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AMD to shed ATI brand?

We're taking this one with a grain of salt -- we haven't seen it hit the wires just yet -- but the word on the street is that AMD has decided to drop the ATI brand name from future products. Seems like it'll be all AMD all the time for the newly joined chip makers, and according to the report, AMD's Richard Baker wanted to be clear that the acquisition is a takeover, not a merger. Apparently Chris Hook from ATI followed that up in a throughly docile manner, saying that "I don't have a personal emotional attachment to it [the brand], one way or another. I think the important thing is that we're going to make good products. ATI may be gone, but certainly lots of discussion is going to come over the next few days about the rest of our brands and their strengths." We were kind of hoping for some sort of nationally televised logo-deathmatch, or at least a lame attempt at merging the two brands, but we suppose we'll keep on keeping on. Somehow.

UPDATE: Ars Technica is calling this report false, and claims that according to their secret conversations with AMD, ATI will stick around as a brand name for consumer products such as the Radeon graphics line. We'll content ourselves to watching these two rumors duke it out across the blogosphere, and announce a winner once AMD or ATI actually weighs in on the issue.

[Thanks, Alex W.]