AMD to Enter Another Round of Restructuring This Month

[Lanek]

Does this have anything to do with the AMD/Samsung alliance rumor?

Well not completely stranger to that. Theres a bit restructuring their R&D departement for CPU (deeply or not ), they send 150 engineers to Synopsis for take care of their licence IP and at same time gain access to the IP level of Finfet and library, design from Synopsis.

As for the "alliance " with Samsung, let say it is more a possible rumor, even if term of alliance is not really well choose... Samsung and GloFo are allready ally on FAB and process R&D since years.. Synopsis design is used and common on Samsung fundry.. the rest is a little bit only a rumor for now.

I can imagine for their Opteron ARM 64bits ( ARMv8 ) SOC, thats a good probability, as for their x86 cpu lineup, i dont know.

[kromosto]

I don't understand the never ending nvidia amd gpu arguments so for not flaiming it more I will hide my opinions on it this time.

Now for the reorganization I don't think it is because radeon side of the company but because of the cpu side I think.

[MattiasNYC]

The best thing that could happen for those that love Intel products is a strong AMD to bring prices down.

[DarthBeavis]

The best thing that could happen for those that love Intel products is a strong AMD to bring prices down.

I agree that competition is good on all fronts. That means Intel and NVIDIA spend more money on R & D and marketing which means job security for me (custom builds for NVIDIA and working NVIDIA events). That being said: Today if I want AMD I will buy a console. Consoles are on their last generation. They will be replaced by mobile devices streaming content (NVIDIA Shield devices streaming content via Game Steam and GRID are the first example but more will come). Instead of having home PCs we will have home servers streaming content and acting as a smart hub in our houses. This will happen on the workstation side as well as we see with GRID VDI streaming Solidworks, Inventor, and Maya. Today's smart phone has more processing power than all of NASA in 1969 when we sent two astronauts to the moon (I did a TEDx talk on this subject - will be available on Youtube in a month or so). The improved processing power in mobile devices (NVIDIA Tegra K1 has 192 CUDA cores and the same architecture as the rest of their product line including GeForce and Quadro) will allow a multi-tier level of processing including local process and visualization if GPU-bound applications. It will also allow more and more devices that extend the power of the phone to be integrated (think wearables). I look forward to being able to walk the streets of Paris wearing contacts that will give me a heads up display that translates all the signs and also that provide a Watch Dogs like display.

[eRacer]

Now a nice hot cup of reality

AMD have more GPU share than nvidia and have been that way for years now.

That's about as impressive as saying "AMD has more x86 CPU market share than NVIDIA". AMD only has a bigger GPU share when "GPU" includes APU.

AMD raised gross profit by over 50% 2012-2013.

EXTREMELY deceptive because 2012 included huge charges related to GlobalFoundries. In other words the 2013 "improvement" had nothing to do with higher profits from CPUs and GPUs. When factoring out those charges non-GAAP gross margins actually fell from 41% in 2012 to 37% in 2013.

AMD went from $5.5 billion in debt to only $2 billion while having the least competitive CPU in it's history and while doing such things like paying $700 millions to get out of globalfoundries deal.

EXTREMELY deceptive again because AMD had to sell their fabs to reduce their debt and pay their bills. The debt reduction had nothing do with higher CPU and GPU profitability.

[STEvil]

I agree that competition is good on all fronts. That means Intel and NVIDIA spend more money on R & D and marketing which means job security for me (custom builds for NVIDIA and working NVIDIA events). That being said: Today if I want AMD I will buy a console. Consoles are on their last generation. They will be replaced by mobile devices streaming content (NVIDIA Shield devices streaming content via Game Steam and GRID are the first example but more will come). Instead of having home PCs we will have home servers streaming content and acting as a smart hub in our houses. This will happen on the workstation side as well as we see with GRID VDI streaming Solidworks, Inventor, and Maya. Today's smart phone has more processing power than all of NASA in 1969 when we sent two astronauts to the moon (I did a TEDx talk on this subject - will be available on Youtube in a month or so). The improved processing power in mobile devices (NVIDIA Tegra K1 has 192 CUDA cores and the same architecture as the rest of their product line including GeForce and Quadro) will allow a multi-tier level of processing including local process and visualization if GPU-bound applications. It will also allow more and more devices that extend the power of the phone to be integrated (think wearables). I look forward to being able to walk the streets of Paris wearing contacts that will give me a heads up display that translates all the signs and also that provide a Watch Dogs like display.

You have a lot of latency in your way.

[SoulsCollective]

How much were you compensated to make that post? I hope they pay you enough, to look like a clown with a billboard attached to your forehead.

And you're just looking rude, so let's all calm down on the ad hominem stuff, OK? One of the good things about XS is that it generally isn't full of two-year-olds flinging mud pies at each other.

On topic, anyone predicting the imminent collapse of AMD needs to seriously consider the console and overall market for a second. AMD currently holds about 18% of the total desktop graphics market, compared to nVidia's 15 (Intel kicks both, unsurprisingly). AMD chips are in both the XBone and the PS4. With that kind of attach rate, AMD is not going anywhere any time soon.

Is nVidia in a better position in the discrete GPU market at present? Undoubtedly. According to the latest Steam Hardware Survey, machines that we can fairly safely assume as used for some kind of gaming by dint of having Steam installed are more likely to have an nVidia card in them than any other brand - 51.6% Is that likely to change? Who knows! AMD has had two bad generations in a row in the past, so has nVidia. It's called the graphics war for a reason, and it generally benefits consumers.

[NEOAethyr]

Jeez lol, we all know it's not there gpu's but there cpu's that need some help...
Though I swore I saw a comment here somewhere about the firepro lol, to give my honest opinion on that one, from what I gather not many use them for pro use, nor would I...
There cpu's I would use if they performed good enough, even if they were rated 35w higher then intel, if they performed on par for once I would go for it, best bag for your buck sorta thing.

[Piledriver]

That's about as impressive as saying "AMD has more x86 CPU market share than NVIDIA". AMD only has a bigger GPU share when "GPU" includes APU.

That's rich. SO if joe used to buy a mid range cpu and a mid range gpu and now he buys a AMD APU, he is supposed to keep buying the mid range gpu because of your notion of reality? When GPU includes APU? I'm sorry i thought it was the APU that included a GPU, silly me.

EXTREMELY deceptive because 2012 included huge charges related to GlobalFoundries. In other words the 2013 "improvement" had nothing to do with higher profits from CPUs and GPUs. When factoring out those charges non-GAAP gross margins actually fell from 41% in 2012 to 37% in 2013.

Non-GAAP operating income, 2012 $45 millions, 2013 $103 millions. Is this deceptive also?

EXTREMELY deceptive again because AMD had to sell their fabs to reduce their debt and pay their bills. The debt reduction had nothing do with higher CPU and GPU profitability.

AMD sold their fabs because they couldn't afford the new processes regardless of debt. AMD spent almost 2 billions getting out of globalfoundries deal and buying seamicro for example, how much did they get for the fabs? not much more, but yeah AMD just kept selling stuff.

Yes, yes AMD profit is deceptive, AMD reducing debt deceptive, AMD market share deceptive, it's all a lie! It's the Matrix!! They are doomed! Let's just keep repeating stuff from 2006!!

[eRacer]

That's rich. SO if joe used to buy a mid range cpu and a mid range gpu and now he buys a AMD APU, he is supposed to keep buying the mid range gpu because of your notion of reality? When GPU includes APU? I'm sorry i thought it was the APU that included a GPU, silly me.

I merely pointed out that it is easy to get a market share "win" when the competitor isn't even allowed to compete (x86 APUs). Given an equivalent choice (video cards) people tend to prefer NVIDIA.

Non-GAAP operating income, 2012 $45 millions, 2013 $103 millions. Is this deceptive also?

Yes, it is. The change in AMD's non-GAAP operating income from 2012 to 2013 can be obtained by cutting expenses (for example firing people) rather than generating more sales revenue. AMD's revenue fell from $5.42 billion in 2012 to $5.3 billion in 2013. It's pretty sad for AMD when NVIDIA's non-GAAP income per quarter is roughly the same as AMD's combined non-GAAP operating income over a two year period.

AMD sold their fabs because they couldn't afford the new processes regardless of debt. AMD spent almost 2 billions getting out of globalfoundries deal and buying seamicro for example, how much did they get for the fabs? not much more, but yeah AMD just kept selling stuff.

Yes, AMD couldn't afford new fabs. AMD couldn't afford their current fabs. AMD was low on cash, bleeding money, and would have faced bankruptcy had they kept their fabs. That doesn't say much positive about the competitiveness of AMD.

Yes, yes AMD profit is deceptive, AMD reducing debt deceptive, AMD market share deceptive, it's all a lie!

Even worse than lies, your comments were statistical half truths. "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."

[NEOAethyr]

You have a lot of latency in your way.

Sure if you're using it across the internet, but in some cases it might be doable.
In home use shouldn't have much of an issue.

Another possibility is to make use of the the gpu for other then games from a remote location.
Giving your cell phone say the power of a desktop/workstation gpu.
In which case latency ain't so bad, compared to how long it would take the phone to do the same thing.
Workstation in your pocket.
Or to offload, etc.

Think google earth for your phone, ... but already have google earth for our phone...
Ok, farcry 4 on our phone...
Hook up to your buddies tv via mhl + otg/bluetooth, and you got yourself a sli rig or whatever.
As long as the latency and bandwith is good enough on both connections...
Certainly ain't gonna work on dialup...

2 things I thought about a while back.
Supposedly there's a raw mode instead of h.264.
And I thought usb passthrough was not implemented, but now I realize even if it's not it's very easy to implement to the side.

Pretty cool stuff though.

[eRacer]

Looks like AMD was so successful the past few years that they fired their CEO today.

AMD Appoints Dr. Lisa Su as President and Chief Executive Officer

AMD today announced that its board of directors has appointed Dr. Lisa Su as president and chief executive officer and member of the board of directors, effective immediately. Dr. Su, 44, succeeds Rory Read, 52, who has stepped down as president and chief executive officer, and member of the board of directors, as part of a transition plan. Read will support the transition in an advisory role, remaining with the company through the end of 2014.

"Leadership succession planning has been a joint effort between Rory and the board and we felt that Lisa's expertise and proven leadership in the global semiconductor industry make this an ideal time for her to lead the company," said Bruce Claflin, chairman of AMD's board of directors...

[Evantaur]

AMD is in good hands

[Piledriver]

I merely pointed out that it is easy to get a market share "win" when the competitor isn't even allowed to compete (x86 APUs). Given an equivalent choice (video cards) people tend to prefer NVIDIA.

lol Nvidia just got $1.5 billion from Intel, maybe they should have asked for a x86 licence instead or maybe they were scared to go that way. You know how it's easy to get a market share win? It's when the competitor instead of selling a discrete gpu to joe, it sells said gpu glued with a CPU to joe, and somehow for some reason some genius thinks it shouldn't count. I think i'm repeating myself.

Yes, it is. The change in AMD's non-GAAP operating income from 2012 to 2013 can be obtained by cutting expenses (for example firing people) rather than generating more sales revenue. AMD's revenue fell from $5.42 billion in 2012 to $5.3 billion in 2013.

How much revenue did intel lost? Newsflash, shrinking market! How about AMD losing less revenue than Intel in the same time span?

It's pretty sad for AMD when NVIDIA's non-GAAP income per quarter is roughly the same as AMD's combined non-GAAP operating income over a two year period.

I think you would be a lot sadder looking at nvidia non-gaap income if AMD spent it's resources in Nvidia's markets instead of Intel's markets. You would be a sad sad panda. Love how the response to my comment of how AMD raised it's non-gaap income completely destroying you troll misinformation, with the classic bu-bu-bu-bu Nvidia have more.

Yes, AMD couldn't afford new fabs. AMD couldn't afford their current fabs. AMD was low on cash, bleeding money, and would have faced bankruptcy had they kept their fabs. That doesn't say much positive about the competitiveness of AMD.

If AMD didn't sold the fabs, AMD would be forced to outsource them while at the same time forced to outsource the CPU's and GPU's, made no sense. The bankruptcy thingy is your fanboy fantasy.

Even worse than lies, your comments were statistical half truths. "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."

I think you don't have any notion of what just happened on this thread

Looks like AMD was so successful the past few years that they fired their CEO today.

During the last three years, AMD has made significant progress in financial and operational performance. The company returned to non-GAAP profitability and materially diversified its business. Since 2012, AMD has reduced operating expenditures by approximately 30 percent and maintained cash at near an optimal level of $1 billion. AMD also improved its balance sheet by re-profiling its debt with no significant debt coming due until 2019.

I think you should leave while you still can

Rory Read did everything the board asked of him, cut expenses, made AMD break even and focused on mobile low power segments, anyone with a brain knows he did a good job on a terrible time, global crisis, traditional markets shrinking and no competitive CPU thanks to bulldozer arc he had nothing to do with.

[eRacer]

lol Nvidia just got $1.5 billion from Intel, maybe they should have asked for a x86 licence instead or maybe they were scared to go that way. You know how it's easy to get a market share win? It's when the competitor instead of selling a discrete gpu to joe, it sells said gpu glued with a CPU to joe, and somehow for some reason some genius thinks it shouldn't count. I think i'm repeating myself.

Such an eloquent, thought-provoking response. Hopefully AMD uses your testimonial in a future advertising campaign.

AMD doesn't have a graphics market share win even though it is "so easy" according to you. Intel has the graphics market share win, and a massive win at that. Instead of making a discrete GPU Intel glued it to their CPUs and now Joe gives Intel 4 times the graphics market share of AMD. [Piledriver mode]Obviously the market loves Intel graphics, otherwise they wouldn't be beating AMD so easily![/Piledriver mode]

How much revenue did intel lost? Newsflash, shrinking market! How about AMD losing less revenue than Intel in the same time span?

I see your overhyping of AMD's financials can't stand on their own merits so you are now bringing Intel into the conversation.
Intel revenue 2012: $53.3 billion
Intel revenue 2013: $52.7 billion
Relative revenue change: -1.0%

AMD revenue 2012: $5.42 billion
AMD revenue 2013: $5.3 billion
Relative revenue Change: -1.0%

While Intel did lose more in absolute dollars the magnitude of the change between both companies is the same.

But below are the numbers that really matter and are ranked from best to worst:

Net Profit 2012+2013:

#1 Intel: $20.6 billion
#2 Random Homless Guy On The Street: ~$0
#3 AMD: -$1.30 billion (or if that $1.3 billion loss is too painful for you, we can just look at the non-GAAP loss of $197 million instead)

I think you would be a lot sadder looking at nvidia non-gaap income if AMD spent it's resources in Nvidia's markets instead of Intel's markets. You would be a sad sad panda.

But I'm not a sad panda because that never happened. Please come back to reality.

Love how the response to my comment of how AMD raised it's non-gaap income completely destroying you troll misinformation, with the classic bu-bu-bu-bu Nvidia have more.

I gave no misinformation. You did.

Something to think about: Many times the first person to call someone else a troll in a conversation is actually a troll themselves (and the biggest one at that).

Raising non-GAAP income is certainly better than lowering it, but as I said earlier those numbers alone aren't evidence of a stronger product line in comparison to the competition as it can just mean more ruthless cost cutting or merely better efficiency.

But let's take a look at how big that wonderful increase is in non-GAAP operating income. It rose from $45 million in 2012 to $103 million, a difference of $58 million. For companies as large as AMD and Intel a change in $58 million is relatively inconsequential. You think an operating profit of $103 million for an entire year is impressive? Intel generated $103 million in operating profit every 4 days.

If AMD didn't sold the fabs, AMD would be forced to outsource them while at the same time forced to outsource the CPU's and GPU's, made no sense. The bankruptcy thingy is your fanboy fantasy.

The bankruptcy thing was quite real. AMD had no cash for new fabs, but even with their current fabs they were losing money due to mediocre products and paying interest on a $5 billion dollar debt. You don't get to borrow $5 billion for free you know.

Something to think about: Many times the first person to call someone else a fanboy in a conversation is actually a fanboy themselves (and the biggest one at that).

I think you don't have any notion of what just happened on this thread

I think you should leave while you still can

As we have already seen, what you think and say is a very distorted image of reality.

I may stay. I may go. Whatever you think about that will have no influence on my decision.

Rory Read did everything the board asked of him, cut expenses, made AMD break even and focused on mobile low power segments, anyone with a brain knows he did a good job on a terrible time, global crisis, traditional markets shrinking and no competitive CPU thanks to bulldozer arc he had nothing to do with.

He may not have been a terrible leader, but he certainly wasn't a great one. AMD needs a great leader now. As for doing everything expected of him: Nope.

From the article: "The challenge ahead, he [Read] said, is to move rapidly to build on recent product successes to capture more growth and profits, while positioning the company to be an important player in the emerging market of ultraportable devices, including tablet computers.

Was growth captured? Nope. Were profits captured? Nope. Is AMD an important player in ultraportable devices? Nope. Is AMD an important player in tablets? Nope.


From the article: Claflin said the board has given only a basic set of instructions for Read and no restrictions.

"We have asked him to do a few things: execute against a strategy, build strong (profit) margins and take advantage of the new opportunities that are facing us," Clafin said. "That is it."

Has AMD built strong profit margins? Nope. Have new opportunities made AMD profitable? Nope. The only real positive so far are the console wins, but they alone aren't enough to outweigh all of the other negatives.

[NEOAethyr]

I wonder if things would be better if amd would start using intel's socket again.
Let intel and partners dev the boards.
That way amd can focus more on mainstream..., and maybe even high end again.
I wonder if there would be any legal issues.

It would take time to dev for the new sockets.
But I'm thinking there really hasn't been a higher end board option since the old 990fx released some time ago anyways.
I think maybe they should dump all there previous bus work and go with whatever intel does lol.
Maybe it's a bad idea I don't know...
Seems to me that it would be nice for change to have compatible cpu's.

[Greg83]

just like ncix forums
the viewer base of xtremesystem's was due to the not headers and titles of the stories. and clips and the ppl repeating the same thing as the stories, which then trooled everyone else

it was the ideas and theories of the masses adding their 2 cents, not just repeating the officals, the authoritians.

its what xtremesytems lost and why fudzilla rocks my socks off every day.

this thread i just scrool through cause its all authoritian indoctrine left here.

the moderator post was the only thing i have been able to even read inside it and enjoy.

i remember back before 4870x2 game out in 2008. many websites i used to visit for tech news and finding out the next chipset and coming out soon based on rumors and he says. and common sense. now the only site i have remaining of those many. is fudzilla.

[Piledriver]

You're the typical low IQ smart ass idiot, that can only resort to straw man arguments, i gonna only waste my time quoting you to clearly prove it.

I see your overhyping of AMD's financials can't stand on their own merits so you are now bringing Intel into the conversation

Says the genious who pulled Nvidia non-gapp quarterly income out of his ass

Intel revenue 2012: $53.3 billion
Intel revenue 2013: $52.7 billion
Relative revenue change: -1.0%

AMD revenue 2012: $5.42 billion
AMD revenue 2013: $5.3 billion
Relative revenue Change: -1.0%

While Intel did lose more in absolute dollars the magnitude of the change between both companies is the same.

This come from the genius who where whining about deceptive arguments Who cares about the magnitude of the change? AMD LOST LESS REVENUE THAT INTEL! Intel had more, then the hit was less, wow you're a genius for figuring that out.

But below are the numbers that really matter and are ranked from best to worst:

Net Profit 2012+2013:

You were one that brought up revenue


Now walk away proudly thinking you achieved victory with you 1000 words essay, when all you did was get owned.

[iddqd]

On the other hand, the new CEO's credentials look really impressive.

Dr. Su received bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was named Fellow of the Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers in 2009. She has published more than 40 technical articles and was named a Fellow of the Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) in 2009. Dr. Su was named "2014 Executive of the Year" at the EETimes and EDN 2014 ACE Awards and was honored in MIT Technology Review's Top 100 Young Innovators in 2002. She also serves on the Board of Directors of Analog Devices since 2012.

[LordEC911]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGXh0qokkRs

Can we kiss and make up?

See, how the f is that helpful or thought provoking? What does it add to the discussion or the community. Absolutely nothing.
Go play with Huang's bits some more.

On the other hand, the new CEO's credentials look really impressive.

It definitely seems to be a move in the right direction. Read did his thing, made some big moves, re-focused the company as whole and put in place a very strong candidate to get AMD climbing back up the ladder.

[Buckeye]

See, how the f is that helpful or thought provoking? What does it add to the discussion or the community. Absolutely nothing.

I must agree, enough is enough.
Doing some thread clean up.

[DarthBeavis]

I must agree, enough is enough.
Doing some thread clean up.

was fun while it lasted. Have to spend more time getting my laser-cutter dialed in today anyways. As for AMD's new CEO: Looks like Pat from SNL (its time for androgyny, who's that? Its Pat!)

[Fottemberg]

We should also not forget that AMD can't go bankrupt, not because it's too big, but because it has too many strategic patents. For example, Intel can't allow that other company buys AMD and can't stop this event because U.S. Antitrust will not allow the merge of Intel and AMD. So, Intel has to boost AMD revenue, indirectly. Intel will be raped if an other company like Qualcomm buys AMD: ISA 86 is now linked with the x86-64 instructions, and without these instructions next Intel CPUs would be useless. Infact, Qualcomm can stop the production of x86 CPUs and it can stop to license x86-64 instructions to Intel at the same time. Qualcomm is an ARM company.

BTW, In Lisa Su I trust.

[hecktic]

We should also not forget that AMD can't go bankrupt, not because it's too big, but because it has too many strategic patents. For example, Intel can't allow that other company buys AMD and can't stop this event because U.S. Antitrust will not allow the merge of Intel and AMD. So, Intel has to boost AMD revenue, indirectly. Intel will be raped if an other company like Qualcomm buys AMD: ISA 86 is now linked with the x86-64 instructions, and without these instructions next Intel CPUs would be useless. Infact, Qualcomm can stop the production of x86 CPUs and it can stop to license x86-64 instructions to Intel at the same time. Qualcomm is an ARM company.

BTW, In Lisa Su I trust.

market seems to think different... AMD stock tanked on friday... maybe it will rebound on monday.. lets see where this goes

[Lanek]

market seems to think different... AMD stock tanked on friday... maybe it will rebound on monday.. lets see where this goes

Dont watch too much the financial market, they are epileptic, buying stuff and selling them in ns.... supercomputers and algortythm todays are making 75% of the USA trading transaction. 50% in Europe ... in 4 years it will represent nearly 85% in Asia. There's no more peoples in thoses market, only algorythm..
What they think, is what can bring them value and money in the next nannosecond, calculated by algorythm.. they dont think anymore, they do money.