Prometheus Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 In a recent interview with the San Jose Mercury News, AMD spokesman Mike Silverman indicated that the company plans to shift its focus away from competing with long-time processor rival Intel starting in 2012. Instead, the company will likely focus on developing a solid mobile strategy while still remaining committed to the x86 architecture. "We're at an inflection point," he said. "We will all need to let go of the old 'AMD versus Intel' mind-set, because it won't be about that anymore." The move isn't surprising given that the company hasn't been able to gain a market share lead over Intel in years. AMD had hoped to gain some ground after Intel suffered a string of antitrust regulatory rebukes, but the processor nemesis remained vigilant, its sales booming. Last year Intel reported sales of nearly $44 billion whereas AMD only reported $6.5 billion. Presently AMD sits at around 19-percent of the overall processor market share, down from a 23-percent share in 2006. The company has been chided for heavily depending on a PC market where the pace of growth has slowed due to the economy and emerging markets. It's recently-launched Bulldozer chips even brought in disappointing reviews, and the company just recently cut 1,400 jobs. Given that its fight with Intel has seemingly gotten AMD nowhere, time has come for a change. "AMD is a leader in x86 microprocessor design, and we remain committed to the x86 market," AMD said in a statement this week. "Our strategy is to accelerate our growth by taking advantage of our design capabilities to deliver a breadth of products that best align with broader industry shifts toward low power, emerging markets and the cloud." The "emerging markets" -- presumably smartphones and tablets -- is a space where both Intel and AMD will fight to survive, a space currently dominated by ARM's low-power architecture. There's also the new ultrabook market which requires low-power solutions to keep the overall prices down and battery life extended. These three markets alone are untapped veins of possible revenue for the company, and as AMD pointed out, three avenues that are currently the industry's primary focus. Yet back in August, Rick Bergman, senior VP and general manager of AMD’s Product Group, said that the company had no plans to enter the smartphone sector. "We haven’t announced any plans to go in that handheld space," Bergman said. "We’ve got plenty of opportunities… in server, notebook and now tablets, that’s our immediate focus. But if the right circumstances come up and we can see a way to impact the market, we’ll obviously continue to look." On the tablet front, AMD launched the Z-Series Bobcat-based APUs during Computex 2011 back in June. The first chip, the AMD Z-01, features two 1 GHz Bobcat cores, a TDP of 5.9W, 1 MB of L2 cache and AMD Radeon HD 6250 discrete-class graphics (276 MHz, 80 cores). By comparison, Nvidia just launched its ARM-based Tegra 3 SoC featuring a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore (up to 1.4 GHz single-core mode and 1.3 GHz multi-core mode), a 12-core GeForce GPU, 1 MB of L2 cache, and a TDP of around 4W. AMD is expected to update its strategy in February 2012, but there's a good chance we'll learn more during CES 2012 in January. Link: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/AMD-APU-Z...ra-3,14114.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slamman Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 I went with my Intel VIIV sig, kind of tongue in cheek over the Media Center market which is there, but didn't take off as hoped. It's likely Intel and MS Windows will sustain much of their market share, despite Anti-Trust. They just got the best engineers and familar approaches that make an easy transition from one advance to the next, that most people do adapt. AMD really scored in the early 2000s, but what will this mean for CPU buyers? Only one option to go with?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cursed Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 AMD really scored in the early 2000s, but what will this mean for CPU buyers? Only one option to go with?? I'd hope not. Intel needs some competition to keep prices under control, not to mention AMD has always offered a cheaper solution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stinky12 Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 We can see that right now with Intel's current SB-E pricing. A CPU i7 is like $600 and boards starts out around $300 that's $900 just for 2 components. You don't even have ram and there is no build in IGP like the 1155 SB so you will also need a graphic card. AMD cheaper offering is because they can't beat Intel in terms of performance. If they sell at a expensive price, who will want to buy a AMD? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slamman Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 (edited) Right now, they always issue their CPUs for servers first, that's why the high cost model bowed out first, Next year the lower Budget line is expected for Sandy Bridge E This report from earlier in the year might be helpful for some http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/12/intel-r...e-cedarview-sa/ For novices, this is better http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/sandy-bridgee...useof-explains/ Edited November 30, 2011 by Slamman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoječ Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 (edited) No Desktop Processors from AMDBullsh*t.No one ever mentioned that AMD will stop producing desktop CPUs. At least I don't think this what they meant by "shifting their focus away from competing with long-time processor rival". Edited November 30, 2011 by yojo2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slamman Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 (edited) They'll focus on stagnant hardware generations, till it's been updated as far as it can go....then upgrade it some more!?? haha The should look at optimization for the crowd less concerned with constant hardware upgrades. An expandable motherboard idea that allows it to grow with additions for a number of years. Can that be possible? Some game console makers thought to include expansion slots, but they never really came to fruition as hoped Edited November 30, 2011 by Slamman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoječ Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 Actually, I'm just pretty sure that they will keep competing in low- and mid-end. They'll leave high-end to Intel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slamman Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 Allowing one upgrade slot, in terms of CPU and of course, memory, has been a tried and true tech path since the Socket 5s and 7s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waste Posted December 1, 2011 Share Posted December 1, 2011 I will be a sad panda. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leik oh em jeez! Posted December 1, 2011 Share Posted December 1, 2011 Now I'll have to find a reference nvidia 780a board and build an AMD memorial system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slamman Posted December 1, 2011 Share Posted December 1, 2011 My best is nForce 4, 939 socket, I looked up the 3400+ I got, only sold for about $100, and AMD64 best end, the FX 56? That was nearly $1000? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now