AMD's "Atom killer" roadmap confuses even itself

Freshfaced AMD CEO Dirk Meyer hyped the firm's upcoming Atom-challenging processor the other day, calling it "Bobcat," and promising a November reveal. We'd think he'd be the guy to know, but now we're hearing seemingly conflicting words from AMD's Chief Marketing Officer, Nigel Dessau. Dessau says AMD is "watching... rather than playing" to see what becomes of the netbook segment. As Ars Technica points out, Dirk Meyer was only promising to announce a chip in November, not release one, so perhaps both of these statements are in step with each other, or maybe they're just thinking of different processor applications altogether, but for a company that's lacked a clear focus and a true Intel killer for the past couple of years, this sort of potential doublethink isn't helping anything.

[phanbouy @ Jul 23rd 2008 11:14AM]

AMD's always been at war with Oceania.

[Matthew Hilario @ Jul 23rd 2008 12:20PM]

the semantics between them are incredible.
it's like trying to see bush agree with mc cain or something of that nature.
watching, playing,
aiding, invading.
wtb moar wordplay pst.

[kccboy2004 @ Jul 23rd 2008 12:59PM]

@phanbouy,
that's actually quite quite funny.

[Ian @ Jul 23rd 2008 12:11PM]

Hardly great management execution.

[ahdok @ Jul 23rd 2008 11:33AM]

Instead of new technology, package contained Bobcat.

Would not buy again.

[CosterMonger @ Jul 23rd 2008 1:29PM]

I think a bobcat would be more friendly to strangers then my house cat.

[patsy @ Jul 23rd 2008 11:37AM]

you just wait, sonny.
There's something certainly cooking over there, and it'll be huge!!!!

[ShadowKain @ Jul 23rd 2008 11:39AM]

Oceania? Um ok...well, AMD has never had the focus they once could have had when Athlon was out and the X2 almost got enough momentum to stick it to intel, until...Core 2 came out. If they can't communicate clearly internally in their own company, that spells bad news for competition against ATOM.

[Rick @ Jul 23rd 2008 11:51AM]

go read 1984

[phanbouy @ Jul 23rd 2008 11:54AM]

google is your double plus good friend

[Dario @ Jul 23rd 2008 1:15PM]

There´s also a film.
Terrific book, though.

[CosterMonger @ Jul 23rd 2008 1:46PM]

confusing Oceania with AMD-V codename: Pacifica?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oceania_(Nineteen_Eighty-Four)

[Austin Gregg-Smith @ Jul 23rd 2008 11:43AM]

Nice one ahdok!!

[phanbouy @ Jul 23rd 2008 11:56AM]

i didn't know that Robert Wahl had assumed the identity of Nigel Dessau! oh..whoops, sorry FBI! i know that life after Arli$$ is tough

[ITRanger @ Jul 23rd 2008 12:28PM]

I wonder if the product actually exists or are they just talking a good game.

Why wouldn't anyone release it as early as possible???

[OneLove @ Jul 23rd 2008 12:30PM]

he has girly man eyes

[gerrrg @ Jul 23rd 2008 1:34PM]

No one is better at beating AMD than AMD. They can lay blame to Intel, but Intel didn't cause AMD's missteps.

[thedesolate1 @ Jul 23rd 2008 2:02PM]

Have they mastered the 45nm process yet?

[CosterMonger @ Jul 23rd 2008 2:02PM]

if they come out with something good, then great!
if they don't then they deserve a bashing!

I personally don't care that much about an $8 processor, I'd gladly pay $16 for a dual-core option and if you can turn of an unused core.

AMD would be nice if they could shove better onboard graphics like Radeon HD 3200 (780G) into a netbook.

[Unknown @ Jul 27th 2008 1:10AM]

I'm sorry, but Engadget must be slipping... "Atom Killer"? No no no... "Atom Smasher" would be so much more apropos.