AMD eggs on Nvidia's war of words with Intel
THE WAR OF WORDS that broke out between Nvidia and Intel has AMD chuckling along from the sidelines.
“One says the CPU is not important, the other says the GPU is not important. The beauty of AMD is that we provide a balance with a strong CPU and a strong GPU - the company best tailored to provided a balanced PC,” puffed Giuseppe Amato, AMD’s technical director of sales and marketing in EMEA. “We hope we see some gain from the fight these two are having together.”
Amato was talking to the INQ from AMD's Dresden fab where he'd been outlining the firm's global channel strategy to partners and selected channel hackery. The INQ wasn't invited because we're so much more than a mere channel mag, apparently.
It's a more focused AMD we dealing with now, Amato explained. “This specifically channel-focused event is to enable the channel provide better value to customers." The idea was not to give “a mixed message”, he blustered.
Focus is one plank of AMD's new three-point makeover plan. “What we told analysts is what we're telling the channel," Amato said. “From AMD you can expect focus. The focus to deliver platforms that solve the problems the end user is facing."
The second pillar of wisdom is execution. The year 2007 was a bad one for AMD, Amato concedes. “We are focussing on execution. We will deliver on every commitment we make," he said. "This is a demand from the board of directors that goes all the way through the company.”
The third pillar, and one which can come in handy for a company in any line of business is profitability. "A company is not a charity concern – it must be profitable," said Amato.
Since Amato was speaking from Dresden, we asked him whether he could give the assurance that the firm's flagship fab there would never be sold.
He couldn't.
“It's like you're asking me whether a company can ever be bought or sold or not. Or that we'll never make a mistake again. Today, I cannot give you a commitment 100 per cent that AMD will never make a mistake like in 2007. We made mistakes. We implemented corrective action. We move on.
"Only one guy can give a commitment that lasts for ever and he's the one who decides that if I die, I die. Never is not a thing I can say." µ
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"The beauty of AMD is that we provide a balance with a strong CPU and a strong GPU "

AKA: Jack-of-all-trades and master of . . . . none.
So let me get this clear - AMD is now apparently aware that focus, execution and profitability are key pillars to success? Were they previously not aware of this? Or simply this time they really, really, really mean it?

Sounds like a plan. Perhaps they should call this their 'management cliche heavy' plan, to be offset of course with asset light.

Also someone needs to explain to Amato, a charitable company involves giving money away not burning it.
I love the way that everyone is eager to tell the world what Intel thinks. So I thought perhaps I would chime in:

Consumers and businesses should tailor their computing needs to best meet the experience desired. A balanced platform approach means the system should have adequate memory, disk space, processor performance and graphics horsepower to meet these needs. 
Most of what people do today with their computers requires powerful processors. 
Examples of processor intensive applications include: creating content, viewing/editing high definition video, using social media sites, office tools, downloading music, and editing photos. 
Intel’s integrated graphics components offer a one of the best video and high definition video experiences possible and full Windows Vista support. 
Gaming is an example of a CPU and GPU intensive application – you need all the horsepower you can get. 
Being jack of all trades is GOOD for AMD. Its their true market, Everyone.

So Many TOP End Systems are also Very Narrow Dedicated Systems, Not ready for Open Skies of useage & constant changes of software that Desktop demands. SkyHawks BIG brother.HP-uP.there all same, only AMD is twice standard everyones system.

Someones gonna make money on AMD & its whomever owns AMD from here Up.its 2009+ thingie with 3 (or 4) year fruitation & collaspe.

or go buy yahoo,hahaha: suckar.
Stewie von Drashek

Sure
"The beauty of AMD is that we provide a balance with a strong CPU and a strong GPU "

AKA: Jack-of-all-trades and master of . . . . none.
posted by : GB, 15 May 2008

===================================
dude
they dont need to master any. they dont even need to beat intel. they need to make a great product and find their niche - really its a fluke theyve done as well as they have... or perhaps you dont remember all those 'ibm clones' where clone cpu's didnt always run the code the same lol....
AMD is indeed the best you can get of both worlds. Both Nvidia and Intel are wrong about their statements, and AMD is right as they have always been. Most people are stupid and that benefits only unethical companies like Intel and in part Nvidia. AMD is the solution for smart people that do not buy the hype.
Words are alright but for what he's said until we actually see something physical like a product out on time with no bugs then we'll know there starting to change.

The do have an advantage the current GPU's are very good not amazingly fast but just good enough to buy and expect good gaming. I have sent off for a 3870 on my 939 Rig hopefully it'll be playing C&C T-Wars very nicly.
AMD is sucking hind tit in both CPU and GPU, that's fact, and with all the problems on their plate, AMD don't have a reasonable out. 

Playing Intel's game by Intel's rules has kept them in 2nd place since their first 386 clone. No one at AMD has ever understood they can't win this game, they just all dream of leadership glory without ever really knowing how to get there. It takes vision and execution people. Now that Intel is back in top form that game isn't going to change any time soon, AMD will remain at 15-18% CPU market share because Intel allows it. 

On the graphics front, it's game over. AMD's purchase of ATI has assured there is no opportunity for revolutionary or even evolutionary performance gains to beat NVIDIA; AMD has too many other problems to allow graphics to be their leading technology, and NVIDIA just continues to execute. Note the exodus of graphics tallent from AMD right now. Who is going to build great products for them? No one, they've all gone.

Is AMD going to survive? Sure, it wouldn't be in anyone's (Intel, major OEMs, the rest of the industry's) interest to let them fail.

Are they going to thrive? No possible way, if you're not growing you're dying. Why? 

a) Hector is an idiot and couldn't manage his way out of a wet paper sack, and killing off all his underlings isn't the problem, try using a mirror Hector.

b) Debt -- something tech doesn't do -- is AMD's balance sheet highlight and is akin to an anchor tied to a struggling swimmer, unless a big sugar daddy steps up, debt service is going to hold them down for a long, long time.

c) Leadership and product innovation is gone in CPU with no way to regain it

d) Gaining an edge in process technology is too expensive at this point due to the debt picture.

e) Personnel - tallent is leaving in droves, leadership/visionary folks like Henri Richard are gone, moral is at all time lows, and besides, AMD has about 25% too many staff based on their cost structure.

f) The last great hope, Fusion, is DOA -- designed as an entry, commodity solution -- no one (including Intel) is going to get rich building this type of product, and it certainly isn't the answer to all AMD's woes as it has been positioned.

Besides that, the game is changing -- x86 has run it's course. The margin-rich segments like HPC are going to be vastly different in the next 5 years than they are today. And the standard x86 notebook/desktop experience we all have come to know and love is going away. Desktop computing is going niche into areas like gaming and workstation, and business/home computing is moving to something you can put in your pocket. These areas are where AMD needs to be innovating and they certainly have the assets to make something happen there. But you know what? THEY CAN'T AFFORD TO INNOVATE HERE. They don't have the cash or cash flow to fund the billions of dollars of investment it's going to take to be a leader.

Now, you myopic fan bois can rah rah all you want, but if you were smart you'd see the writing is on the wall. Hell, I've owned a bunch of AMD systems over the years, and AMD will not go out of business in the near term, but AMD are now and will remain a shadow of their former selves with between little and no hope of recovering past glory. 

Hector and the debt have to go before anything meaningful can happen, and until you fan bois can see that, you remain just that. Now, you go girl.
If I can direct your attention to the rear where of the theatre you came in...

You up there! For charity sakes, will we get some help with this focus?

Note: Those receiving a placebo often get better, a phenom known as the placebo effect.
"
Dr Spinola replies:
Trust me, I'm a doctor. ®
"
but then, one of us is anutter.

TADA!
Replying to IntelNick

"Most of what people do today with their computers requires powerful processors."

Not true. 

The majority of people in the world use their Computers to read a few webpages, do some basic work and check their email.

I have an old IBM thinkpad with a Pentium 2, with Windows XP optimized and 192MB RAM as one of my systems. Email, Watching Anime and Movies and all basic things....even photoshop works. The only thing I can't do on there is play games or run super heavy applications..all on a 600mhz processor

Lets talk about Casual Gamers. These gamers tend to play old games they like and stick to them and do everything else. AMDs 780G Chipset and the X200 and X1400 integrated chipsets allow anyone to do basic things. 

I also have a $350 laptop by Acer, with an X200 in there. guild wars runs there at 50 FPS. Why do I need to spend 1500 - 3000 on a system if for 200 - 300 I can have a stable and playable framerate in 90% of games out there?

Now these laptops are Single Core laptops, and I can do every single thing I want on them. The only reason I bought a laptop was because I had the choice at the time between paying $200 for a laptop HDD or $350 for a new laptop.

The only reason you would need a powerful processor today is because of all the Companies out there who speak of "SECURITY" and what they mean by that has nothing to do with PROTECTING you and everything to "PROTECT THEIR OWN PROFITS" so they bloatware their programs so now the SAME PROGRAM you loved before gets improved with one or two new features and a bloatwared interface, but now requires two cores, 50% more memory to run and 30% more HDD space thanks to all the new coding to SLOW THE PROGRAM DOWN....considering they consider everyone in the world to be a pirate and the true people who suffer are the buyers thanks to that mentality when they experience the performance hit from such useless code.

Pile it up with VISTA that loves Checking everything and yeah, you will need a quad core today to be able to achieve what you were able to achieve on a Single Core Athlon 64 in 2003.

P.S: Athlon 64 Single Core processor still is the lowest latency processor in the world...35ns...While The Q6600..even with lower multipliers and 33% more the BUS, runs at 180 - 200ns. Also, The Floating Point Performance of the A64 Single Core at 2.4 and 2.6ghz beats the Dual Core Floating Point performance of the X6800 processor...but Intel wins in overall performance and Integer performance.