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AMD reports $1.27 billion in revenue for Q3 2012
While AMD wrestled to get back on the good foot last quarter, the Sunnyvale chip maker continued to struggle for the third three month financial period of 2012. While reporting $1.27 billion in revenue, the company still saw a ten percent sequential decrease and a 25 percent decrease year-over-year. The hurt not ending there, AMD's graphics division saw a revenue decrease of seven percent sequentially and 15 percent year-over-year. "The PC industry is going through a period of very significant change that is impacting both the ecosystem and AMD," said Rory Read, AMD president and CEO. Such words mirror that of longtime rival Intel, which also continues to struggle with a very unfriendly PC market. In an effort to rebound, AMD announced a restructuring plan to reduce operating expenses that will hopefully give the company more leeway to develop and produce new products and strategies.
AMD CFO Thomas Seifert calls it quits, Devinder Kumar takes his place on an interim basis
Advanced Micro Devices' Senior VP and Chief Financial Officer, Thomas Seifert, has decided to leave AMD three short years after joining the company. As you may recall, Seifert briefly took the reigns of AMD as interim CEO in early 2011, until the firm found a permanent replacement in Rory Read later that year. No word on why Seifert has decided to depart the chip maker -- other than "to pursue other opportunities" -- but we do know that Devinder Kumar, AMD's current Senior VP and corporate controller will replace him on an interim basis. The full announcement awaits in the PR after the break.
AMD poaches Apple's platform architecture lead to head up CPU team
We suppose after a reasonably high-profile defection of one of AMD's own to Apple, the Sunnyvale company had to exact revenge. That payback was announced today in the form of Jim Keller, the now former platform architecture head in Cupertino, who will be joining AMD as corporate vice president and chief architect of its microprocessor unit. In a statement, the company said that Keller will be leveraging his "low-power design expertise," possibly as part of its oft-rumored ARM plans. Keller previously worked as VP of design at P.A. Semi before being brought into the Apple fold where he played an important role in the development of the processors inside the iPad, iPhone and Apple TV. With AMD struggling to keep pace with Intel in both the desktop and laptop space, a move into low-powered mobile chips could be a plan to stave off more dire days. Check out the PR after the break.
AMD reports Q2 earnings: continues to see revenues drop, $37 million net income
Well, things are looking slightly better for AMD this quarter. While revenues continued to decline the company actually posted a profit of $37 million, a stark contrast to $590 million net loss from last quarter. Still, with revenues down 11 percent sequentially and 10 percent year-over-year to just $1.41 billion the company isn't meeting expectations. Earnings per share were aticipated to hit $0.07, but the Sunnyvale crew only managed an EPS of $0.05. The company blames the softening PC market for its continued struggles, especially in the desktop space where it has traditionally enjoyed more success. It continues to plug away with its A and E series APUs, but it's still struggling to make much of a dent in a world increasingly dominated by Intel. The Computing Solutions division saw its revenues decrease 13 percent both sequentially and year-over-year, while the GPU department was down five percent for the quarter, but steady compared to the same time last year. For more detail hit up the source link.
AMD absorbs server startup SeaMicro for $330 million, says it's no impulse buy
AMD has faced some tough tactical decisions since it sold its handheld chip division to Qualcomm in 2008 and effectively stepped out of the smartphone business. Whistling that "No Regrets" tune, it has burrowed ever deeper into ever bigger devices, from laptops to desktops and massively multi-core servers and supercomputers. Today's purchase of Silicon Valley startup SeaMicro is an exponential leap in the same direction, because SeaMicro specializes in building low-power server hardware for entire datacenters. One of its key innovations is a "fabric" that hooks up thousands of processors, memory units and storage devices into a sensible whole for cloud computing. Rather than trying to compete with its own server-building customers, AMD may well offer them SeaMicro's platform on license and seek to recoup its $330 million investment that way. With ARM also stepping up its server efforts, it's a question of snoozing and losing.
AMD reports a net loss for Q4 2011, 30 million APUs sold last year
As the quarterly earnings train rolls along, AMD has announced its results for the last three months of 2011, with weaker than expected sales resulting in a net loss of $177 million on revenue of $1.69 billion. Worse, ZDNet mentions AMD expects revenue to continue to decline as 2012 gets started. Of course, there were highlights including sales of more than 30 million Accelerated Processor Units (APU) for the year, resulting in record annual notebook revenue, while CEO Rory Read also noted "re-gained momentum" in its server business. AMD's revenue remained flat YoY at $6.57 billion, but that and all the other dirty financial details are in the press release after the break. For 2012 Read says AMD is "clear on our priorities and opportunities", we'll see if those newly focused initiatives add up to a better result at this time next year.
AMD's Ultrabook competitor to focus on price, undercut Intel
When AMD showed off its upcoming Trinity APUs at CES the company was pretty light on the details. We're still stuck holding our breath for specs, but DigiTimes is reporting some alleged info on pricing. According to the report, AMD's "ultrathin" laptops will hit shelves priced between $100 and $200 less than comparably-equipped Intel machines. Of course, the folks from Sunnyvale have traditionally hit Chipzilla on pricing rather than performance (except during a brief period in the aughts when Intel got lost in the Netburst woods), so dirt-cheap AMD "Ultrabooks" wouldn't come as much of a surprise. Then again, pressure on both the laptop and tablet front could cause the Santa Clara crew to reevaluate its pricing strategy leaving its competition to either further cut profit margins or find a new angle of attack.Update: AMD has provided a statement on this story, certainly not denying things but clarifying that it isn't going to enforce any minimum specs or prices. Also, that "ultrathin" moniker isn't new and won't define any particular type of laptop like Intel's Ultrabook is attempting to do.
Quanta sues AMD, claims it sold defective products
Yikes. Quanta -- also known as the planet's largest contract maker of laptops -- has just slapped a nasty lawsuit on the world's second-largest chipmaker. According to Bloomberg, Quanta is alleging that AMD and ATI sold chips that "didn't meet heat tolerances and were unfit for particular purposes." Those chips were then used in NEC-labeled machines, and caused them to "malfunction" in some regard. No big deal? Hardly. In the complaint, Quanta states that it has "suffered significant injury to prospective revenue and profits," and it's seeking a jury trial and damages for good measure. As if that weren't harsh enough, the suit also claims "breach of warranty, negligent misrepresentation, civil fraud and interference with a contract." When pinged for comment, AMD's spokesman, Michael Silverman stated: "AMD disputes the allegations in Quanta's complaint and believes they are without merit. AMD is aware of no other customer reports of the alleged issues with the AMD chip that Quanta used, which AMD no longer sells. "In fact, Quanta has itself acknowledged to AMD that it used the identical chip in large volumes in a different computer platform that it manufactured for NEC without such issues." Somewhere, Intel has to be smirking.
AMD's getting into the DRAM game, isn't afraid to shoot the outside J
Don't you wish every component in your computer were made by the same company? That's AMD's thinking behind a range of desktop DRAM -- leaping into bed with VisionTek and Patriot Memory who will build the branded modules to Sunnyvale's specifications, tweaked for speed with OverDrive tuning tools. You'll be able to pick up DIMMs in 2GB, 4GB and 8GB flavors -- a low-end "entertainment" model running at 1333MHz and 1600MHz, "performance" edition also at 1600MHz and a Radeon-branded unit that will top the family at 1866MHz. The stuff will be available from retailers like Amazon, Fry's and Best Buy Canada, but we don't know when nor how much it'll cost to bring this level of branding harmony to the inside of your case.
AMD reports $1.69 billion in revenue for Q3, net income of $97 million
Things were starting to look pretty bleak in Q2 for AMD, but Q3 is an entirely different story. The company reported a revenue of $1.69 billion, up 7-percent from last quarter. More importantly, net income climbed to $97 million, up from just $61 million in Q2 and a far cry from the $118 million loss posted this time last year. Even the graphics division had good news to share. After the former ATI ran at an operating loss of $7 million last quarter, it netted $12 million in operating income in Q2. We wouldn't exactly call this the second coming of the CPU underdog, but it certainly should make fans and investors sleep a little better at night. Check out the complete PR after the break.
AMD A4-3300 and A4-3400 APUs ready to ship, take on Intel for your budget PC dollar
That's right folks, AMD's A4 APUs are here and ready to take on Intel in a battle for the bottom end of the mainstream desktop market. These dual-core desktop parts pack integrated graphics courtesy of the company's Radeon line. Both also boast a 65W TDP and 1MB of L2 cache. The only difference here is speed and price: the 3300 clocks in at 2.5GHz with a 440MHz GPU for $70, while the 3400 moves on up to 2.7GHz and a 600MHz GPU for only $5 more. They're not exactly speed demons, but should be able to hold their own against similarly priced Pentiums -- especially if you don't plan on buying a discrete graphics card. You can pick one up now at Amazon and other select retailers but, before you go, check out the PR after the break.
AMD ships five million Fusion chips, says it's sold out
Sounds like Notbooks are making a dent: AMD says it's shipped five million Fusion processors since the architecture's debut, according to a report at CNET. In January, the company said the hybrid CPU / GPU chips had momentum, and as of last month it was quoting 3.9 million APUs out in the wild, but this week AMD says that demand has overtaken supply and it's completely sold out of the Atom alternative. Sounds like Intel's more than justified in seeking out hybrid solutions of its own, no matter where it might have to look to get a leg up in the integrated graphics market. Here's hoping AMD's other Fusion chips show just as much pep per penny (and milliampere-hour) as the original processor.
AMD collects half a billion in Q1 profit, Fusion APUs now account for half of its laptop shipments
AMD's net income for the past quarter was $510 million, generated from $1.61 billion in total revenues. That should make happy reading for a company that's been raising similar gross revenues previously but finding itself losing cash -- though the more intriguing figures are a little deeper in its latest disclosure. CFO and interim CEO Thomas Seifert has noted that AMD "tripled" its Fusion APU shipments relative to last quarter -- meaning that at least 3.9 million units have made their way out to OEM partners in Q1 -- which now account for "roughly half" of the company's notebook shipments. In less upbeat news, average selling prices in both the microprocessor and graphics divisions were down sequentially, with AMD having to react to pressure from its traditional foes Intel and NVIDIA. You might surmise that with the mainstream Llano APU out and shipping to computer makers, AMD might have a happier second quarter, but the company's guidance is for revenues to be flat or slightly down. A final note of pride is reserved for the Radeon HD 6490M and HD 6750M GPUs, which figured prominently in Apple's latest MacBook Pro refresh and mark a bit of a coup for AMD, who's now responsible for all of Apple's discrete graphics across the MacBook Pro and iMac computing lines. Click the links below for even more intel on Advanced Micro Devices.
AMD Athlon, Phenom and Sempron names may be killed off in favor of Vision brand
AMD's long-awaited delivery of CPU-GPU hybrid chips in the form of its Fusion technology already had one victim in the company's branding strategy (we'll miss you, ATI!), but now we're learning that there may be even more redundancy slips being handed out. X-bit labs have uncovered documentation that claims AMD intends to consign its processor family names to the annals of history, going instead with different classes of its Vision brand. The Athlon, Phenom, and Sempron monikers we know today would be replaced by the A, FX and E series, respectively, with the Llano APU occupying the mid-range A sector, quad- and octa-core Zambezi chips slapped with the FX label, and the low end getting the leftover E tag. Since the current naming scheme really doesn't convey much useful info to non-initiates, this would seem to be a step in the right direction for AMD, but we just don't like to see old friends disappear without a trace. Guess the Athlon XP Thunderbird will just have to live on in our hearts instead.
AMD sees a tablet chip in its future, and an end to the core-count wars
AMD told us that it wasn't terribly interested in the iPad market, and would wait and see if touchscreen slates took off, but CEO Dirk Meyer changed the company's tone on tablets slightly after reporting a $118 million net loss (on $1.62 billion in revenue) in a Q3 2010 earnings call this afternoon. First revealing his belief that tablets will indeed cannibalize the notebook and netbook markets, he later told investors that he actually expects AMD's netbook parts to start appearing in OEM slates in the next couple of years, and that AMD itself would "show up with a differentiated offering with great graphics and video technology" when the market becomes large enough to justify an R&D investment. Elsewhere, AMD CTO of servers Donald Newell prognosticated that the number of individual CPUs on a chip won't go up forever: "There will come an end to the core-count wars," he told IDG News. Just as the megahertz race was eventually defeated by thermal restrictions, so too will the number of cores on a chip cease to increase. " I won't put an exact date on it, but I don't myself expect to see 128 cores on a full-sized server die by the end of this decade," he said. So much for our Crysis-squashing terascale superchip dreams, we suppose.
AMD parties hard after shipping 500 millionth x86 processor
Get on down with your bad self, Mr. Spaceman -- AMD just shipped its 500 millionth x86 processor! Shortly after the company celebrated 40 years of hanging tough and doing its best to overtake Intel, the outfit has now revealed that a half billion x86 CPUs have left its facilities over the past two score. We pinged Intel in order to find out just how that number stacked up, but all we were told is that the 500 million milestone was celebrated awhile back down in Santa Clara. We'll just chalk the vagueness up to Intel not wanting to spoil an otherwise raucous Silicon Valley shindig. Classy.[Via HotHardware]
AMD's CES 2008 booth tour
As sleepy as Microsoft and Intel's booths were this year, they paled in comparison to AMD's showing. Situated in what was essentially a thruway / food court, the sad little cube that was the chipmaker's booth made us feel generally bad. Hey -- it's possible they're just not too worried about CES, and that's fine -- with no new products, announcements, or partnerships to speak of, maybe they're just taking it easy.%Gallery-13149%
AMD denies Ruiz raise, says it's just a misunderstanding
Last week, we reported that Hector Ruiz -- CEO of chipmaker AMD -- had received a 7.4-percent raise even though the company has been struggling as of late and its stock has dropped considerably over the past year. Now, according to reports, the rumors of the pay increase have turned out to be the product of a misinterpreted SEC filing -- or so say the public relations people at Advanced Micro Devices. Apparently, the confusion stems from a pay raise that the honcho received in 2006; somehow the change in figures halfway through the year led to a proxy statement of $1,046,358 -- the supposed new salary. The "clarification" still leaves a few questions unanswered, but at least for now we can sleep soundly knowing that Hector Ruiz, the highest paid CEO in the semiconductor industry, will only be earning a paltry $1,124,000 this year.
AMD's financial woes don't stop Hector Ruiz from nabbing a raise
In most jobs, if you cost the company money and generally screw up, you can expect a solid dressing-down from the management and then a swift boot out the door. Unless you run a major corporation like AMD. If you're Hector Ruiz, CEO of the ailing chipmaker, you can freely and openly admit to fouling up the works and still get yourself a tidy raise, it seems. "We blew it and we're very humbled by it and we learned from it and we're not going to do it again," Ruiz said on Thursday, just before the board of directors raised his $1,046,358 salary to $1,124,000 -- a 7.4-percent gain. Oh, did we mention the nearly $13 million in stock options too? Hey, just because you tacked on $3.7 billion dollars in long term debt and your stock plummeted 56.2-percent doesn't mean you're doing a bad job... although we can't think of another way to describe it.
AMD delays Barcelona (again), turns attention to Brisbane
Oh AMD, you just can't keep it together, can you? Advanced Micro Devices, a company known for its share of "issues," has once again delayed its much-hyped, energy efficient Barcelona CPU. Apparently, a technical irregularity has caused the company to push back the release date for widespread availability of the chip until sometime early next year. The glitch, which causes the chip to fail, is just another line of setbacks on the product's path to release (originally set for mid-2007). John Taylor, a company spokesman, says, "We're continuing to ship it but only to specific customers." The company is offering a workaround for the chips until the problems are solved, though users will see an impact on performance. In other heart-wrenching (though seemingly unrelated) AMD news, the chipmaker has decided to re-up its older K8 architecture, refocusing on "Brisbane"-based chips, and even adding a few new models to the line. Over the next two quarters, the company will release 11 new 65nm chips based on the older format, while just three new entries will be made in the "Phenom" -- or K10 -- line. Look, Hector, everyone is pulling for you (except maybe Intel) -- just get it together, man![Thanks, Gary J]Read - A.M.D. Delays Energy-Efficient Chip AgainRead - AMD Resurrects K8 Architecture for 2008 Roadmap
