Its better than a Brazo or an Atom . Now if they could come out with a desktop part that is 16 of their C7's welded together.
UBS: AMD - Positive Meetings with Management
28 November 2011
Uche Orji
Analyst
uche.orji@ubs.com
12-month rating Buy
12m price target US$9.00
Wafer fab yields improving steadily; 4Q likely tracking ahead so far
We hosted meetings with AMD CEO Rory Read late last week with 4 key
takeaways: 1) Yields are steadily improving at fab partner GlobalFoundries (GF)
with Oct output in line, Nov ahead of plan; 2) Recent restructuring should improve
execution by reducing mgmt layers, with savings redeployed to platform and
software engineers, and new leadership focused on execution Mark Papermaster
(ex-Apple exec) is among the first of these; 3) HDD shortages from the Thailand
floods have not had any meaningful impact so far; 4) AMD is focused on x86 as
the platform of choice for both its mobile and PC strategies. Reiterate Buy, $9 PT.
Asia checks still show PC demand challenges; channel inventory very lean
Our checks with supply chain contacts in Asia show near-term demand remains
challenging, especially in China due to macro factors and a current demand airpocket
ahead of Chinese New Year in January. Although activity is expected to
pick up in late December, our checks show the current slowdown is worse than
normal. Channel inventory is very lean with one disti contact remarking that it is 3-
4 weeks below normal. European-related issues are affecting confidence to restock
although some expressed optimism about possible action from the Chinese govt.
News about cancellation of 28nm low-end at GF is misleading in our view
Post our checks, we view news last week about canceled 28nm low-end products at
GF misleading: 1) prior low-end 40nm products were fabbed at TSMC, 2) With the
yield issues at GF, we believe the status quo was extended, with TSMC to focus on
the low-end and GF on the high-end we do not view this as a major strategy shift.
Kind of like when you lose so bad at a race, that you slow down and say "I wasn't really racing anyway...'
Bad news if true...
I need AMD to stick around so my Intel CPUs stay affordable! The mobile market could be even tougher than the PC one, with Intel focusing on power efficiency to become more effective in that space and ARM already being popular. AMD switching to mobile would be trading one strong competitor for two strong competitors.
AMD taps servers for future growth
By Liau Yun Qing , ZDNet Asia on November 29, 2011 (1 day ago)
Microprocessors for desktops and laptops "bread and butter" for chipmaker but server business will play bigger role in determining AMD's future, exec says.
SINGAPORE--Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) plans to focus more on its server business as it is a higher-margin business compared with chips for desktops and laptops, even though the latter is the company's "bread and butter", one executive shared.
Greg Poole, director of field applications engineering at AMD, told ZDNet Asia in an interview Tuesday that making chips for desktops and laptops is its "bread and butter" business.
"If you look at the client computing business, which could be considered as our 'bread and butter', I'd say we have substantially more revenue generated from the client business including desktops and notebooks," he said.
However, this area is "largely a commodity business now" and is difficult for the company to hit the margins it wants to, the director added.
This is why the chipmaker will be focusing on its server-based products as these promises higher returns, Poole stated.
"The server space is extremely important to AMD and we are investing heavily to be successful...[With server processors,] you're providing mission-critical applications and solving the big problems of the world so you need more robust and reliable solutions. We know where our future needs to grow."
Poole's point was backed up by the company's third-quarter financial results. In the report released on Oct. 27, AMD stated that its computing solutions segment--which includes server processors--reached US$1.3 billion and was partially driven by "double-digit growth in server processor revenue driven by significantly higher ASP (average selling price)".
The Austin-based chipmaker will have to arrest the drop in server market share in the second quarter of 2011 though. According to IDC's findings, AMD slipped 0.6 percent to 5.5 percent in the global server and workstation processors segment during this period. Its main rival Intel, on the other hand, rose 0.6 percent to reach 94.5 percent, according to the ZDNet Asia report.
Quizzed how the company plans to increase its market share, Poole declined to comment saying he is not equipped to answer as he's "the engineering guy".
Working toward cooler servers
The executive did point out that enterprises' server requirements are evolving. In the past, the main consideration for server chips was "performance, performance, performance", but this has changed to include total cost of ownership (TCO) as well, he stated.
In an effort to help IT managers decrease their overall datacenter TCO and justify expenditure, Poole pointed out that AMD's latest Opteron server processor offers 16 cores and include more compute capability in a smaller footprint which, in turn, leads to lower power consumption in one's data center.
The chip also has power saving features such as thermal design power (TDP) capping that allows IT managers to set the parameters for power consumption and core power gating, said the director. This, he noted, would also help companies in saving energy consumption and costs.