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Hardware AMD's CEO Steps Down
Brandon Hill (Blog) - July 17, 2008 5:59 PM
Print E-mail del.icio.us 74 comment(s) - last by Parker75.. on Jul 22 at 6:13 PM

Former AMD CEO, Hector Ruiz  (Source: Impress Watch)
AMD CEO Hector Ruiz will be replaced by Dirk Meyer

AMD has seen its share of ups and downs over the years, but the company has had it especially hard ever since its acquisition of ATI Technologies in 2006. Since then, the company has experienced numerous quarters of losses, announced job cuts, and has watched as top executives abandoned the chip giant.

Most recently, AMD announced that it would take another $880 million USD charge due to the poor performance of ATI's Consumer electronics division.

Today, AMD CEO Hector Ruiz stepped down from his position with the company. Ruiz joined the company in January 2000 and became CEO in April 2002. Ruiz will be replaced by the current Number 2 in charge, Dirk Meyer. Ruiz will stay on as the executive chairman of AMD's Board of Directors.

The future looks uncertain as the man who has become the face of AMD moves on to greener pastures. Meyer will have to find a way to get AMD back on a track to profitability and get its first 45nm processors out the door to combat Intel.

Ruiz's departure comes at a time when AMD is trying to fight off a surging Intel. Intel just recently announced a 25 percent increase in quarterly profits at the same time AMD was reporting losses. Intel also this week launched its Centrino 2 platform which aims to take much of the air out of AMD's Puma platform.

AMD, however, has obtained better success on the graphics front with its new Radeon HD 4850 and 4870 graphics cards which are the current "bang for the buck" kings. AMD garnered so much praise from reviewers and consumers alike that NVIDIA responded with price cuts to its recently introduced GeForce GTX 260 and GTX 280 graphics cards.

AMD may also have a little bit of help on its side in the form of an official FTC investigation into Intel's business behavior. But the fact remains, whatever the outcome of the FTC investigation, AMD still has to deliver a competitive product to stay alive in this cutthroat industry.

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And people say politics is shallow?
By Justin Case on 7/17/2008 11:53:42 PM , Rating: 5
AMD ran into some problems (mainly by tring to grow too quickly - something that almost destroyed Apple a few years ago), but overall Ruiz's strategy was correct. It was just a bit too ambitious, and relied on everyhing running perfectly (which it never does).

I think his departure is more of a political or marketing move than anything else, but the economy is as shallow as politics, these days, and people tend to focus on the bottom line and ignore long-term strategy.

Acquiring ATI was a big short-term risk, but not aquiring ATI would have been long-term suicide. I was never a big fan of Ruiz, but that move showed some balls and some vision, and I respected him a lot more after it.

Dirk Meyer is (was) a great engineer, but designing chips and running companies are two very different things. I'm sure that under his watch AMD will deliver a lot of interesting and innovative technology (as it has these past few years, much more so than Intel), but I doubt this will make a big difference in terms of its profitability.

Then again, simply not paying Ruiz's salary and bonuses will probably halve AMD's expenses... ^_^




RE: And people say politics is shallow?
By dklayn on 7/18/2008 12:29:01 AM , Rating: 5
Don't be too quick to claim Meyer's engineering roots will hamper his ability to run AMD. Every one of Intel's CEOs up until Paul Otellini was an engineer, and they all did well running the company and building Intel into a household brand. Paul's big wins were reorganizing the company as a platform company, demanding an efficiency review and laying off a number of people / moving people around / selling off or spinning off into subsidiaries non-core business units, and winning Apple as a customer. These are all great wins, and more business than engineering, but they would be impossible if Intel wasn't a large, well-known brand with well performing products.

There is no chance AMD could build the brand Intel has at the consumer level on marketing and business sense alone. The computer market is too mature for that these days. AMD needs now, more than ever, to rely on heavy innovation and distinguish themselves from Intel technologically -- in some category, not necessarily high-performance. Only once AMD has claimed a significant reputation of being best-in-class in some area can you then expect to gain much out of business sense and marketing power.

Honestly, it's a great time for an engineering minded person to be running AMD. That's what they need right now. No frills, no BS, but a quality product that makes them relevant.


RE: And people say politics is shallow?
By rudolphna on 7/18/08, Rating: 0
RE: And people say politics is shallow?
By ICE1966 on 7/18/08, Rating: 0
By Justin Case on 7/18/2008 3:17:06 AM , Rating: 5
quote:
I think hector leaving will have a positive impact on AMD.


My point exactly. People don't care what Meyer will change (my guess is he won't change much, because Ruiz's strategy was basically correct, despite a few mistakes here and there, namely not releasing a 2+2 chip and abandoning S940 / S939 too soon). This is about blaming the losses on someone.

It's like when people care more about punishing the criminal than helping the victim.


RE: And people say politics is shallow?
By Justin Case on 7/18/2008 3:36:54 AM , Rating: 2
I'm not saying being an engineer will make him a bad manager. I'm just saying it won't necessarily make him a good one, or a better one than Ruiz (who wasn't as bad as some people think).

quote:
AMD needs now, more than ever, to rely on heavy innovation and distinguish themselves from Intel technologically -- in some category, not necessarily high-performance. Only once AMD has claimed a significant reputation of being best-in-class in some area can you then expect to gain much out of business sense and marketing power.


Are you describing the situation now or before the release of the K8?

Like I said above, I think AMD has already been outdoing Intel in terms of technological innovation for a long time (since the Athlon MP). The only major design leap coming from Intel in the last few years was the Pentium-M, and how it redefined power management. The rest was just refinement or adding more cache or copying AMD's ideas.

AMD could be doing a little better today (in terms of market share and profitability) if it hadn't bought ATI. But it would be dead (or bought by IBM / Samsung / whoever) in two years.

quote:
Honestly, it's a great time for an engineering minded person to be running AMD.


For consumers, especially consumers that aren't too easily deceived by marketing, it's always a good time to have technology-driven people ahead of companies. But it's not necessarily good for that company's bottom line.

During the P4 days, Intel was basically run by its marketing department, it was putting out some of the ugliest CPUs in history, and it still made huge profits.

Why? Because consumers are stupid, because AMD lacked critical mass (despite a vastly superior product), and because OEMs and their shareholders care more about short-term profits than long-term growth and sustainability (let alone innovation).

But now AMD has the best GPUs out there (and the margins on those are better than on CPUs), they have some margin to deal with nVidia's counter-attack, if and when it comes (with a little bit of work they could probably manufacture GPUs in-house at 45nm, increasing performance and profit margins), and they have a couple of interesting things up their sleeves (Fusion, Torrenza, Bulldozer).

They also have a huge debt, but at least now they are approaching the critical mass necessary to make marketing pay off. Of course, that requires a marketing department with a clue, which still isn't clear they have (ATI's wasn't all the great, either)...


RE: And people say politics is shallow?
By KinEnriquez on 7/18/2008 4:06:25 AM , Rating: 5
quote:
Why? Because consumers are stupid, because AMD lacked critical mass (despite a vastly superior product), and because OEMs and their shareholders care more about short-term profits than long-term growth and sustainability (let alone innovation).


You forgot Intel behaved like a monopolist, bribing OEMs not to carry AMD's procs


By Justin Case on 7/18/2008 1:27:40 PM , Rating: 2
That's a bit like what Pratchett wrote about kings being assassinated: it's so common it counts as "natural causes". All big companies abuse their position, and that was sort of what I meant by AMD not having "critical mass" -- OEMs couldn't survive without Intel, so they are forced to play along.

Then all Intel has to do is finance the campaigns of a few senators, and any lawsuit against them (in the US, at least) magically gets converted into a deal to supply CPUs to schools -- usually to schools that were about to buy AMD CPUs. Microsoft does the same thing.

Especially with the cheap dollar, I think AMD should focus on gaining market share in Europe and Japan, where Intel's influence isn't as strong and where trade laws still do (occasionally) get applied.


RE: And people say politics is shallow?
By William Gaatjes on 7/18/2008 5:35:28 AM , Rating: 5
Marketing is everything. With the proper marketing you can sell a can of beans for 50 dollars.

Look at history : Back in the days there was the amiga. Vastly superiour to anything in it's price range at that time. But the lack of marketing the amiga to the public is what brought the amiga down. And that is just plain sad.

But i have to disagree that Intel has no technological innovations. They just concentrate more on making technologies that are manufacturable in large quantities for the masses. Although the P4 was not as good as it looked it had some great innovations inside it. Some of these innovations found their way into the current core and penryn cpu's, giving these cpu's the edge they need.

I would not be suprised if in the near future Intel would become the first cpu manufacturer with comsumer cpu's and comsumer chipset's and comsumer gpu's with on die optical interconnects.

But if i could just hope i wish intel embraced hypertransport as an interconnect and not PCI express.
Hypertransport has much lower latencies. And it would make more of a standard interconnect too. Truly benificial for us customers.

If AMD starts to learn how important marketing is, things will start to chance. They have great products as does Intel.


By William Gaatjes on 7/18/2008 6:04:08 AM , Rating: 1
And i might add i am not a fanboy, but Intel has the best recipe for making fast transistors with high drain source currents and low gate source voltages in bulk silicon.
And since the introduction of their high k hafnium gates they have very low leakage currents as well.
The enigneering labs of Intel are something else. They know that bulk silicon very well. That is a big part of the engineering strength of Intel, their physics knowledge.


RE: And people say politics is shallow?
By Spivonious on 7/18/2008 9:10:23 AM , Rating: 3
For a case of failed marketing, just look at Vista. It's a great OS but Microsoft doesn't market it. Hopefully they can change some opinions when their new ad campaign gets started.

For a case of successful marketing, look at Apple. They have succeeded in causing the average person to believe that Vista sucks and that cool people have Macs.


RE: And people say politics is shallow?
By William Gaatjes on 7/18/2008 9:23:26 AM , Rating: 2
I agree.

I believe that the kernel of vista is a huge step forward towards the "ancient" kernel in xp. Finally a nt kernel that actually uses the hardware the modern cpu has to offer.

But the way microsoft bloated vista with useless features gave it all away. To the common people with little computer knowledge it is no use to explain that the kernel is really improved. There are killer apps for drawing their attention.

Vista has no killer apps, only promises.
And vista has so much drm in it's new driver model that it is actually slower while it should really be faster.

I think the basic features a kernel from an OS must have are really improved and would make vista faster then xp. But they through it all away.

And microsoft did market it. microsoft even forced it upon people who rather buy xp. Did you forget the : WOOOO !

I guess the beans in that can where already rotten. :)


RE: And people say politics is shallow?
By William Gaatjes on 7/18/2008 9:28:58 AM , Rating: 2
I happen to own an ipod classic and i am very happy with it.

With Apple you get that the software/hardware that you buy actually does to the full extent of it capabilities what Apple promises it would do. You don't get that aftertaste
as when using Microsoft. Apple looks at the details and that is what makes them different and succesfull.


RE: And people say politics is shallow?
By William Gaatjes on 7/18/2008 9:35:54 AM , Rating: 2
Look at the mighty mouse. It has no buttons, only touch sensitive spots on its case where buttons would be with an ordinary mouse. Now you would think that it is nothing special. Give it to a woman and the first thing she says is :heey that is a lot easier to clean. :)
It may be a stupid example but it is 1 real life example why people would buy a mighty mouse. :)

And i have to agree it is easier to clean. I only wish i could buy a mighty mouse in black/siler or black /mettalic blue. :)


RE: And people say politics is shallow?
By maven81 on 7/18/2008 12:31:18 PM , Rating: 2
If the best thing you can say about a mouse is that it's easier to clean...
Never mind that it's ergonomics are horrible, and there are far more comfortable mice out there, or that the built in trackball is a joke, or that the lack of physical buttons makes it harder to use, not easier...
There's a reason PC manufacturers don't make mice like these, it's an example of style over substance.
Just like my macbook pro... it may be thin... but it gets hot as hell. Do you think someone like HP couldn't make a laptop that thin? Of course they can... but I think their engineers understand the trade offs of such a design.


By William Gaatjes on 7/18/2008 2:57:10 PM , Rating: 2
I don't actually own one. I just toyed with it and feels ok.
I don't have any problem not feeling a "click ". As long as it's fast i am ok with it.

I stick with my logitech G1 optical mouse since i am a lefty and it is a comfortable mouse. But if i buy ever a new mouse i might actually consider that mighty mouse. That X,Y, scrollbal looks interesting and it has a middle mouse button function. And a squeeze button on the sides.

Since it is suited for us lefty's too, i am interested but only if they sort out that chording issue. Since pressing LMB and RMB at the same time is pretty common under windows.


By 16nm on 7/18/2008 10:25:31 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
These are all great wins, and more business than engineering, but they would be impossible if Intel wasn't a large, well-known brand with well performing products.


I have no idea how Meyer will perform, but that's a fallacy. Do not forget that the Netburst architecture came out during this time when Intel was run by engineers.


RE: And people say politics is shallow?
By PAPutzback on 7/18/2008 9:05:54 AM , Rating: 2
Bill Gates was just a programmer. I think he did alright running a company though.


RE: And people say politics is shallow?
By TxJeepers on 7/18/2008 3:08:44 PM , Rating: 2
Bill Gates was a marketing genius.


By Master Kenobi (blog) on 7/21/2008 12:59:26 PM , Rating: 2
He was also one of the best salesmen ever. He sold people on things he didn't even have.


By Jack Ripoff on 7/18/2008 3:37:43 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Dirk Meyer is (was) a great engineer, but designing chips and running companies are two very different things.

So is (was) Hector Ruiz. He worked at TI and Motorola as an electrical engineer.

And don't forget Dirk Meyer has an MBA as well.


By Parker75 on 7/22/2008 6:13:41 PM , Rating: 2
ATI acquisition in my opinion was a distraction the company did not need. AMD should have focused on its core segment before branching out into the graphics market. Even so a merger or a closer partnership with Nvidia would have made more sense than the acquisition of ATI. Afterall AMD's early success was very closely tied to the success of Nvidia's chipsets. Alienating Nvidia and forcing Nvidia to pursue "closer" ties with Intel really hurt AMD.

The ATI acquisition resulted in a massive restructuring of the company and unnecessary delays in shipment of many products due to this distraction. AMD was choking on the limited amount of cash on hand and AMD ended up taking on more debt than needed through the acquisition. The worst change brought on by the acquisition was the loss of focus on its bread and butter which was the processor market.

I understand why AMD acquired ATI. They wanted to follow in Intel's footsteps and become a platform vendor not just a microprocessor manufacturer, i.e. control their own destiny, but it was too ambitious of a goal and I think Hector Ruiz under-estimated Intel's resilience.

So fast forward to the present and now you have AMD where it used to be... trailing behind Intel once again and hemmoraging cash left and right.

I have a feeling that AMD will try to spin off ATI in the near future. If they really re-evaluate their financial situation, they will see that this may help both companies in the long run.

I'm glad that Hector Ruiz left. Jerry Sanders handed him the company at the peak of its success and Hector Ruiz brought the company back down to where AMD used to be.


Its about time!!!!!
By estarkey7 on 7/17/2008 6:10:03 PM , Rating: 5
What took the board so long to get rid of him in the first place? Maybe we can reap some benefits from Dirk by Q2'09.




RE: Its about time!!!!!
By Joz on 7/17/2008 6:27:30 PM , Rating: 5
Don't you mean Q4, 2012?


RE: Its about time!!!!!
By Ringold on 7/17/2008 9:18:43 PM , Rating: 3
I assume you're referring to the engineering side. There's far more to running AMD than technical details alone.. as Ruiz's failure partly demonstrates.


RE: Its about time!!!!!
By Lonyo on 7/17/2008 6:37:23 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Ruiz, 62, joined AMD as president and chief operating officer in January 2000 and became AMD's chief executive officer in April 2002. He has served on AMD's board of directors since 2000 and was appointed chairman of the board of directors in 2004 .


What took him so long to get rid of himself? I think he might have been the main cause. :P


RE: Its about time!!!!!
By Lonyo on 7/17/2008 6:37:41 PM , Rating: 2
RE: Its about time!!!!!
By porkpie on 7/17/2008 8:54:30 PM , Rating: 4
AMD is a long history of technical excellence, poor management, and abysmal marketing. Thank god Ruiz is gone, maybe things will start looking up again.


RE: Its about time!!!!!
By RjBass on 7/17/2008 9:41:34 PM , Rating: 5
quote:
AMD is a long history of technical excellence, poor management, and abysmal marketing . Thank god Ruiz is gone, maybe things will start looking up again.


No doubt.

When it comes to the marketing, AMD is just horrible. The latest posters my AMD rep game me say "Shut out the competition. Bring your A-game" with a picture of a football score board. He also gave me a mini football helmet with the AMD logo on it. WTF are they trying to sell here? And who the hell is their advertising company, because they need to be fired.


RE: Its about time!!!!!
By rudolphna on 7/17/2008 10:04:29 PM , Rating: 3
Hear hear! I really hope Meyer will be able to get AMD back on track. The 48xx series is outstanding, hopefully he will be able to pull a trick or two out of his sleeve after working on K7. Im ready to call AMD and get one of their things where they will pay for my gas if i plaster my car with their Stickers. AMD Expedition FTW =D


RE: Its about time!!!!!
By BruceLeet on 7/18/2008 11:28:10 PM , Rating: 2
"We cant fine tune your car for maximum performance/horsepower...what gives?"

To which you reply "...damn K10"


RE: Its about time!!!!!
By MadDogMorgan on 7/17/2008 9:36:00 PM , Rating: 5
Ruiz will stay on as the executive chairman of AMD's Board of Directors.

... He's not gone. He's just moved himself out of the bulls-eye.


RE: Its about time!!!!!
By V3ctorPT on 7/18/2008 3:22:03 AM , Rating: 2
Yep... he's still milking the cow... but now he is not the bull... this is good news for AMD, time for change was long overdue...


RE: Its about time!!!!!
By spluurfg on 7/18/2008 4:10:51 AM , Rating: 2
If it's a case of crappy management, the best thing might be a take-private of AMD. Their market cap is a pathetic $3bn, so it wouldn't be any stretch whatsoever. And if private equity turns successes out of Freescale and NXP, it could very well happen.


By Rodney McNaggerton on 7/18/2008 11:45:10 PM , Rating: 2
shuffling of the deck chairs


Dirk Meyer?
By thartist on 7/17/2008 6:35:21 PM , Rating: 2
Anyone knows anything from his goods and bads in the company? I mean, is there a real chance that he will conduct AMD better than Ruiz?




RE: Dirk Meyer?
By RaistlinZ on 7/17/2008 6:40:09 PM , Rating: 3
Well, he certainly can't do much worse. And the fact of the matter is the company was going down fast with Ruiz at the helm.

I bet Ruiz will still get a monster multi-million dollar CEO-type severance though. :(


RE: Dirk Meyer?
By djkrypplephite on 7/18/2008 10:49:49 AM , Rating: 2
. . . with all the millions AMD has to spare.


RE: Dirk Meyer?
By soloman02 on 7/17/2008 6:48:18 PM , Rating: 2
I don't know. But what could possibly be worse than "market share at all costs?"


RE: Dirk Meyer?
By Necare on 7/17/2008 7:10:23 PM , Rating: 5
Well he was the one person most responsible for Athlon and Opteron, so lets hope that he is as good at the business side as he was at engineering.


RE: Dirk Meyer?
By Justin Case on 7/18/2008 3:48:58 AM , Rating: 4
Actually he wasn't involved directly in the K8's design, that was Fred Weber, who is now AMD's CTO, I believe.

But Meyer was the main designer of the K7 (parts of which were used as the starting point for the K8) and he was part of the team that designed the DEC Alpha (which pioneered just about every major CPU innovation in the last 20 years, including out-of-order execution, 64-bit registers, multithreading and an integrated memory controller).

None of that guarantees he'll be a good manager, of course, but it does mean that he should recognize a good CPU design when he sees it.


RE: Dirk Meyer?
By William Gaatjes on 7/18/2008 5:47:21 AM , Rating: 2
i may be wrong but i remember that most cpu innovations where made long before that by Seymour Cray. Afcourse the devil is in the details and i think a lot of these details where found during the time of the APLHA.


RE: Dirk Meyer?
By Justin Case on 7/18/2008 1:48:53 PM , Rating: 2
Cray was more of a system designer (specifically, a supercomputer designer) than a CPU architect. He was one of the pioneers of SIMD or "vector processing", but SIMD is only now becoming relevant outside the scientific / HPC / supercomputer world (mainly due to stuff like video compression and decompression).


RE: Dirk Meyer?
By William Gaatjes on 7/18/2008 5:17:11 PM , Rating: 2
You are right.

I found this ppt googling and it has some very nice pictures and some drawings cray made when designing the systems (and cpu's). But afcourse it cannot be compared to cpu's today.

http://research.microsoft.com/~GBell/CrayTalk.ppt

Physics for games is another example for vector processing. And the GPU afcourse.


RE: Dirk Meyer?
By William Gaatjes on 7/18/2008 5:29:54 PM , Rating: 2
I have to add :
Cray did come up with super scalar processing, pipelining and RISC.


RE: Dirk Meyer?
By neon on 7/17/2008 7:54:16 PM , Rating: 5
Meyer is an engineer, and lead the K7 design team way back when. AMD has clearly been grooming him to take over. This is an expected move.

I heard him speak at the Athlon 64 launch in 2003. He comes off as a hard-nosed, no nonsense guy - just what AMD needs right now.


A hit? Me thinks not.
By SandmanWN on 7/17/2008 6:19:15 PM , Rating: 5
quote:
The hits just keep coming in for AMD, and the latest is a big one.

This isn't a hit, it's a cause for celebration. :)




RE: A hit? Me thinks not.
By Brandon Hill (blog) on 7/17/2008 6:23:40 PM , Rating: 5
Now that you mention it... ;)


RE: A hit? Me thinks not.
By Runiteshark on 7/17/2008 7:16:41 PM , Rating: 3
About damn time too


By crystal clear on 7/18/2008 6:12:19 AM , Rating: 1
I gave a broad hint earlier & now you see it in action.


Why not take an additional charge to layoff Hector Ruiz ?

By crystal clear on 7/15/2008 4:39:27 AM , Rating: 2

Yes now AMD can take a charge in Q3 !to layoff Hector Ruiz ".

This was expected as shareholder patience had long reached a dead end.

He was failure at Motorola a now at AMD.

Yes blame Intel for everything, but he fails to realize that-

There is no reward for finding fault."




By crystal clear on 7/19/2008 5:55:38 AM , Rating: 2
Yes after studying AMD's financial statements -

It appears they do not have the money to "take a charge to layoff "RUIZ" in their 3Q or the 4th 2008".

So he stays on with a ceremonial title with responsibilities best described "vague".

It's really hard to get credit right now so better use the cash to invest in R&D.

Due to their financial crisis they're limited in their ability to invest in newer technologies,

As an example-

Intel will spend more than $11 billion on research, design and new equipment this year,compared to the estimated $6.34 billion in total AMD sales.

Options-

AMD will need another doze of cash infusion fron Dubai...those Sovereign funds sitting idle ...

or

Look out for a buyer to bring in a massive cash infusion..

or

Chapter 3.


By emboss on 7/19/2008 4:22:26 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Chapter 3.


Don't you mean chapter 11? AMD would actually do quite well out of a chapter 11 reorganization (their shareholders ... not so well). They just need to run out of money first :)


By crystal clear on 7/20/2008 4:27:13 AM , Rating: 2
Yes...like a broad hint...see it coming.

The way Intel is pumping out a product line up this year,it will be extremely hard for AMD to compete in performance & price.

Picking off from 2007 to continue into 2008 with 45nms to Atom to Centrino 2 with more to come(in between) to round off with Nehalems on 45nms,on to 2009 with 32nms.

This rapid pace is just too much for AMD to handle,given AMD's low R&D budgets plus their inability to execute their roadmaps in time.
Add to this AMD's slugggish marketing & manufacturing makes it even worse.

Example-They blew it with "PUMA" like they blew it with "Barcelona".
A great opportunity to recover financially & bring in those much needed revenues.

Intel has higher profit margins(45nms) on their product line up compared to AMD's(65nms) low margins.

Marketshare only will not do to any good to AMD's finances.

Add to this Intel's price cuts to come in the 3Q & 4Q 2008.

Intel now covers & leads in every market from desktops to laptops to servers to hand helds to Net tops to Net books.....& the list goes on.

Their "Intel inside" now is soon becoming "Intel inside everything".

Intel's sheer product line up & delivery speed is enough to throw AMD out of competition-Intel need not resort to measures/practices/tactics that the E.U accuses them for.

There is a limit how much AMD can do cost cuts & restructoring-at a certain stage these measures have negative/disasterous effect on the company.

This leaves AMD the only option to seek massive funding for its R&D,design & capital expenditures,to enable it compete with Intel.

This is not fanboyism, rather a hardcore outlook for 2008.

Yes what you say is absolutely right, they certainly seem be going in that direction.

All their talk(AMD) about breaking even is just to maintain investor/shareholder confidence.

You cannot go against the realities of the market & conditions prevailing.

AMD shares are below "5" & nothing seems to change.


By crystal clear on 7/22/2008 1:45:20 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
Add to this Intel's price cuts to come in the 3Q & 4Q 2008


You already got one for a starter-

Most notably, the price of the top-of-line Core 2 Duo - the 3.1GHZ E8500 - dropped from $266 to $183, a 31 per cent plunge. The slightly slower E8400 also received a cut, an 11 per cent drop from $183 to $163. And at the lower end of the Core 2 Duo line, Intel lopped 15 per cent from the price of the E7200, a 2.53GHz chip with a 3M L2 cache and a 1066MHz front side bus.

Over on the server side, the company slashed away on three low-end Xeon chips: the 2.40GHz X3220 (12 per cent), 2.13GHz X3210 (also 12 per cent), and the 3GHZ E3110 (11 per cent).

Meanwhile, the Core 2 Quad Q6600 - a 65nm desktop chip - is now 14 per cent cheaper. The prices of all other chips are unchanged.

http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/INTC/364725...


It is always a sad day when ...
By SunAngel on 7/17/08, Rating: 0
RE: It is always a sad day when ...
By toonces on 7/17/2008 7:40:25 PM , Rating: 3
Hear that? That's the sound of the world's tiniest violin playing just for Hector.

With his total compensation for 2007 being $12,848,435 plus his inevitable multi-million dollar severance package I don't think we'll see Hector begging on the street just yet.

Now, the 10% of AMD's workforce it will be laying off in 2008 on the other hand...


By rollakid on 7/17/2008 7:42:37 PM , Rating: 2
Then this must be an exception. :) Time to throw a party, because I doubt Meyer could do any worse. Ruiz didn't lose his job, he just lose his title.

Enough said.


By Bruneauinfo on 7/17/2008 8:07:29 PM , Rating: 2
the tech industry as a whole PCs in particular are doing fabulously well in sales. so, no, the economy probably has little or nothing to do with the judgment of his ethos.


Good Riddance!
By iFX on 7/17/2008 7:27:03 PM , Rating: 2
This is a long time coming! It should have happened in May 2007!




RE: Good Riddance!
By Regs on 7/17/2008 8:14:11 PM , Rating: 4
Makes me think was Hector was thinking in the first place.

Mistake # 1 "Look at our great competitive product! Lets price it 5,000 dollars!"

Mistake # 2 "Intel will likely continue making Prescotts"

Mistake # 3 "Did we have anything planned for 2007? Oh, yes we did!" *pulls down pants and farts in all our faces*


By tejas84 on 7/17/2008 6:49:53 PM , Rating: 2
As a loyal ATI customer I am very happy to see the back of Ruiz. I really hope that Dirk Meyer can turn around AMD CPU division as I desperately want to trade my quick Intel Quad for a Phenom which can actually match it.




By tejas84 on 7/17/2008 6:51:24 PM , Rating: 1
Also did I say...Hooray! :)


By someguy743 on 7/19/2008 5:52:10 PM , Rating: 2
I've been rooting for AMD against Intel for years. It's been a true David vs. Goliath kind of battle. Just as soon as AMD gets some good products out on the market ... boom, Godzilla Intel comes out with something even better and starts winning all the benchmark reviews. Ya gotta feel bad for AMD. I'm sure they have some great scientists and engineers working there. They seem to shoot themselves in the foot every few years or something. The main reason is probably just that Intel has a giant war chest to use for research and development and AMD is usually running on a shoestring. Maybe IBM Micro and AMD will do a merger someday. That would freak out Chipzilla ... er, Intel.

Gotta admire AMD for keeping up the good fight. I've had 2 PCs with AMD chips. They've been good processors as far as I can tell. Let's hope that Dirk Meyer can radically turn things around for AMD. He's the captain of the ship now. Maybe soon, they'll finally come out with the big family of products that'll get them up to 50% market share. Then things would REALLY get interesting in the Intel vs. AMD wars. :)


By SiliconAddict on 7/17/2008 10:52:49 PM , Rating: 3
While I'm an Intel fan...Its about fracking time. Someone needs to straighten out that damn company and get them competing again.




By Alias1431 on 7/18/2008 3:58:11 AM , Rating: 2
Srsly, tho. Who is the last Cylon?


Time...
By V3ctorPT on 7/18/2008 3:31:59 AM , Rating: 3
Time to buy AMD stock... :D With that guy out of there, the stock price is going thru the roof... xD




RE: Time...
By Justin Case on 7/18/2008 3:53:41 AM , Rating: 2
You're probably right. And it has good reason to, mainly thanks to AMD's position in the GPU market... which it wouldn't have if Ruiz hadn't made the (risky but, IMO, absolutely necessary) decision to buy ATI. Ain't life funny?


Good Riddance I say
By phazers on 7/17/2008 6:09:26 PM , Rating: 3
His 'marketshare at all costs' would have cost AMD its existence eventually...




By larson0699 on 7/17/2008 6:10:36 PM , Rating: 3
For once, a simple, concise headline.

That it's such great news is the icing on the cake.




wall of shame
By adam92682 on 7/18/2008 12:28:43 AM , Rating: 3
This was the only way for him to get off the Mad Money wall of shame.




At Last
By batman4u on 7/17/2008 8:51:56 PM , Rating: 2
I dont know why he hasnt been fired before?? It was because of him Nvidia relations crumbled, because of him many ATI emplotyees got fired and they where necesary, and almost every wrong step is because of him, i dont know why some months ago they where worshiping him here at daily tech




Wow
By Ben on 7/18/2008 12:23:38 AM , Rating: 1
Well, it's about &@$#ing time!

How this guy kept his job was becoming one of the great wonders of the world.

Now, instead of moving him down the table, show him the &@$#ing door!




Chip Giant!!!
By vignyan on 7/18/2008 6:56:27 AM , Rating: 1
Even if you can use that word for top 6 Chip manufacturers in the world, you can't use it for AMD(7th in line). ;)




"Nowadays, security guys break the Mac every single day. Every single day, they come out with a total exploit, your machine can be taken over totally. I dare anybody to do that once a month on the Windows machine." -- Bill Gates











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