AMD CFO Thomas Seifert Resigns

[SlowSpyder]

Rory is redesigning AMD and clearly is being quite harsh about it

Although I still believe that their marketing department needs to be replaced. I haven't seen a good AMD ad ever

I remember reading about this, how AMD made a commercial. Then I did actually even see it on TV!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPi7oaalDcA



Well, you did say 'good', didn't you?

 

[Centauri]

Dammit. Just when I was feeling smart for having scooped up more shares last week @ $3.63...

Oh well. 10% is definitely an overreaction to the loss of a bookkeeper - AMD's money problems stem from product. Hopefully the market holds its pants up for the next week or so because I expect this drop will correct itself shortly.

 

[BD231]

In my book thats less serious than good engineers leaveing.

If they had good engineers in the first place they'd have a competitive CPU.

 

[BLaber]

If they had good engineers in the first place they'd have a competitive CPU.

Thomas is one of the reasons for good engineers had to leave AMD , read this:

http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news/2012/9/17/thomas-seifert-leaves-amd2c-destination-siemens.aspx

This guy should have been thrown out long back, like 2 years ago.

 

[Gikaseixas]

Thomas is one of the reasons for good engineers had to leave AMD , read this:

http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news/2012/9/17/thomas-seifert-leaves-amd2c-destination-siemens.aspx

This guy should have been thrown out long back, like 2 years ago.

Thanks for the link. Good ridance then...

 

[ShintaiDK]

This REALLY depresses me....

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-stock-market-gamestop-shares,17714.html

I think its worth noticing how much GloFo is milking them for. Those fabs they dont own anymore keep on costing, ATIC can still be heard laughing.

AMD faces the next big cash payment of $225 million to Globalfoundries in Q1 2013. There are several other debt items that, however, will not be due until 2015 and later. There will be a $580 million payment due in 2015, a $500 million payment in 2017 and another $500 million in 2020.
With the economy weakening, PC sales tumbling and the stock value declining, financial analysts are more than likely to pay attention to AMD's debt position

 

[NTMBK]

Apple cant make their own ARM core as such. They license it and adds the other parts. Thats how ARM works. All Apple can do is add other parts.

Check out the recent Anandtech posts on the Apple A6. It's apparently a custom Apple core design (a la Krait).

 

[ShintaiDK]

Check out the recent Anandtech posts on the Apple A6. It's apparently a custom Apple core design (a la Krait).

You mean cache and memory?

 

[NTMBK]

You mean cache and memory?

Nope, custom core. http://www.anandtech.com/show/6292/iphone-5-a6-not-a15-custom-core

 

[Idontcare]

You mean cache and memory?

Apple (via PA Semi) is one of just a handful of companies that have negotiated a licensing contract with ARM which allows them to create their own Core spinoffs. (I think Nvidia does as well, IIRC)

Not many have the money and engineers to bother attempting it, but it is an option that ARM is willing to let its customers pursue for the right price.

 

[ShintaiDK]

I see, I thought it was simply the core they got and then added external IP to it for the SoC. Interesting. But might also explain the cache and memory subsystem again.

 

[Phynaz]

10% is definitely an overreaction to the loss of a bookkeeper

To call a CFO a bookkeeper is rather uniformed.

 

[Olikan]

it seems that Chris Cloran, general manager in charge of AMD's client products
also left...
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Desktops-a...t-Head-as-Executive-Shuffle-Continues-380099/

or q3 went just terrible for amd, or there is something fishy here

 

[Smoblikat]

The conspiracy theorist in me says that Intel/Nvidia is paying these guys to leave so they can replace them with people who will make sure AMD stays uncompetitive. The logical person in me says AMD is a bad company to work for.

 

[Centauri]

To call a CFO a bookkeeper is rather uniformed.

Not when they did a [lousy] job.

 

[meloz]

If they had let go of all these employees in one major move (freshly after Bulldozer disaster), it would have been okay. You could rationalize it is as replacing the non-performers, making a fresh start.

But this near-constant trickle of employees seems odd and raises doubt about what is truly going on inside AMD. Every month or two it seems there is new high-profile departure. How can any company maintain direction and focus with so many personnel changes at the top.

What is the board asking these guys to do which is making them so unhappy that they are prepared to leave the company?

I hope things settle down quickly at AMD, and they can focus on competing with Intel again.

 

[exar333]

Not when they did a [lousy] job.

And your inside information is....?

 

[Blitzvogel]

The conspiracy theorist in me says that Intel/Nvidia is paying these guys to leave so they can replace them with people who will make sure AMD stays uncompetitive. The logical person in me says AMD is a bad company to work for.

The logical person in me says AMD might have been better off never acquiring ATi in the first place, the whole reason AMD has relatively gone to **** since their glory days. Fusion took way too long to come to market, WAY to long, and of course AMD's microarchitecture just hasn't been competitive at all accept in the low power arena with Bobcat.

 

[frozentundra123456]

The logical person in me says AMD might have been better off never acquiring ATi in the first place, the whole reason AMD has relatively gone to **** since their glory days. Fusion took way too long to come to market, WAY to long, and of course AMD's microarchitecture just hasn't been competitive at all accept in the low power arena with Bobcat.

Unfortunately, you might be right about the Ati acquisition. When it occurred, a friend and I argued vigorously about whether it was the right move, with me defending the purchase. However, I was assuming much quicker progress with Fusion, and that the igpu would be marketed with a better cpu. Acquiring Ati might have been good in theory, but they paid way, way too much money. On top of that, Llano was late to market at a time when Intel had a very poor igpu, and AMD might have had a very good chance to gain market share based on the graphics.

On the other hand, the graphics may be all that finally will save AMD. It is obvious that they cannot directly compete with Intel on cpu performance alone, and their better expertise with graphics is the only real advantage they have.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Thomas is one of the reasons for good engineers had to leave AMD , read this:

http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news/2012/9/17/thomas-seifert-leaves-amd2c-destination-siemens.aspx

This guy should have been thrown out long back, like 2 years ago.

I am not sure how reliable this article really is. There are a lot of accusations bandied about but all attributed to unknown sources. So it may be basically true, or just quotes from a few disgruntled employees.

If true though, it is a very troubled company. AMD has few enough resources to try to compete with Intel or enter new markets without fighting among themselves.

 

[CTho9305]

Wonder where all the people that resign defect to and pursue "other opportunities"?

In Austin, some of the big ones that have swiped engineers over the past year or so are Samsung, Qualcomm, Altera, and Oracle.

 

[ShadowVVL]

well would it be cheaper and better for amd to go with tsmc?

 

[NostaSeronx]

well would it be cheaper and better for amd to go with tsmc?

AMD already goes with TSMC for btver(x) APUs, and GPUs. It is best not to have all eggs in one basket. So, AMD uses "SHP" processes from IBM, GlobalFoundries, STMicroelectronics for bdver(x), APUs and MPUs.

 

[meloz]

The logical person in me says AMD might have been better off never acquiring ATi in the first place, the whole reason AMD has relatively gone to **** since their glory days. Fusion took way too long to come to market, WAY to long, and of course AMD's microarchitecture just hasn't been competitive at all accept in the low power arena with Bobcat.

Um, "ATI" is what is keeping AMD alive these days.

If they produced the same lame CPUs as they have done -but did not have the cashflow from the graphics division- AMD as we know it would be dead by now.

Fusion / APU might be 'late', but let's be honest aside from a few speciality cases most programs and users still do not benefit from those kind of features. They might in future, but not today. And without ATI's acquision, AMD would never have any APU / Fusion type designs to begin with, setting them even back in rivalry with Intel.

Buying ATI is the smartest thing AMD has done in the past decade. Bulldozer, on the other hand, is AMD at its dumbest.

 

[ShintaiDK]

"ATI" aint really keeping them alive. And certainly not to the prices they payed for it. When will "ATI" have payed itself back? 25 years? 50 years? Not to mention integrated GFX is killing that business fast. It would have been much cheaper to either buy another company or start new R&D. They wasnt exactly fast to bolt a GPU on a CPU die and call it an APU.

The problem buying ATI was at the same time they basicly killed off their fabs and much of the CPU R&D. When you use your money on A, then you cant use it on B.