AMD: It Won't Be About 'AMD vs. Intel' Anymore

[IGhzI]

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/AMD-APU-Z-Series-ARM-Tegra-3,14114.html


Sent from my HD7 using Board Express

 

[ViviTheMage]

AMD is finally shifting its focus away from competing with long-time rival Intel, and instead will focus its energy on emerging markets and cloud computing.

Did they just admit to losing? haa

 

[exar333]

Re-post...

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2209116

 

[RavenSEAL]

Re-post...

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2209116

At least this guy knows how to name a thread properly. The other one makes it sound like AMD is dismantling their whole Server/Desktop/GPU operations.

 

[Rvenger]

If you think about it, if they go mobile, it will also help them come up with ideas and better technology for the desktop processors as well. I am sure once they get a good product going, the fight with Intel will begin again.

 

[exar333]

At least this guy knows how to name a thread properly. The other one makes it sound like AMD is dismantling their whole Server/Desktop/GPU operations.

What, they aren't doing that anymore!?

 

[aigomorla]

no it means instead of fighting against intel in the desktop market.. they are going to fight in the server and mobile sector..

its sad really...

They changed major competitors from intel to ARM, and without FAB's i think ARM will hurt AMD more so then Intel, due to internal fab resources..

AMD really needs at least 1 FAB... Why do you think Intel was trying to pop out FAB's everywhere.
When they got rid of all there FAB's they really shot themselves good.

 

[cbn]

This has got to be about Servers and ARM.

Just think about the margins of an ARM Notebook SOC that could be potentially used in the server market as that area develops?

 

[Arachnotronic]

Hey, Computer Bottleneck, I actually think I want AMD to announce ARM stuff. That way, investors will freak out, bid AMD stock up to high heaven, then I can sell! Exactly what happened when AMD announced Project Denver...

 

[Blitzvogel]

no it means instead of fighting against intel in the desktop market.. they are going to fight in the server and mobile sector..

its sad really...

They changed major competitors from intel to ARM, and without FAB's i think ARM will hurt AMD more so then Intel, due to internal fab resources..

AMD really needs at least 1 FAB... Why do you think Intel was trying to pop out FAB's everywhere.
When they got rid of all there FAB's they really shot themselves good.

Agreed. Things REALLY went to [heck] with the letting go of the fabs. Had they not just completed the Dresden one when they decided to split and have Global Foundries created?

No profanity please
-ViRGE

 

[sandorski]

Agreed. Things REALLY went to shit with the letting go of the fabs. Had they not just completed the Dresden one when they decided to split and have Global Foundries created?

I disagree. I suspect they saw the writing on the wall regarding the difficulties now faced by GF and TSMC.

 

[cbn]

Hey, Computer Bottleneck, I actually think I want AMD to announce ARM stuff.

Agreed

Notebook ARM SOC would be good for them and cheaper to develop than a smartphone SOC. (ie, Notebook SOC would have less or no need for the specialized logic/processors found in phones).

Furthermore, AMD already has experience with the tech normally associated with Servers and Notebooks (PCI-Express etc) that is not contained in smartphones.

Lastly, AMD's strong experience in the server market so go a long way to helping them optimally position the chip. (Should this product ever make it to market).

 

[Genx87]

Finally doing what they should have done 2 years ago. Now will they be stupid enough to stick with an x86 design in the markets they are targetting?

 

[Silverforce11]

Their CPUs are obsolete and so far behind intel its a funny (bad) comparison. I think its good they realize this now than try to fight down the road when intel has 2 node advantage over TSMC and GF. It's a fight they will lose horribly.

Get out and go after something intel isn't going for or isn't willing to.

Better yet, turn your company into a dominant GPU and HPC player, with a dabble in LP devices. None of these are intel's strong point, especially in the GPU side of things.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

I've relied on AMD for years to be the underdog quirky diamond-in-the-rough kinda CPU manufacturer that makes it FUN to be an enthusiast. Cheap speed and room to tinker. Keep those Intel boys on their toes. If Intel is the only one left standing in the desktop arena we may end up having to dial 1-800-www-dell for our next build. <shudder> Man I hope I'm wrong......

 

[Silverforce11]

Intel can't just jack up the prices on IvB due to lack of AMD competition.

The reason is simple: A lot of people already are on SB or Nehalem. To get them to want to upgrade, intel has to offer amazing bang for buck in comparison. If IvB is ~20&#37; faster than SB, they can't just charge 100% extra for it, few would buy, low sales = failure regardless.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Their CPUs are obsolete and so far behind intel its a funny (bad) comparison. I think its good they realize this now than try to fight down the road when intel has 2 node advantage over TSMC and GF. It's a fight they will lose horribly.

Get out and go after something intel isn't going for or isn't willing to.

Better yet, turn your company into a dominant GPU and HPC player, with a dabble in LP devices. None of these are intel's strong point, especially in the GPU side of things.

The question I have is can AMD compete in the mobile/ARM market successfully. I mean they cant compete with intel in CPUs which has been their area of "expertise" for years. Do they really have the resources to break into the ARM market and compete with the established players, especially since they dont have their own fabs anymore.

 

[Arachnotronic]

Intel can't just jack up the prices on IvB due to lack of AMD competition.

The reason is simple: A lot of people already are on SB or Nehalem. To get them to want to upgrade, intel has to offer amazing bang for buck in comparison. If IvB is ~20% faster than SB, they can't just charge 100% extra for it, few would buy, low sales = failure regardless.

This.

 

[sandorski]

Protip- AMD is not getting out of the Desktop Market.

 

[Silverforce11]

The question I have is can AMD compete in the mobile/ARM market successfully. I mean they cant compete with intel in CPUs which has been their area of "expertise" for years. Do they really have the resources to break into the ARM market and compete with the established players, especially since they dont have their own fabs anymore.

AMD can certainly compete in LP markets, because the ARM cores running those things are essentially APUs with a big focus on graphics performance.

Bobcat made smaller and leaner will do great on Win8 mobile devices.

They don't need to have their own fabs. All the mobile ARM APUs are made from TSMC or GF.

 

[Blitzvogel]

Hey AMD, where's my Krishna? >:|

 

[cbn]

The question I have is can AMD compete in the mobile/ARM market successfully

They wouldn't compete with ARM in the form of mobile ARM is classically know for....smartphones.

The way I see things mobile can be divided into two segments:

1. Smartphone SOC/Tablet SOC (specialized co-processors, limited bandwidth, etc)

2. Notebook chips<----These are basically desktop and server designs(Higher bandwidth, PCI-Express, etc) pressed into mobile service.

Maybe someone else can help me shed light here? I am quite limited in my SOC understanding , but I do realize there are very significant differences between these two classes of chips.

 

[LoneNinja]

Intel can't just jack up the prices on IvB due to lack of AMD competition.

The reason is simple: A lot of people already are on SB or Nehalem. To get them to want to upgrade, intel has to offer amazing bang for buck in comparison. If IvB is ~20% faster than SB, they can't just charge 100% extra for it, few would buy, low sales = failure regardless.

Your right they can't jack prices up like that, but we could see slow increases, fewer features in the low end, or new features only available in the high end. Maybe they'll keep with only releasing quads on the mainstream and anything with more cores will be a fortune on the enthusiast platform. Processors have also become cheaper and cheaper to manufacture because they're becoming smaller, could stop dropping prices. Maybe there will no longer be K edition processors, or they'll end up with a real price premium over their counterparts.

The exaggerated doom scenario so many people fear with AMD gone from the desktop market won't happen, but progress is sure to slow down, all Intel needs to do is provide enough boost to convince people to upgrade.

 

[Silverforce11]

~15-30W is the ideal target for notebooks.

~<2W for Smartphones.

Tablets fit inbetween there somewhere. It's not just due to power/battery constraints (if and when battery tech takes a super leap), its heat output that is critical.

Bobcat scales from around ~8W to 17W. On next gen node, it should be a lot less and thus, be a very able APU for tablets. If they tweak it further and reduce power consumption, they have a candidate for smartphones.

ARM on the other hand, has to scale up. Their performance is very far behind, but they have a lot of room to grow in terms of power use. Ultimately, what we will see is an ARM notebook variant that is ~>15W, but whether it can compete with intel/amd notebook APUs in performance is another matter entirely.

 

[Vesku]

I guess I'm mildly rooting for ARM to make some headway simply to add more competition to the higher end CPU market, but:

"Llano has already made up pretty much all the battery life ground they had to cover. Now the question is can they improve on the CPU+GPU balance. But if you buy into the ARM thing then all they really need to do is improve power by another 30% or so. Then you'd get a true all day notebook with I'd guess 2-3x the performance of the upcoming A15 ARM line. "

What I said in the differently titled thread about the same topic. When Windows 8 ARM netbooks/notebooks show up I expect to hear "well maybe they are dogs compared to x86 but I get 12 hours instead of 8-9 hours of battery time". ARM supporters better hope the tablet market has legs.