So I think the buzz surrounding AMD revolves around price point, especially since AMD has been “ultrathin” for a long time now, offering miniscule sized components since early 2009. In other words, they have been ready for a awhile, the opportunity to be featured in an ultrathin notebook is just something that has yet to come to light.

For the consumer it means the anticipation of a product that competes directly with the Intel equipped Ultrabooks, but is less expensive. Now remember, Ultrabooks are designed to compete against the MacBook Air, and save consumers a lot of bread. So, buyers will expect any AMD equipped Ultrabook knockoff’s to be significantly less expensive than an actual Intel equipped Ultrabook.

Is this going to happen? And if so, when? And, will it actually be cheaper? The answer is, I don’t know. AMD’s new ultrathin 17mm Trinity processors are on their way to the market and ready to be used. There is no telling who will jump on the opportunity to use them in an Ultrabook competitor or how soon it will be.

Intel already announced their new Ivy Bridge platform Ultrabooks at CES. They’re hoping that will bring the price down to a more affordable $799 to $999. AMD, always being one to rain on Intel’s parade, is set to launch their own line of Ultrabooks, creatively called Ultrathin.

Digitimes is reporting that the new Ultrathins are set to be 10 to 20 percent cheaper than their Intel counterparts. The reduced cost is supposedly already attracting HP, Acer and Asus.

AMD is launching their Deccan platform with Krishna and Wichita APUs in June 2012 to compete with Intel’s Ivy Bridge. They will upgrade to the Kerala platform in 2013 with a Kabini APU to compete against Intel’s Haswell.

AMD is pushing their new Trinity-based APU onto the Ultrabook market to increase their 10 percent share in the world CPU market.

There is expected to be 75 new Ultrabooks based on Intel’s Ivy Bridge architecture in 2012 while only about 20 for AMD’s new Trinity architecture. The AMD models don’t offer any significant advantage over Intel’s Ultrabooks except in cost, which has always been AMD’s greatest advantage.

Digitimes is reporting, however, that some vendors fear AMD’s entry into the Ultrabook market will in turn rapidly lower the price of Intel’s Ultrabook models.

"Dirk became CEO during difficult times," said Bruce Claflin, Chairman of the Board. "He successfully stabilized AMD while simultaneously concluding strategic initiatives including the launch of GLOBALFOUNDRIES, the successful settlement of our litigation with Intel and delivering Fusion APUs to the market."

"However, the Board believes we have the opportunity to create increased shareholder value over time," he added. "This will require the company to have significant growth, establish market leadership and generate superior financial returns. We believe a change in leadership at this time will accelerate the company’s ability to accomplish these objectives."

The company has formed a CEO Search Committee to find a permanent replacement for Meyer. Seifert will continue to act as CFO, and interestingly has asked not to be considered for the permanent CEO position. Claflin has assumed the role of Executive Chairman of the Board and assumes additional responsibilities during the transition period.

"AMD enters 2011 with considerable product and financial momentum. Our roadmap for the year, including our ‘Llano’ APU and 32nm ‘Bulldozer’ based processors remain on track," said Seifert. "I believe we have significant opportunities to cement our leadership positions in several key market segments based on the strength of our upcoming products." 

AMD also announced that its fourth quarter revenue increased 2% to nearly $1.65 billion. This is from the company’s preliminary results. The final results will come on January 20.

As a result of the legal settlement announced today with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Intel Corporation adjusted its fourth-quarter financial expectations to reflect the impact of the $1.25 billion settlement payment. Intel now expects spending (R&D plus MG&A) in the fourth quarter to be approximately $4.2 billion, up from $2.9 billion. In addition, the effective tax rate is expected to be approximately 20 percent, down from 26 percent. All other expectations are unchanged.

Original Article: According to reports, technology giant Intel has agreed to pay $1.25 billion to settle multiple disputes with rival chip manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices or AMD. These two companies have been feuding for years. Actually, decades. The Wall Street Journal notes that the two companies have had disputes as far back as the 1980s.

In 2005, AMD filed a suit against Intel, claiming that Intel was engaging in unfair competition by offering rebates to Japanese PC makers, who in turn would eliminate or limit purchases of microprocessors made by AMD or Transmeta. Here’s a little more history about the current dispute (via Wikipedia):

The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court in Delaware in June 2005. The court date, originally scheduled for April 2009, has been pushed back to February 2010. One delay was due to the Korea Fair Trade Commission issuing Intel a fine of US$25.4 million. Some of the manufacturers involved in the case are Dell, HP, Gateway, Acer, Fujitsu, Sony, Toshiba, and Hitachi.

In February 2009 it was reported that Intel had spent at least US$116 million to date on legal representation on the antitrust suit. This was inferred from a US$50 million lawsuit filed by Intel against one of its insurers; the lawsuit disclosed that Intel had already exhausted US$66 million in coverage from two other insurers while fighting the antitrust lawsuit.

It appears that everything is now square between Intel and AMD, at least financially. The New York Times reports that the $1.25 billion settlement will resolve all of AMD’s regulatory complaints worldwide as well as suits in Delaware and Japan. In addition to the hefty sum of money, Intel has also agreed to abide by certain terms with regards to business practices.

Earlier this year, the EU fined Intel a record $1.5 billion. According to the NYT, the EU’s commissioner says the company’s settlement with AMD will not affect the EU’s decision on that fine.

Ouch.

Related Articles:

> EU Fines Intel A Record $1.45 Billion

> NY AG Hits Intel With Antitrust Suit

> Intel Apparently A Google Chrome OS Partner, Too

Jonathan Heiliger was interviewed onstage during GigaOm’s Structure 09 conference, and in response to a question about unexpected problems, said, "The biggest thing (that) surprised us is . . . less-than-anticipated performance gains from new microarchitectures — so, new CPUs from guys like Intel and AMD.  The performance gains they’re touting in the press, we’re not seeing in our applications."

Stephen Lawson reports that Heiliger also stated, "Google has done a great job designing and building its own servers for this kind of use."

So we seem to have Facebook either really lighting a fire under its suppliers, or perhaps leaning towards the DIY route.  And of course, both alternatives could lead to improved performance for less money.

Finally, a third possibility would involve some sort of lawsuit, but it sounds like Facebook is more at a stage of identifying issues than seeking reparation.

"Given that Intel has harmed millions of European consumers by deliberately acting to keep competitors out of the market for over five years, the size of the fine should come as no surprise," European Union Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes told a news briefing Wednesday.

Neelie Kroes

The Commission found that Intel gave wholly or partially hidden rebates to computer manufacturers on the condition they bought all, or almost all, their chips from Intel. Intel also made direct payments to a major retailer on the condition it stock only computers
 with Intel chips.

In addition, Intel made direct payments to computer manufacturers to halt or delay the launch of specific products containing competitors’ chips and to limit the sales channels available to these products.

The Commission has ordered Intel to cease the illegal practices immediately to the extent that they are still ongoing.

Intel President and CEO, Paul Otellini said the company plans to appeal at Europe’s Court of First Instance.

"Intel takes strong exception to this decision. We believe the decision is wrong and ignores the reality of a highly competitive microprocessor marketplace," he said.

The EU antitrust fine is the largest levied on an individual company since an 896-million euro penalty last year against glass maker Saint-Gobain for price fixing, and a 497-million euro fine in 2004 on Microsoft for abuse of dominance.

The Commission said Intel must pay the fine, which accounts for 4.15 percent of the company’s 2008 turnover, within three months of the date of the notification of the decision.

If it wasn’t for bad luck, the saying goes, I’d have no luck at all. Intel may be wishing for no luck instead, as the FTC initiated a formal look into Intel’s business practices.

“On June 4 the U.S. FTC served a subpoena related to Intel’s business practices with respect to competition in the microprocessor market,” Intel said in a statement. “By proceeding to a subpoena, the Commission will be able to obtain not only information that Intel has already committed to provide but also information from other parties.”

Other parties like means AMD, which filed a lawsuit against Intel in June 2005. AMD’s Hector Ruiz claimed in a spirited call with reporters that Intel engaged in a wide range of anticompetitive practices that hurt its ability to sell chips to computer manufacturers.

Intel averred that the current marketplace for chips shows competition exists. “Prices for microprocessors declined by 42.4 percent from 2000 to end of 2007,” Intel said, and also took a veiled swipe at AMD: “When competitors perform and execute the market rewards them. When they falter and under-perform the market responds accordingly.”

The New York Times noted how AMD fared well against Intel internationally with its accusations of anticompetitive activity. Japan, Korea, and Europe all witnessed legal actions by AMD against Intel.

The US case won’t see much activity in the courtroom for years. Due to what the Times described as a “crushing amount of evidence,” the start of the trial won’t happen until early in 2010.

AMD has contended in its lawsuits against Intel in the US and abroad that the company engaged in anticompetitive practices. These efforts kept AMD from finding more market share for its semiconductors in the world’s computers, CEO Hector Ruiz alleged.

Intel considers the competition a market issue, with AMD trying to get market share by litigation where they cannot get it by going head to head with the world’s dominant chip maker.

That dispute could be influenced by a new investigation announced by Attorney General Cuomo’s office today. His office tagged Intel with a wide-ranging subpoena for details about its pricing and business practices.

Cuomo wants to find out if Intel penalized computer manufacturers for purchasing competing products. He also wants to know if Intel paid customers to maintain exclusive relationships with them, and if Intel illegally cut off competitors like AMD from distribution channels.

All of those are claims AMD has made against Intel in its lawsuits. One dynamite quote about Intel’s practices came from former Compaq head Michael Capellas, who said Intel “had a gun to his head,” forcing him to stop buying AMD products.

]]> http://www.webpronews.com/new-york-probing-intel-on-antitrust-issue-2008-01/feed 0 http://www.webpronews.com/a-chat-with-amds-ceo-2007-09 http://www.webpronews.com/a-chat-with-amds-ceo-2007-09#comments Thu, 13 Sep 2007 21:18:19 +0000 Robert Scoble http://www.webpronews.com/?p=40405 On Monday AMD announced a new chip. Code-named “Barcelona.”

With a virtual presence within the online community, AMD hopes to extend its Developer Outreach program into a virtual space for meetings, lectures, training courses and networking opportunities for developers.

“The Second Life metaverse is a gathering place for both new and established developers,” said Paul Nolte, AMD project manager and contributing builder for the AMD Developer Central Second Life Pavilion.

“Through the interactive virtual experience at the pavilion, we hope to provide developers with an outlet to learn and grow, such as helping them to optimize native code for multi-threaded applications. Additionally, the treasure hunt and future developer challenges provide a creative outlet for developers to express their unique abilities.”

“As a developer, I am excited by the way Second Life invites ordinary users to try their hands at computer coding, while also providing an outlet for experienced programmers,” explained Adrienne Haik, co-founder of Metaversatility, the virtual world development company that designed key elements of the AMD Dev Central Island.

“We are impressed by AMD’s commitment to serving the needs of the SL community.”

As part of the launch celebration, AMD is sponsoring a three-month long treasure hunt contest with interactive Linden scripting language (LSL) and open source programming obstacles for contestants to overcome.

Perhaps AMD can lend the John Edwards camp a much-needed hand and ask contestants to construct a safety bubble around the headquarters to discourage pranksters.

And if the bubble just happens to keep Edwards supporters confined to a small area, they’ll just have to realize it’s for their own personal safety.

Yeah. That’s it. Safety.

AMD will award the grand prize winner of the developer challenge with a Dell Dimension E521 system, powered by a dual-core AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 processor, 4GB DDR2 SDRAM, 320GB Serial ATA Hard Drive, 20-inch widescreen digital flat panel monitor, and more.

Not too shabby at all.