Fighting for Relevance
AMD had a disappointing quarter, but not as bad as expected
AMD is still kicking. While the results of this past year have been forgettable, they have overcome some significant hurdles and look like they are improving their position in terms of cutting costs while extracting as much revenue as possible. There were plenty of ups and downs for this past quarter, but when compared to the rest of 2015 there were some solid steps forward here.
The company reported revenues of $958 million, which is down from $1.06 billion last quarter. The company also recorded a $103 million loss, but that is down significantly from the $197 million loss the quarter before. Q3 did have a $65 million write-down due to unsold inventory. Though the company made far less in revenues, they also shored up their losses. The company is still bleeding, but they still have plenty of cash on hand for the next several quarters to survive. When we talk about non-GAAP figures, AMD reports a $79 million loss for this past quarter.
For the entire year AMD recorded $3.99 billion in revenue with a net loss of $660 million. This is down from FY 2014 revenues of $5.51 billion and a net loss of $403 million. AMD certainly is trending downwards year over year, but they are hoping to reverse that come 2H 2016.
Graphics continues to be solid for AMD as they increased their sales from last quarter, but are down year on year. Holiday sales were brisk, but with only the high end Fury series being a new card during this season, the impact of that particular part was not as great as compared to the company having a new mid-range series like the newly introduced R9 380X. The second half of 2016 will see the introduction of the Polaris based GPUs for both mobile and desktop applications. Until then, AMD will continue to provide the current 28 nm lineup of GPUs to the market. At this point we are under the assumption that AMD and NVIDIA are looking at the same timeframe for introducing their next generation parts due to process technology advances. AMD already has working samples on Samsung’s/GLOBALFOUNDRIES 14nm LPP (low power plus) that they showed off at CES 2016.
On the CPU side AMD still competes with the 32 nm based FX series and the latest 28 nm Kaveri parts for desktop. For mobile there was a small uptick in sales due to Carrizo based parts being adopted throughout the last two quarters. AMD looks to be introducing new AM4 processors later this spring with many thinking that these will be Excavator based APUs and CPUs (Carrizo with disabled graphics). It is still too early for AMD to be introducing 14/16 nm parts in the CPU marketplace. That particular transition will happen in late 2016 with the introduction of high end Zen based CPUs.
The Semi-Custom, Embedded, and Enterprise sections all saw a decrease from the previous quarter. This is not unexpected as the console SOCs are seasonally constrained. It takes time to build and ship the consoles, so revenue from those products in the form of royalties show up at least a quarter before the final products are sold. Sony and MS ramped up production earlier in the year to meet holiday sales estimates, but have to ramp down production for the typically slow Q1 and Q2 quarters. That is reflected in the lower revenue experienced in this section. AMD only recently released their ARM based server chips so that revenue will not be reflected for another quarter at least.
AMD reorganized the company last year to allow the graphics group a little more leeway and independence. Raja Kodouri is in charge of that organization, and we have heard whispers of “Raja is not a nice man…” when it comes to people not living up to expectations or products showing up late or underperforming. Jim Keller left AMD but his Zen architecture is still looking to bring AMD back from the brink and be more competitive in the CPU market. High end Zen parts are expected in late 2016 with 2017 being the target for products up and down the range being released. HBM looks to also play a part in higher end CPUs and APUs from AMD, but those will likely be further down the line.
AMD hopes to become profitable in the second half of 2016. We have heard this before, and we have been optimistic for AMD, but so far those promises have had limited returns. AMD does continue to cut expenses where they can (their packaging joint venture with Fujitsu) as well as being aggressive with workforce numbers. If AMD can get their 14nm GPUs out first then they will have a very significant power and performance advantage over NVIDIA. Even if NVIDIA releases product in the same timeframe, the value and performance proposition of these new products will likely spur a significant upgrade cycle up and down the stack. Zen will have a limited impact on 2016, but AMD looks to have enough new products on the CPU side between now and then (plus the new AM4 platform) that they should see a decent boost in sales when these hit the market.
The company continues the push to stay relevant. Their graphics are still competitive and strong and they have a lead in producing HBM enabled parts that should be beneficial when it comes to HBM 2.0 and high end new products. There is a lot of excitement around the upcoming Zen architecture with some hoping that it will be a true successor to the Athlon 64 that was released in the heyday of 2003 through 2005. While I do not believe that AMD will have that same power and performance advantage as the Athlon 64 did over the Pentium 4, I do believe it will be competitive with the latest generation of Intel parts. AMD needs to execute on time and on budget from here on out, or 2017 could be a very, very rough year for the company.
In the short term AMD expects Q1 2016 to be down around 10% in revenue due to seasonal constraints. Q2 is a bit of an unknown right now as they do not like to comment that far in the future. It could start to see some improvements with new products and a new platform coming to market, but they real optimism is coming in the second half of the year.
AMD problem is that they
AMD problem is that they never do anything on time. World famous paper-launches are just tip of the iceberg.
Take Intel or nVidia. For past 20 years or so you know what month of the year is because I/N released something new (architecture or product for segment a/b/c) to the market (good or bad doesn’t matter – new). AMD appears like proverbial hippie-Woodstock junkie that when is sober enough they show something and then next day go into smoke induced hibernation/levitation again. Zen is in development for what, half a decade+ now and maybe, just maybe by 31st December 2016 there will be some another paper-launch? I don’t know about you, but my confidence in AMD is about as low as it can fall – if it falls any further it’ll hit me in the head because space&time are curved. Obviously they can’t compete with closest competitors regularly which does not bode well for the future. Period.
If Mr Raja Kodouri can’t fix that I don’t know who can…
Thats only one problem. Even
Thats only one problem. Even if their product where released 12 month earlier, nothing would change financially.
You have issue of pricing and contracts, and sale & marketing.
For example, you dont have to make the best engine, the best car, to make huge profit in the car industry.
But you cant sell a fiat 500 at the same price as a Ferrari F1.
Their is also AMD ‘overclocking’ mentality, where they push voltage so high to compensate for some less optimized designed.
And then price close, or even above Intel or nvidia.
AMD is also paying VP managers the highest in the industry, really affecting their R&D budget. They have to fire hundreds of engineer to supply the flow of money/bonus to their sale managers, marketing, VPS etc…
AMD say they need to pay so much more then Intel & nvidia for retention.. the issue is its their genius/brainiac designers that are leaving for samsung/qualcomm etc.. not their VP of sale.
Anyways, AMD will survive another year, even so the vampire are at the helm. But the product will suffer.
oh.. and AMD better pray dx12 is all the rage, because AMD cant code itself out of a wet paper bag when it come to clever driver optimization.
Disclosure, I have an ebay reference r9-290x ‘undervolted’ and its the best video card I ever had for under $200. Super quiet, and run it all at 2560×1600
And from dx12 games preview it will spank a GTX 980 going forward at the same power level .
People have terribly short
People have terribly short memories, and so in their minds a year or two become 20 years. All companies have their ups and downs, are late or release terribly power guzzling devices. But in many people’s minds the GeForce 480 never existed because the current NVIDIA architecture is better power-optimised than AMD’s.
(It’s rather silly to even read news items on the web. On February a publication would post “Intel has reportedly delayed its upcoming 14nm Skylake desktop CPUs to the end of August”, then in October another would post “Just like clockwork, the arrival of Intel’s sixth-generation Skylake processor…” Internet hilarity.)
The difference is AMD’s
The difference is AMD’s financial situation, which is dire, at best. Valued at *only* $1.5 Billion or so, sustained losses of >$100 Million per quarter are not easily absorbed. You have $1 Billion in debt that turns due in 2019. And you are competing against two companies in Intel and NVIDIA which can outspend you on product development in a development heavy field.
That’s the difference. Intel can afford a product mix. At this point, AMD can’t.
Well AMD has 700+ million
Well AMD has 700+ million dollars in the bank cash reserves, and the quarterly losses are shrinking, and yes Intel can waste 5 times more than AMD is worth on contra revenue. What people have to judge AMD’s products on is the price/performance metric, and the value for the money spent. With Zen, AMD will give up on that CMT and GO to SMT in its cores so expect that at least some better than SandyBridge levels of IPC for the Zen core, and also expect that with the new graphics APIs of DX12/Vulkan that newer games will be doing more compute on AMD’s ACE units that used to be done on the CPU’s cores, so even Intel’s CPUs stand to benefit from AMD’s GCN/Polaris asynchronous compute on those ACE units. AMD’s APUs need to be judged as a CPU/GPU package in addition to simply what performance metrics the CPU cores alone can do, as AMD’s HSA enabled APUs can do more compute on its GPU’s ACE units to help with the non graphics gaming compute in addition to the graphics on AMD’s APU integrated GPUs.
The APU constructed on an interposer package is about to be introduced for the first time by AMD, and this will allow for separately fabricated Zen cores to be directly wired to separately fabricated and more powerful GPU dies for laptop SKUs that will take up less space on a laptop’s main board while operating HBM memory at lower clocks and at higher effective bandwidth than any GDDR5/5x/6 memory. The level of innovation at AMD for new technology in its GPUs, and CPU/APU division is what is important to getting AMD back into profitability, and they are taking the steps necessary to improve their CPU cores and GPUs, while also improving their software/driver stack, and that includes their Mantle project’s contributions to the DX12/Vulkan APIs’ closer to the metal features that will allow the GPU to contribute much more towards the non graphics low latency gaming compute along with the standard graphics compute on games, and software, that can take advantage of the Vulkan ability to accelerate compute, and graphics, same for DX12.
So at least the quarterly losses are shrinking, and AMD needs to grow its revenues to maintain funds for R&D, because that R&D is what is needed to compete for the shrinking PC/Laptop markets! So once Zen’s x86 core is released, AMD needs to get its K12 custom ARM cores to market to try and get some of the middle end tablet market, along with getting some high end x86 based tablet design wins. There is a x86 Server Market that AMD needs to get its server/HPC APUs into, and that includes some low end custom ARMv8A ISA running K12 based server SKUs for the nascent ARM based server industry to replace the Seattle Non custom ARM based designs just introduced, to offer those AMD Seattle ARM based server customers future custom ARMv8A ISA K12 upgrades. So HPC/Server APUs based on x86 and ARM ISAs, and don’t forget Uncle Sam’s billions in grants for the government exascale computing initiative, AMD has already purposed/designed a 32 core Zen based SKU with Polaris graphics accelerator for that market, and that grant funding R&D will work its way down into the consumer markets very quickly.
The only weapon amd has is
The only weapon amd has is price,yet they decide to throw it away.
Fundamental Analysis of
Fundamental Analysis of Advanced Micro Devices
AMD is difficult to measure using fundamental analysis because the company has been losing both revenue and market share consistently over the last few years. The following were used to compare AMD against its peers: price/earnings to growth (PEG) ratio, price/sales ratio (PSR), return on equity (ROE), return on assets (ROA) and profit margin. Advanced Micro Devices has two primary competitors in each of its two segments: Intel Corporation and NVIDIA Corporation. These two companies make up the peer group for comparison to AMD.
PEG: It is more common to use the P/E ratio when comparing companies, but this cannot be done with AMD. AMD has a negative P/E ratio due to its negative earnings. To predict future growth, the PEG is used. Companies with a PEG of less than 1.0 are considered underpriced with room for potential earnings growth. AMD has a PEG of 0.02, while the peer group has an average of 4.22. This suggests AMD has an upside for earnings growth considering it has had none in the past. The peer average implies the semiconductor market is overpriced as a whole and may not provide a value investor any opportunity for upside.
PSR: This is a better ratio to use instead of the P/E because the semiconductor industry is cyclical, and like AMD, has no earnings. This ratio uses sales as opposed to earnings, informing investors how much they are paying for every dollar in annual sales. The PSR ratio for AMD is 0.37. The peer group averages 3.08, indicating AMD is extremely undervalued.
ROE: Like technology companies, the semiconductor industry’s main growth comes from innovative new products. This ratio measures the efficiency of a company investing in itself and the revenues it produces. AMD has an ROE of -926.63%. This extremely low performance suggests the company is haemorrhaging money and needs to find a way to become profitable. The industry averages an ROE of 17.05%.
ROA: The ROA for AMD is -5.58%, which is actually a good measure compared to its ROE. Since it has spun off its manufacturing, AMD has relinquished most of its assets and freed up liquidity in the process. The industry average ROA is 8.48%, mostly because both Intel and NVIDIA manufacture their own processors.
Profit Margin: Like the previous ratios, AMD has a poor profit margin ratio of -21.58%. It has operated at a loss for the last few years; it is not unexpected that the profit margin is negative. Unlike AMD, the peer group has a profit margin of 16.57%. Both Intel and NVIDIA seem to be in control of their operating expenses, allowing them to maximize their profits.
Fundamentally, AMD is considered a terrible investment because its revenues and net income have been negative for the past few years, which affect all of its financial ratios. Any positive outlook for the stock does not stem from its fundamental analysis and has to rely on other outside factors.
Risks to the Semiconductor Industry
The largest risk to the semiconductor industry is a drastic slowdown of PC sales. Semiconductors are dependent on this market as they are the “brains” behind the computer’s operational system. AMD is specifically dependent on x86 system PCs that run the Microsoft Windows operating system. As Apple and other competitors continue to take market share away from x86 systems, AMD will continue to see falling revenues.
Risk from Competition
The largest risk specifically to Advanced Micro Devices is its declining market share for microprocessors. Intel ships over 80% of the world’s microprocessors and is growing year after year. The sheer size of Intel puts AMD at an extreme disadvantage. Intel can outspend AMD in the research and development (R&D) of new technologies. Intel also has the capital to acquire smaller companies with new, threatening technologies and assimilate them into its product line. AMD needs to differentiate itself from Intel as it no longer can compete on any level in this market.
The other segment of AMD is designing graphic processing units (GPUs) such as its Radeon and FirePro products. Radeon is considered one of the superior products in the marketplace. However, NVIDIA has been applying pressure and acquiring market share with its GeForce Graphic cards.
With both segments being squeezed by competition, AMD has shifted focus to provide services for niche markets. AMD created an accelerated processing unit that combines both a CPU and GPU into one piece. This enhances performance while allowing the processors to run more optimally. However, both Intel and NVIDIA are in the late stages of creating their own “one-piece” versions, which threatens any growth for AMD.
To further differentiate itself from its competitors, AMD has also started designing nonPC-related processors. It has created semi-custom processors for set-top boxes, game consoles and industrial controls. The most notable applications for AMD have been the processors for both the Microsoft Xbox One and the Sony PlayStation 4. However, these sales are minimal compared to its PC-related sales and are cyclical based on consumer demands.
Debt Obligation Risk
With consistent negative revenues and cash flow, it is difficult for AMD to maintain operations. A major cause for concern is the possibility that AMD may not be able to meet its debt obligations. In 2019, a $600 million payment is due, which will be difficult to pay if AMD maintains losses. There are also several more long-term obligations after 2020 that could also pose a challenge to AMD.
Summary of Advanced Micro Devices Stock
Due to the company operating at a loss for the last few years, this fundamental analysis determines that AMD is a poor investment. The largest risk to AMD is its competition with Intel and NVIDIA. AMD is consistently relinquishing market share to both companies and has no new innovation to further challenge itself. If AMD does not resolve its financial issues quickly, then its failure to pay its 2019 debt obligation could also further damage the company. AMD should not be considered a purchase for investors in either a long- or short-term capacity, as there are simply too many risks involved.
Bye AMD, was nice knowing you!
Dude that was a nice read,
Dude that was a nice read, however you could have summed it all up in two or three paragraphs instead of preaching a sermon.
Slight addendum —
Profit
Slight addendum —
Profit margin around 30-35% is considered the break-even point for chip companies like AMD. I’m not sure how the number above is calculated, but the 30-35% directly correlates to the margins AMD, along with other companies, report. In comparison, Intel sits at 60%+. This number is naturally lower for AMD due to the low profit margin console business (estimated mid-teens). Margins that low don’t provide enough wiggle room to reinvest back into R&D. In contrast, some ARM chip makers see higher returns on copy-paste, bog standard ARM designs that cost even less due to ARM’s close work at the foundry level.
AMD’s cash reserves currently sit towards the bottom of the barrel — just over $600m. Koduri stated their optimal range is around the $1bn mark. Further, within the past year debt has gone up and not down.
A Zen release in Q4 desktop (limited volume) and a Q1 ’17 release for server isn’t a good sign when the company has short term debt obligations and hasn’t proven they can be profitable for a lengthy period of time throughout their entire history. Polaris better be a runaway success, else this company is utterly screwed
Right now, AMD is pretty much
Right now, AMD is pretty much cannibalizing itself to keep operating long enough to reach the Zen release. But going forward, it has $600 Million in debt it has to pay in 2018, plus an additional $400 Billion the following year. AMD is flat out running out of time to raise the necessary cash for those payments.
Zen could very well be AMDs last shot to turn a profit, as AMD will only have a year after it’s release to raise $600 Million to pay investors.
I expect Zen will give a temporary boost, but in the end, I expect AMD will spin the old ATI unit to raise cash to pay off their debts.
Just remember this about
Just remember this about holders of debt(Banks), they will not want to drive AMD out of business and have to write of the debt, they would rather have AMD renegotiate that debt over the longer term and keep getting the interest income, if AMD can even maintain a break even, or very little amount of profitability when that debt comes dew, the creditors will delay again if they see revenues going up. It’s the revenues that pay the interest payments on the debt, and the lenders are not concerned with AMD’s profitability as much as they are concerned with AMDs ability to make the interest/reasonable debt payments. As long as AMD’s revenues start to increase after Zen’s release then things can be renegotiated with lenders. Lenders can be very happy getting interest payments, especially if the total interest payments already accrued approaches the amount of the original debt obligation. It’s all gravy after that!
This, while true, also
This, while true, also implies AMD will have less favorable terms in the future as they were unable to abide by the original agreed upon, and more favorable, terms.
This also beholdens AMD to these same debtors over a longer period, sapping more funds from a company already strapped for cash.
Regarding Radeon Technology Group, I think anyone with more than a couple of brain cells is aware that creating an entire separate graphics division that’s headed by another party doesn’t inspire confidence for a unified company and unified vision. RTG is a joker card ready to be pulled if the situation becomes dire enough.
That’s a management decision
That’s a management decision to create RTG, and that’s how AMD has decided to structure things under Lisa Su, and the RTG is led by long-time ATI and AMD graphics Guru, Raja Koduri. So Koduri is back in the same management structure he was under with ATI. And AMD will never let go of RTG, AMD’s APUs are dependent on the graphics, and the favorable terms for AMD for the next few remaining years of this decade is to stay in business. Breaking even and increasing revenues is what will keep AMD in business, and if that includes extending its debt payments over a longer term, then it will be done while AMD increases its market-share and revenues. Small amounts of profits will be welcomed, but that takes a back seat to increasing market share and revenues to keep the innovations coming. There can be not a future AMD without revenues to reinvest into AMD, the short term investors need to be out of AMD’s way, while the long term investors should be welcomed with open arms!
The quarterly losses are shrinking and that is a good sign, but the revenues must go up even without profits, as the revenues are better spent over the reminder of the decade servicing the debt, and spending on R&D! If the short term investors would just get the hell out of the way, and the log term investors welcomed, AMD could stay as a publicly traded company, but if those short term investors become an obstruction then maybe AMD would be better off taken private, and that would keep things better focused on the future for AMD.
Refinancing debt is a standard business practice, and a lot of healthy companies do it also! It all depends on the lender, and how much that lender has already got back over time already of their initial loan! Lenders are in the business of lending, and lengthening that lending period for more interest payments is just part of the lending business! There will be nothing to stop AMD from paying the loans off earlier if they have better revenues, but extending debt payments sometimes is necessary to stay in business.
RTG is not just about gaming, it’s about compute acceleration also for server APUs and CPUs, as well as descrete/APU gaming and the PC market. The real money for RTG is in the server/workstation/HPC market in addition to the PC market.
Where did you copy-paste this
Where did you copy-paste this from?
I’ve seen your other posts, you’re nowhere near capable of writing this yourself.
Resorting to plagiarism just to bash AMD in a comments thread. God, you’re sad.
It may be plagiarism, but not
It may be plagiarism, but not sure if we can dispute the content. AMD is in serious financial trouble
If that analysis had been
If that analysis had been nothing but good news for AMD, do you think batismul would have copy-pasted it into a comment thread and cheered them on?
No.
He has an agenda. He’s just plagiarizing someone else’s analysis and trying to pretend it’s his, so that he can support that agenda.
Got this report from my
Got this report from my Linkedin homepage FYI
So you copy-pasted someone
So you copy-pasted someone else’s analysis without citing your source, thereby pretending it was your analysis.
That’s plagiarism. And anyone familiar with your writing style would recognize instantly that you didn’t write that.
So what if he does, I have
So what if he does, I have never seen such a report before it being highlighted here. Thanks for that Batismul!
You’re sad for thinking this
You’re sad for thinking this is plagiarism….this has been reported on soo many different news outlets for most of 2015.
How exactly are you defining
How exactly are you defining “plagiarism”? Because I think you have it wrong. Saying something that people have been saying for “most of 2015” isn’t plagiarism. Copy-pasting someone else’s words and trying to pass them off as your own – that IS plagiarism.
Which is exactly what this is.
The fact that you don’t think it is makes me wonder what, exactly, your understanding of “plagiarism” is.
You must be a butthurt
You must be a butthurt amdfanboy by the looks of it.
Anyway I also read few of those reports from wall street journal.
Did I put in somewhere that I
Did I put in somewhere that I wrote it? No moron.
I put it here so people and ignorant fanboys like yourself get the REAL picture of the situation.
No you didn’t, you lying
No you didn’t, you lying hypocrite. You put it here so you can bash on AMD. That’s all you do here, day in, day out, bash AMD. You go out of your way.
You didn’t bother citing your source or putting a link back to it because you wanted people to think YOU wrote it. You wanted to make it look like you’re smarter than you are.
And you call ME a fanboy. You don’t know what hardware I use. You run around shilling for Nvidia and bashing AMD in every single post you make, yet I’m the fanboy.
Sure thing, princess.
Wow pretty butthurt are you
Wow pretty butthurt are you xD Enjoy your ranting on a comments section on the internet no life nerd haha
Meanwhile in the real world where money is being made, nobody gives a shit about you fanboys.
If you cared to look a few
If you cared to look a few comments up you ignorant fanboy you would see I said I got it from my Linkedin homepage. But you were raging too much like the fanboy that you are to see that and continued to attack me, typical childish fanboy behavior. So whats new on the internet?
Anyway like real adults I will continue my work relations with connection on Linkedin and if other news pops up on financial up & down I will “Copy & Paste” here so you uninformed manchildsfanboys can see what is happening in the real world where money talks & bullshit walks!
Typical. Get called out on
Typical. Get called out on your lies, accuse the person calling you out of being a fanboy. Like I said, you spend all day every day here doing nothing but bashing AMD and hyping Nvidia like you get paid to do it. But ohh, noo, you’re not a fanboy, no way. Everyone ELSE is a fanboy. You’re just trying to tell it like it is or something.
You’re pathetic, princess. Go to WCCFtech where you belong.
I like coming here and
I like coming here and telling you assholes whats up in the real world, that’s all 🙂
Enjoy your butthurt baby.
Whatever you have to tell
Whatever you have to tell yourself to sleep at night, sweetie. You’re still a fanboy.
You too ignorant pos stay in
You too ignorant pos stay in your dreamworld with the trolls while we live in reality!
Lol that’s all you got fanboy
Lol that’s all you got fanboy admitting defeat and calling someone with facts a fanboy? Typical and butthurt fanboy.
I’m more glad now to see AMD go under and ignorant fanboys like yourself fuckng disappear…
“has no new innovation” so
“has no new innovation” so what of HBM which AMD co-developed, and what about AMD’s Mantel project and the entire GPU API changes that Mantle brought to both DX12, and Vulkan(The public version of mantle)! What about the APU on an Interposer, giving AMD a method to wire up more directly a separately fabricated Zen core/s die to a separately fabricated GPU die with thousands of traces connecting up the CPU cores die to the GPU die that will offer many times the effective bandwidth CPU to GPU as any 16x PCIe based connection, all while saving power, and that’s in addition to the HBM stacks with their own 1024 bit wide data paths. The interposer is going to become the new main-board for HBM memory and extra wide connections between CPU, GPU, in addition to hosting other dies. And AMD has applied for a patent for placing an FPGA on the HBM stack between the HBM stacks bottom control logic DIE, and the HBM DIE stacks above. If all that’s not new innovation I do not know that market writer considers to be new innovation!
It’s all innovation – until
It’s all innovation – until it can be said that AMD had a hand in it.
It’s really funny how you can
It’s really funny how you can predict the future…
AMD is screwed, the writing
AMD is screwed, the writing has been on the wall for years, barring a near miracle AMD will cease to exist as we know it sooner rather than later, all they are doing now is delaying the inevitable. Their incompetent management has been running the company into the ground for most of this decade.
Don’t dismiss Apple coming in
Don’t dismiss Apple coming in and helping out their supplier of lower cost GPU parts(AMD). Also a Zen based APU on an interposer with a better than any console Polaris based GPU die, all wired up to the the Zen cores, and HBM via thousands on interposer traces would make for some Apple Macbook SKUs that would not need very large main-boards at all, and all while saving power!
Apple could get an entire Interposer based APU package with a top discrete mobile grade GPU die, Zen cores, and HBM all on a much smaller interposer package, and never have to have a discrete laptop GPU wired off of a narrower and higher clocked narrower PCI PCB based connections to the GPU die. Apple has plenty of funds to invest into AMD, the very same way Apple invests in Imagination Technologies the maker of its PowerVR variants that Apple makes use of in its A series SOCs! AMD’s not going down, and Apple could invest out of its petty cash account and keep AMD going for many more quarters!
One of those Server/HPC based APUs on and interposer could wind up on Apple’s next Mac Pro, Apple apready uses AMD’s graphics, so just imagine a Mac Pro with the Workstation/server grade APU on an interposer, and the two PCIe x16 slots taken up by the GPU cards freed up for other uses. If a Zen server/workstation APU on an Interposer gets anywhere near Intel’s Xeon CPU core IPC, all while the APU on an interposer has such workstation grade graphics on the interposer wired up more directly than any PCI based connection could ever hope to offer for a GPU to CPU channel, then things will begin to look VERY good for AMD!
Dead company walking.
Dead company walking.
They have been saying that
They have been saying that for ages and Zombie AMD just keeps chugging along! It’s those Juicy Human engineering Brains in AMD’s CPU/APU and GPU divisions that keeps AMD going!
Not for long
Not for long
In contrast to the rest of
In contrast to the rest of you, I believe AMD now has great leadership, a clear and effective vision, and the engineering prowess to succeed. They will rise from the ashes to once again be a great company, as they were before Hector Ruiz took over and drove them into the ground. I continue to buy the stock and if you feel the need, you can laugh and be derisive. I am putting my money where my mouth is, so even if I am wrong, I know I wasn’t a coward. If I happen to be correct, we will all win.
OH BOY, I just can’t wait
OH BOY, I just can’t wait till we only have intel for CPUs and nvidia for graphics !!!
it will be a wonderful time!!!!!!!!!
Die AMD dieeee so I can dance on your grave, laugh in the comment section and only have intel left to buy a CPU from.
Intel will surely drop their prices!!!!!!!!!!!!! i can see it now, i7’s for 150.00!!!!!!!!!
yesssssssssssss glorious times await!
I rather see Samsung or
I rather see Samsung or Qualcomm be a competitor to Intel & Nvidia.
no x86 license. You think its
no x86 license. You think its by accident nobody else steps up to the plate? no its intels playbook.
keep buying intel chips…….its like eatting rat poison.
The industry needs AMD to
The industry needs AMD to live.
If we end up in a position where we have only Intel and Nvidia as the only high end, and only major CPU and GPU makers then the industry is in a very bad place.
Competition is not only needed but essential for a healthy industry – unfortunately, if AMD does not turn things around, where we seem to be heading is a Intel/Nvidia monopoly.
And the brick heads the only
And the brick heads the only buy intel and talk smack about AMD are the ones turning it into this.
Just wait till they can’t afford their next machine.
I don’t buy intel, I don’t sell intel, I do my part.
https://www.youtube.com/watch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dnn0rgDaSro
INTEL…NVIDIA…INTELL…NVIDIA…YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
what could go wrong?
Well on the brightside; if
Well on the brightside; if AMD goes up in smoke – Intel and NVidia can scramble for the divisons they’ve been yearning for, for so long. nVidia almost had Haswell performance under x86 emulation with their Denver ARM cores – they’d assuredly go after AMD’s CPU division and RTG would be snatched up by Intel, who’ve been vying for the DGPU market since Larrabee, but that failed. Actually AMD’s death is probably the best thing for the market. Intel takes the RTG, and nVidia the CPU division and AMD_64, they negotiate for x86, and Intel gets AMD_64 so we don’t have to head down the Itanium highway, and then they viciously go for the kill against one another in mass competition.
Everyone wins.
Somehow I don’t think that it
Somehow I don't think that it will shake out that way. Eventually we might see some competition from other sectors, but for years we would endure a stranglehold that would lead to stagnation in these marketplaces.
nvidia just can’t buy some
nvidia just can’t buy some part of AMD and start cranking out quality chips at the drop of a hat.
They do not have any exp in desktop chips…..intel would eat them up before they could ramp up desktop chip production