General: The Future of AMD

With the Phenom 2 launch, AMD has produced yet anther CPU that pushes forward, but not enough to challenge Intel for the speed crown. That and their financial problems, which border on the ludicrous, which combined with the current financial climate, seem to spell doom for AMD - and I for one am hoping that there'll be a buyout of AMD by IBM.

Why IBM? Because they have the resources to challenge Intel. Ok, so does HP, Microsoft and a dozen other multinationals, but big blue makes most sense if you factor in that they're already a major fabricator. No, they're not as big as Samsung or TI, but neither Samsung nor TI has an existing line of cutting edge CPU's. IBM has PowerPC, Xenon and (to some extent) Cell - so combining technologies from these lines into Althon/Phenom (and vice-versa) could produce a chip lineup that Intel would genuinely have to fear. I mean, even when AMD had the clear performance lead, they couldn't take more than a few percent of the market from Intel - IBM has what it takes to challenge them seriously and maybe even take the lead.

Why do I think this matters? Without AMD, Intel would probably be pushing the P4 on us still, or a substandard version of Core. They would only have to compete with their own older generation - i.e. persuade us all to upgrade from their old kit to their new kit. The advance of Core and Core2 was a response to AMD's assault. i7 blatantly copies huge portions of Ath64 architecture (only fair, since AMD's been copying Intel for years). Without competition to push them, Intel's likely to slow down and hike prices.

I dunno. IBM has all kinds of agreements with Intel – not sure they’re even legally entitled to compete with Intel anymore. And they used to produce an x86 chip of their own – and failed against Intel…

I was in to AMD for all my processors at one time, simply because they were better and cheaper. Now it seems Intel have managed to make AMD look almost like amateurs in the field. What a shame, loads of new CPU's (too many) and none of them quite good enough compared to Intel.

I wonder what happened? Was it spending a shed load of money on ATI that reduced the cash available for R&D for CPU's, or they just ran out of ideas. Whatever happened, it is very important to keep the CPU competition going. As CeeBee says, Intel will have no good reason to stay one step ahead and hell knows what prices they will charge for the little square essential devices.

WTF? You mean I'm the only one running black hole simulations?

Yes, AMD is really in serious trouble. Once, they where on the same or even a slightly higher level as Intel.
There is not a single reason for their decline, I think. It's not only the money they spent on buying ATI, they also couldn't react in time after Intel leaped ahead with their advanced CPU-technology.
Now, it seems that AMD is simply defending itself against bancruptcy. For example in the Netbook-Sector, AMD is still unable to present a competitive opponent for the Atom (maybe because of the lack of funds for the development). Even ordinary Laptop processors of AMD can hardly be found any more in the stores.
AMD is focussing on the mainstream sector at the moment, but that opens Intel wide fields of the market where they are not under pressure by any company (except VIA on Netbooks, but their Processors are too expensive in comparison).

I hope that AMD will survive.