My latest article for CPU Magazine is on the rumors that have been flying around about ATi merging or being acquired by another company. I can't really say whether it's true or not because no one really knows, but due to popular request I decided to post an opinion on the potential of such a merger.  I may go into a more detailed analysis in subsiquent articles depending on the feedback. 

If you aren’t living under a rock, you have probably heard the rumors about ATI being acquired by either Intel or AMD. The latest rumors are heavily focused around AMD merging with ATI, and they don’t seem to be letting up. I won’t speculate this month on the accuracy of these rumors, I’m simply going to throw down my opinion on why I believe it would make sense for AMD to merge with ATI. I have studied this potential merger closely, and surprisingly enough I think it would be an amazing move for everyone involved, including Nvidia.

I believe that ATI is ripe for takeover; with a little bit of guidance and some key resources (such as support from AMD’s fabs) it could become a much more efficient entity. For the first time ever, the company has released a motherboard chipset worthy of being installed in a serious enthusiast’s machine. ATI has hidden strengths and incredible engineering that need to be leveraged, and such a merger would go a long way toward making that happen.

Put another way, ATI is a jewel that is in need of some serious polishing, and if anyone knows how to polish a jewel it’s the current management team at AMD. In the last five years, these folks have done the impossible in performing the most unprecedented corporate turnaround that our industry has ever seen.

One has to realize that ATI is a decentralized company with incredible technologies in various business units. ATI is larger than Nvidia in many markets, yet few people would know this because of Nvidia’s incredible marketing prowess. No one can deny that Nvidia’s centralized rule and its tight relationship with - link to the rest...