep. The loss of amd itself is not really a problem. There really has not been a reason to buy an amd cpu in quite some time anyway. However the competition has still done us good, as it forced intel to stay ahead of them. That is the real loss here.

[Kaisha]

I'm just hoping the move towards mobile makes for smaller desktop hardware down the road also. Especially as far as GPUs go, as they're getting huge.