Rough times for AMD

Posted on Monday, January 15 2007 @ 18:51 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
AMD had a few good years thanks to its superb K8 architecture, allowing them to raise their marketshare from 15.9% in the third quarter of 2004 to 23.3% in the third quarter of 2006.

But Intel made a big comeback with its Core platform last year, giving AMD a headache. AMD's fourth quarter financial results aren't know yet but AMD issued a warning last week that their revenue and profit will be lower than expected because of lower average selling prices.

After this announcement the stock market punished AMD, causing a 9.51% drop from $20.18 on Thursday to $18.26 on Friday.

DailyTech reports AMD will need to get new products out to consumers and businesses to battle this drought.
While the pricing war hasn't been very beneficial to AMD's bottom line, AMD's progress when it comes to new manufacturing process technology has also been a hindrance. AMD has been slow to move to 65nm designs, while Intel has been humming along with 65nm processors for a year. And just as AMD is getting its feet wet with 65nm processors, Intel has already begun sampling 45nm Penryn processors and is expected to bring production 45nm processors to market in the second half of 2007.

Intel's Core-based processors have also taken away much if not all of the performance advantage that AMD processors once held and have been making the rounds in the notebook, desktop and server segments. "I think it came from Intel having very successfully come up with new processors and ramping production up much more quickly than anyone expected," said JoAnne Feeney, managing director with FTN Midwest Securities.
New innovative products are needed to get AMD back on its feet. Fortunately the company still has a few tricks up its sleeve like native quad-core processors and new processors for the notebook market. However, for the immediate future it looks like AMD may simple have to rely on Windows Vista for a surge in its processor business.


About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.



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