

AMD CEO resigns unexpectedly - anigbrowl
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE70A0D620110111

======
jsz0
It's a shame. AMD always just seems to be a little behind the next big thing.
With the exception of the K8 they've just been in perpetual catch-up mode.
They finally have a pretty good mobile x86 platform when the rest of the
industry seems to have decided ultra-low-power ARM is the way to go. They
developed a pretty good high end server platform then the industry realized
virtualization can save a ton of money on hardware. Poor AMD.

~~~
uriel
While in recent times this might be true, I seem to recall AMD also beat Intel
to 1Ghz, and I was not paying that much attention at the time, but I think
they came with multi-core cpus around the same time if not a bit earlier than
Intel.

Fusion also seems to be slightly ahead of the curve, but I follow all this
stuff less and less so I'm not that familiar with the details of how exactly
it compares to SandiBridge.

~~~
kingkilr
AMD had intel flat beat on multi-core for a long while.

~~~
srean
See my comment on the parent post about downvote. I couldnt reply to you
earlier as HN disables posting to downvotes for a while, I think.

------
bane
> A source familiar with the matter said the board viewed Meyer as somebody
> who stabilized AMD and helped turn it around, but wanted to look elsewhere
> for an executive to accelerate the company's growth.

These really are two different skills. A CEO that can turn a company around
may not have the right skillset to put it into a sustained growth.

AMD's myopic view of only competing against Intel is also another problem.
There's no real reason they also shouldn't be fabbing PowerPCs and ARM chips
in bulk. At least in order to extend the life of older fab facilities.

~~~
wtallis
At this point, AMD doesn't own any fabs. They spun that part of the business
off as Global Foundries, which then bought Chartered for good measure and is
now a close partner with ARM: They've even abandoned the tradition of making a
full wafer of SRAM to test and demonstrate new processes in favor of making
test wafers of ARM SoCs. (Apparently SRAM cells don't do a very good job of
exposing the kinds of problems that will crop up when trying to make CPUs.)

~~~
wladimir
Indeed, SRAM layouts are very regular (it's a lot of the same), so the
lithography process is easier to get right. This is also why new, less-nm
processes will first be used to produce Flash/RAM and only later for complex
CPU logic.

------
lwat
I wonder if this has anything to do with the very cheap Sandy Bridge line just
launched by Intel. $300 for a chip that competes with $1200 chips is pretty
tough to beat.

~~~
microarchitect
I assume you're referring to the ultra low voltage sandy bridge parts parts.
AMD's Ontario and Llano, coming out later this year, will be very competitive
with these parts. Not to mention cheaper to produce.

~~~
lwat
I meant the 2600 i7 chips. What is AMDs answer to that?

