AMD's new plan: focus on tablets, cloud computing and developing markets

Chipzilla has long been atop the PC chip manufacturing mountain, with AMD running a rather distant second. That's why AMD's new top man, Rory Read, plans to move the company in a more mobile direction. Speaking at the company's analyst day, Read stated that the chipmaker will focus on outflanking Intel in the tablet space and by growing its business in cloud computing and emerging markets like China (read: entry-level PCs and devices). As to whether AMD would venture into the smartphone space, Read was quite clear in stating that there were no plans to do so. But, he did make mention of being flexible when it came to chip architecture, including using 3rd party IP in developing new silicon -- so a switch to ARM may not be out of the question. How will AMD accomplish its new goals? By focusing on execution of its technology rather than trying to be on the bleeding edge -- sound familiar?

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AMD Strategy Transformation Brings Agile Delivery of Industry-Leading IP to the Market

- Product Roadmap Enhancements Illustrate Plans to Accelerate Growth in Low Power, Emerging Markets and Cloud Computing -
- First System-on-a-Chip (SoC) Solutions Expected to Arrive in 2013 -

SUNNYVALE, Calif. - Feb. 2, 2012 - At its annual Financial Analyst Day, AMD (NYSE: AMD) detailed a new "ambidextrous" strategy that builds on the company's long history of x86 and graphics innovation while embracing other technologies and intellectual property to deliver differentiated products.

AMD is adopting an SoC-centric roadmap designed to speed time-to-market, drive sustained execution, and enable the development of more tailored customer solutions. SoC design methodology is advantageous because it is a modular approach to processor design, leveraging best practice tools and microprocessor design flows with the ability to easily re-use IP and design blocks across a range of products.

"AMD's strategy capitalizes on the convergence of technologies and devices that will define the next era of the industry," said Rory Read, president and CEO, AMD. "The trends around consumerization, the cloud and convergence will only grow stronger in the coming years. AMD has a unique opportunity to take advantage of this key industry inflection point. We remain focused on continuing the work we began last year to re- position AMD. Our new strategy will help AMD embrace the shifts occurring in the industry, marrying market needs with innovative technologies and become a consistent growth engine."

Additionally, AMD today announced updates to its product roadmaps for AMD Central Processing Unit (CPU) and Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) products it plans to introduce in 2012 and 2013. The roadmap modifications address key customer priorities across form factors including ultrathin notebooks, tablets, all-in-ones, desktops and servers with a clear focus on low power, emerging markets and the Cloud.

AMD's updated product roadmap features second generation mainstream ("Trinity") and low-power ("Brazos 2.0") APUs for notebooks and desktops; "Hondo," an APU specifically designed for tablets; new CPU cores in 2012 and 2013 with "Piledriver" and its successor, "Steamroller," as well as "Jaguar," which is the successor to AMD's popular "Bobcat" core. In 2012, AMD plans to introduce four new AMD OpteronTM processors. For a more in-depth look at AMD's updated product roadmap, please visit http://blogs.amd.com.

Next-generation Architecture Standardizes and Facilitates Software Development
AMD also provided further details on its Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA), which enables software developers to easily program APUs by combining scalar processing on the CPU with parallel processing on the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), all while providing high bandwidth access to memory at low power. AMD is proactively working to make HSA an open industry standard for the developer community. The company plans to hold its 2nd annual AMD Fusion Developer Summit in June, 2012.

New Company Structure Strengthens Execution

In conjunction with announcing its restructuring plan in November 2011, AMD has strengthened its leadership team with the additions of Mark Papermaster as senior vice president and chief technology officer, Rajan Naik as senior vice president and chief strategy officer, and Lisa Su as senior vice president and general manager, global business units. These executives will help ensure that sustainable, dependable execution becomes a hallmark of AMD.

Supporting Resources

Visit the AMD Financial Analyst Day website for webcast replay, presentations, updated roadmap, and more
Visit AMD Blogs for more details on AMD's product roadmap changes
Follow AMD on Twitter at @AMD_Unprocessed
Like AMD on Facebook