AMD gloom has silver lining

AMD SPINNERS are cheerfully touting yesterday's announcement that the firm lost $1.77 billion in the last quarter as good news.

Although the losses are significantly higher than those chalked up in the same period last year ($576 million), this year's figure is better than Wall Street was expecting.

The spinners at AMD seem to have convinced AP that what is important is that it proves its is driving down costs and protecting its share of the microprocessor market.

The "glass half-full" approach has made some feel good about the company for the first time in ages.

However, the figures do show that the albatross which was the purchase of ATI is still dragging the outfit down. Particularly when it turned out that AMD didn't even get wafers with it.

Its product line has been bedevilled by flaws, particularly in the new Opteron server chip, and it is hoped that, once sorted, such chips help will pull the outfit's nadgers out of the fire.

Boss Hector Ruiz said he was “very pleased” with progress. Or maybe he was talking about the size of his pay packet. µ