AMD works harder for less in 2011 – annual results in

Against a backdrop of global economic crisis over the past 4 years, any increase in revenues should be met with good cheer. You would think. Not in Sunnyvale or Wall Street however.

While AMD does have a channel presence, there’s no doubt that it has been doing much better with the Multi-National Corporations (MNCs) like Dell, Acer, HP etc. Indeed, El Presidente, Rory Read was keen to say “AMD shipped more than 30 million APU’s in 2011, resulting in record annual notebook revenue”.

So that’s a plus for the Fusion product and the MNC team, powered by sales athletes like John Byrne – no surprises there.

Against that, sales of GPUs into notebooks dropped by around 10%, showing a movement in the market as a whole, toward single chip solutions where possible. Taiwanese manufacturers chasing production savings? Shocker.

Against a backdrop of global economic crisis over the past 4 years, any increase in revenues should be met with good cheer. You would think. Not in Sunnyvale or Wall Street however.

While AMD does have a channel presence, there’s no doubt that it has been doing much better with the Multi-National Corporations (MNCs) like Dell, Acer, HP etc. Indeed, El Presidente, Rory Read was keen to say “AMD shipped more than 30 million APU’s in 2011, resulting in record annual notebook revenue”.

So that’s a plus for the Fusion product and the MNC team, powered by sales athletes like John Byrne – no surprises there.

Against that, sales of GPUs into notebooks dropped by around 10%, showing a movement in the market as a whole, toward single chip solutions where possible. Taiwanese manufacturers chasing production savings? Shocker.

Also, internally, AMD had hoped for a lot more from its Bulldozer development teams – especially with Intel on the verge of kick-starting its Ivy Bridge business around CeBIT in March. This time last year, Intel was in the throws of the Cougar Point recall for Sandybridge.

To help counter the onslaught of Intel and the all-conquering approach of the Cuppertino crew, AMD has brought in former Apple/Cisco top tech Mark Papermaster. Given that he’s been a familiar site around 6th Street in Austin since his college days, he should find it easy to integrate and get to grips with AMD’s processor teams. The question is, “Can he do anything useful to help AMD prepare for Haswell in 2013 – or is it already too late?”

So far, AMD’s focus has been on adding more and more cores to each chip – but each core hasn’t managed to deliver enough work per cycle to effectively challenge the Core 2 processors. AMD will be hoping that the recruitment of former Intel engineer Rajan Naik as its new Head of Strategy will help.

Losing 24 cents per share is relatively small compared to some of AMD’s past financials, but the real problem is that they have announced their new figures around the same time as Apple. Each Apple share has just attracted a dividend of around $8.50 – in a world that’s claiming financial distress, this seems unreal.

Commenting on a year that’s seen income increase from $6.49 to $6.57 billion, while delivering a loss of $177 million, Read said “We begin 2012 clear on our priorities and opportunities. We are building an AMD that consistently delivers on its commitments”. When you consider the kind of opposition he’s up against, that’s superhero talk. Wall Street must be crossing its fingers for a resurgence.

Source: kitguru.net

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AMD Quietly Adopting "Tick-Tock" Model for Micro-Architectures

Intel Corp.'s so-called "tick-tock" model of transitioning to new manufacturing processes and micro-architectures has proved to be very efficient in making Intel the maker of the highest-performance microprocessors. Apparently, its smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices is also plotting something similar, but a bit differently.

As it appears from AMD's documents observed by an X-bit labs reader (in the comments for this news-story), starting from Piledriver micro-architecture and going forward, AMD's Fusion accelerated processing units (chips that integrate both x86 and stream processing cores) will feature "reduced", or "early" micro-architectural feature-set, whereas central processing units (CPUs) based on new designs will feature "full" or "late" feature-set. As a result, x86 performance of the former will be lower than x86 performance of the latter.

AMD to Use Slightly Different Micro-Architectures for APUs and CPUs

Intel Corp.'s so-called "tick-tock" model of transitioning to new manufacturing processes and micro-architectures has proved to be very efficient in making Intel the maker of the highest-performance microprocessors. Apparently, its smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices is also plotting something similar, but a bit differently.

As it appears from AMD's documents observed by an X-bit labs reader (in the comments for this news-story), starting from Piledriver micro-architecture and going forward, AMD's Fusion accelerated processing units (chips that integrate both x86 and stream processing cores) will feature "reduced", or "early" micro-architectural feature-set, whereas central processing units (CPUs) based on new designs will feature "full" or "late" feature-set. As a result, x86 performance of the former will be lower than x86 performance of the latter.

AMD wants APUs to be released earlier than fully-fledged CPUs since they are aimed at broader segment of the market. Therefore, x86 cores of Fusion chips will sport "reduced" next-generation micro-architecture (and will fully support previous-gen features and capabilities) in order to cut their development time and reduce their die size. CPUs will come to market several months after APUs and will feature more advanced x86 cores that will support more new instructions and therefore will offer better x86 performance.

For example, only fully-fledged "late" Piledriver inside Viperfish (code-name of next-gen server/desktop die design, the successor of Orochi that powers FX and Opteron chips) will be able to execute numerous new instructions as well as will receive instructions per clock (IPC) increase. Even though reduced "early" Piledriver inside code-named Trinity APUs will be more advanced than the original Bulldozer, the x86 cores are projected to be slightly less efficient than those of the full Piledriver.

The "tick-tock"-like approach is expected to allow AMD to reduce time-to-market of its new products and ensure that innovations do not negatively affect yields. On the other hand, it will create difficulties for software makers who will have to take into account that x86 cores within one generation of APUs and CPUs are slightly different. In addition, it should be noted that AMD's "tick-tock" has nothing to do with transitions to newer process technologies and is almost completely about micro-architectures.

AMD did not comment on the news-story, but the company is projected to reveal more about its future plans at the forthcoming financial analyst day on the 2nd of February, 2012.

Source: xbitlabs.com

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AMD pulls "blind test" at recent show

AMD has been in sailing through some rough PR waters recently, especially over the overhyped FX-series CPU launch, but has now pulled a rather interesting and good PR stunt at the AMD and HardOCP FX GamExperience held in Dallas, Texas a few days ago. The test was interestingly named AMD Reality Check and was consisting of two groups of similar priced systems running on two different CPUs where users, not knowing which one is Intel and which one is AMD, could decide the better one in this blind-test.

For a first test, AMD has setup two US $500 priced systems. First one was running Intel's Core i3-2105. ASRock's H61 and Intel HD Graphics 3000 while the second one was running AMD's A8-3850 Llano APU with its Radeon HD 6550D graphcis and ASRock A55 motherboard. The rest of the components were the same and this comparison was rather doomed for Intel it is pretty much clear that AMD will take the victory.

FX-8150 gets more votes than Core i7-2700k

AMD has been in sailing through some rough PR waters recently, especially over the overhyped FX-series CPU launch, but has now pulled a rather interesting and good PR stunt at the AMD and HardOCP FX GamExperience held in Dallas, Texas a few days ago. The test was interestingly named AMD Reality Check and was consisting of two groups of similar priced systems running on two different CPUs where users, not knowing which one is Intel and which one is AMD, could decide the better one in this blind-test.

For a first test, AMD has setup two US $500 priced systems. First one was running Intel's Core i3-2105. ASRock's H61 and Intel HD Graphics 3000 while the second one was running AMD's A8-3850 Llano APU with its Radeon HD 6550D graphcis and ASRock A55 motherboard. The rest of the components were the same and this comparison was rather doomed for Intel it is pretty much clear that AMD will take the victory. Out of 143 users, five voted for Intel, two have seen no difference and 136 voted for AMD one.

The second group was a bit more interesting as we were looking at two high-end systems both running with AMD's latest Radeon HD 7970 Tahiti graphics card in Eyefinity setup. The first one was powered by Intel's Core i7-2700k CPU on AsRock's P67 Fatal1ty motherboard while the second one was running AMD's FX-8150 CPU on Asrock 990FX Fatal1ty motherboard. More surprisingly, AMD was aiming to get a "no difference" feedback here, especially because the FX-8150 retails at US $269.99 and Intel's Core i7-2700k is priced at US $369.99.

Out of 141 users, only 28 said that there was no difference between two systems. AMD was surprised to see that 73 votes went to AMD FX-8150 system and 40 went for Intel's Core i7-2700k. Quite a suprise and a good PR stunt by AMD's team.

Of course, we don't know any details behind the test other than what AMD is saying and what we've seen at sites that were covering the event.

You can check out more details over at Legitreviews.com.

Source: fudzilla.com

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AMD Celebrates Shipment of Over Thirty Million Fusion APUs

Although Fusion accelerated processing units (APUs) and Bulldozer micro-architecture are in many ways revolutionary, Advanced Micro Devices has failed to take a major advantage of its latest technologies in 2011, based on the recent annual financial report of the company. AMD's annual sales totaled $6.57 billion, only 1% higher compared to 2010.

But the year 2011 was not a complete failure for the Sunnyvale, California-based chip designer. The company did ship thirty million of its Fusion APUs, which let AMD to seriously enter on the market of netbooks and address notebooks with competitive solutions. The company also finally managed to start mass production of chips powered by Bulldozer micro-architecture and expects to regain market share on the server front. Finally, the firm stabilized its presence on the graphics cards market.

AMD's Sales Grow 1% Year-on-Year

Although Fusion accelerated processing units (APUs) and Bulldozer micro-architecture are in many ways revolutionary, Advanced Micro Devices has failed to take a major advantage of its latest technologies in 2011, based on the recent annual financial report of the company. AMD's annual sales totaled $6.57 billion, only 1% higher compared to 2010.

But the year 2011 was not a complete failure for the Sunnyvale, California-based chip designer. The company did ship thirty million of its Fusion APUs, which let AMD to seriously enter on the market of netbooks and address notebooks with competitive solutions. The company also finally managed to start mass production of chips powered by Bulldozer micro-architecture and expects to regain market share on the server front. Finally, the firm stabilized its presence on the graphics cards market.

"AMD shipped more than 30 million APU’s in 2011, resulting in record annual notebook revenue. The unmatched combination of computing and graphics capabilities in our low-power ‘Brazos’ platform has made it our fastest ramping platform ever, paving the way for continued growth in key segments and geographies. Our server business has re-gained momentum, delivering two consecutive quarters of strong sequential growth," said Rory Read, AMD president and chief executive officer.

AMD reported Q4 2011 revenue of $1.69 billion, net loss of $177 million, or $0.24 per share, and operating income of $71 million. The company blames poor sales of discrete graphics cards in the fourth quarter as well as restructuring charges in its Q4's loss.

Computing Solutions segment revenue increased 2% sequentially and 7% year-over-year to $1.3 billion. The sequential increase was driven by double digit growth in server and chipset revenue. The year-over-year increase was driven by higher mobile processor and chipset revenue. In Q4 2011, APUs accounted for nearly 100% of mobile microprocessors shipped, and more than 60% of total client microprocessors shipped. AMD also achieved quarterly record client revenue driven by an increase in supply of Llano APUs. Operating income of CS group was $165 million, compared with $149 million in Q3 2011 and $91 million in Q4 2010.

Graphics segment revenue decreased 5% sequentially and 10% year-over-year to $382 million. The sequential decrease was driven primarily by a decline in mobile graphics processor unit (GPU) shipments, partially offset by a seasonal increase in game console revenue. The year-over-year decrease was primarily driven by decreased desktop and add-in board (AIB) graphics revenue. Operating income was $27 million, compared with $12 million in Q3 2011 and $68 million in Q4 2010. GPU ASP increased sequentially and year-over-year.

AMD expects revenue in Q1 2012 to decrease 8%, plus or minus 3%, sequentially for the first quarter of 2012. Operating expenses are expected to be approximately $590 million.

Source: xbitlabs.com

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Intel calls the successor to Romley……

What do you call the successor to Romley, aka Sandy Bridge-EP? It is Homley? Courtley? Tepidly? Rapidly? No, the Haswell-EP platform is called Grantly, possibly spelled Grantley. Either way, Intel isn’t talking about it yet, they seem to still be in shock that the name Haswell was released officially. Expect more when the palpitations die down in Santa Clara, probably in Q3 sometime.

No, it isn't Garishly as some have suggested

What do you call the successor to Romley, aka Sandy Bridge-EP? It is Homley? Courtley? Tepidly? Rapidly? No, the Haswell-EP platform is called Grantly, possibly spelled Grantley. Either way, Intel isn’t talking about it yet, they seem to still be in shock that the name Haswell was released officially. Expect more when the palpitations die down in Santa Clara, probably in Q3 sometime.

Source: semiaccurate.com

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Intel to produce Atom SoCs with 4G

Chipzilla hopes to steal a march on AMD by producing Atom SoCs with built-in 4G support.

CEO Paul Otellini reportedly told financial analysts that wireless wide area network (WWAN) functionality will be integrated into its SoCs developed from smartphones and tablets. He said that this will help Intel's SoC solution look a bit different from ARM's non-x86 design which is currently used in chips offered by Nvidia, and Qualcomm.

Otellini said that he wanted to grow Infineon wireless technology capability up by integrating the apps processor and the communication processors onto the same chip, while driving initial positions in apps processors from the top down.

Will make us better than AMD

Chipzilla hopes to steal a march on AMD by producing Atom SoCs with built-in 4G support.

CEO Paul Otellini reportedly told financial analysts that wireless wide area network (WWAN) functionality will be integrated into its SoCs developed from smartphones and tablets. He said that this will help Intel's SoC solution look a bit different from ARM's non-x86 design which is currently used in chips offered by Nvidia, and Qualcomm.

Otellini said that he wanted to grow Infineon wireless technology capability up by integrating the apps processor and the communication processors onto the same chip, while driving initial positions in apps processors from the top down.

Intel bought Infineon a year ago with the aim of merging Intel’s existing communication portfolio with wireless mobility and cellular platforms.

He said it would bring together Intel’s strengths in WiFi and 4G WiMAX with WLS’ leadership in 2G and 3G, and a combined path to accelerate 4G LTE.

Source: fudzilla.com

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Arctic Cooling Reportedly Plans to Sue AMD for "Fusion" Trademark

Arctic Cooling, a well-known supplier of power supply units (PSUs), cooling systems and other PC accessories, has reportedly decided to sue Advanced Micro Devices in a bid to prohibit the chip company from using Fusion name to describe its chips that integrate x86 processing cores with Radeon stream processors on the same piece of silicon.

Arctic has been using Fusion brand to sell its power supply units for some time now and first applied for registration of the trademark back in early 2006. According to Heise.de web-site, Arctic attempted to negotiate with AMD, but the latter continues to use the word "Fusion" to classify its initiatives and products. The maker of PSUs, coolers and other products believes that usage of "Fusion" trademark infringes its rights.

Arctic Wants AMD to Stop Using "Fusion" Trademark

Arctic Cooling, a well-known supplier of power supply units (PSUs), cooling systems and other PC accessories, has reportedly decided to sue Advanced Micro Devices in a bid to prohibit the chip company from using Fusion name to describe its chips that integrate x86 processing cores with Radeon stream processors on the same piece of silicon.

Arctic has been using Fusion brand to sell its power supply units for some time now and first applied for registration of the trademark back in early 2006. According to Heise.de web-site, Arctic attempted to negotiate with AMD, but the latter continues to use the word "Fusion" to classify its initiatives and products. The maker of PSUs, coolers and other products believes that usage of "Fusion" trademark infringes its rights.

While Arctic may own rights for the Fusion trademark, it is hardly unlikely that AMD will be ordered to stop selling its popular Fusion chips since it is pretty hard to prove that buyers acquire processors instead of PSUs or wise-versa. In fact, the industry knows a lot of examples when the same trademark is used for different products. For example, Art Lebedev studio sells Optimus keyboards, LG Electronics ships Optimus smartphones and Nvidia Corp. calls its power consumption optimization technology as Optimus.

AMD did not comment on the news-story.

Source: xbitlabs.com

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ARM Doesn't See Intel as a Competitive Threat

Following Intel's announcement of its Medfield smartphone processor for 2012 commercial products, ARM played down the potential impact of Intel's debut product and Intel's competitive strength. In an article posted by Digitimes, Jeff Chu, ARM's director of consumer, client computing, implied that Intel cannot succeed because it does not offer different products for different purposes. As a result, Intel cannot support the needs of market segmentation, ARM said.

Intel has mainly been beating the drums of performance as an advantage of Medfield over ARM products, and is using its social channels to aggressively convey the message. ARM does not seem to be very concerned, at least not publicly, which is somewhat reminiscent of AMD's communication strategy just prior to the introduction of Intel's Core 2 processors in 2006, which was a turning point for the consumer CPU market.

Saber rattling is often a sure sign for two parties preparing their armies for a bloody battle.

Following Intel's announcement of its Medfield smartphone processor for 2012 commercial products, ARM played down the potential impact of Intel's debut product and Intel's competitive strength. In an article posted by Digitimes, Jeff Chu, ARM's director of consumer, client computing, implied that Intel cannot succeed because it does not offer different products for different purposes. As a result, Intel cannot support the needs of market segmentation, ARM said.

Intel has mainly been beating the drums of performance as an advantage of Medfield over ARM products, and is using its social channels to aggressively convey the message. ARM does not seem to be very concerned, at least not publicly, which is somewhat reminiscent of AMD's communication strategy just prior to the introduction of Intel's Core 2 processors in 2006, which was a turning point for the consumer CPU market. It is difficult to say how ARM and Intel really view each other, but the current PR strategy appears to be showing confidence while virtually ignoring obvious strengths of the rival. Market position, credibility, available platforms and vendor support are on ARM's side, while manufacturing as well as engineering prowess are on Intel's side.

2012 will reveal more of those core strengths and their values when ARM enters the subnotebook race with Windows 8 support and Intel enters the smartphone arena.

Source: tomshardware.com

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Intel insurance inside for overclocked processors

The rather un-sexily titled ‘Performance Tuning Protection Plan’ that is being offered by Intel, gives you the chance to experiment like never before – to release the evil boffin inside you and zap your expensive ship with more volts than a Monty Python parrot.

In the past, you’ve held back because of worries about what would happen if you push the processor too far.

The rather un-sexily titled ‘Performance Tuning Protection Plan’ that is being offered by Intel, gives you the chance to experiment like never before – to release the evil boffin inside you and zap your expensive ship with more volts than a Monty Python parrot.

In the past, you’ve held back because of worries about what would happen if you push the processor too far.

No more.

Intel’s clever little insurance pack takes the natural 3-year warranty of the processor if ‘Used under sensible conditions and within the parameters of normal’ – and gives it a nice shot of steroids.

‘The Plan’ allows you a single processor replacement, hassle-free, from our customer support. In other words, if your ‘K’ processor fails because you channelled half the national grid through it with on a stock cooler for comfort… then Intel’s minions will still replace it without quibble.

So how much does the Performance Tuning Protection Plan cost?

With Intel’s revenues around one Billion below where it was hoping, it looks like they have ‘pulled a Dixons’ and brought out insurance that most overclockers will never need. Still, with the chips costing so much, can you ignore the offer. We have it on good authority from sources close to Intel’s PR department, that Don Otellini has horses heads lined up for anyone who thinks they can ignore this offer. Or was that Don Huddy? We claim omerta.

Source: kitguru.net

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Intel Core i7-3820 comes on February 13

The first and only quad-core Sandy Bridge E processor is scheduled to launch on February 13th. Intel sometimes likes and needs to adjust the launch date, but this one looks to be a solid date.

The new CPU will be affordable quad core with 3.6GHz clock and 3.9GHz turbo ability, quad-channel memory support as well as 10MB cache. The suggested retail price is $285 which is much better than the $999 that you have to spend for the six-core i7 3960 clocked at 3.3GHz.

The new Core i7-3820 socket 2011 with its $285 price is also much better than $583 that Intel charges for the current Core i7 socket 2011 runner up, the Core i7 3930 CPU clocked at 3.2GHz, and cache trimmed to 12MB.

That is the plan

The first and only quad-core Sandy Bridge E processor is scheduled to launch on February 13th. Intel sometimes likes and needs to adjust the launch date, but this one looks to be a solid date.

The new CPU will be affordable quad core with 3.6GHz clock and 3.9GHz turbo ability, quad-channel memory support as well as 10MB cache. The suggested retail price is $285 which is much better than the $999 that you have to spend for the six-core i7 3960 clocked at 3.3GHz.

The new Core i7-3820 socket 2011 with its $285 price is also much better than $583 that Intel charges for the current Core i7 socket 2011 runner up, the Core i7 3930 CPU clocked at 3.2GHz, and cache trimmed to 12MB.

The big date is February 13th and we believe the Core i7-3820 looks like a pretty good deal.

Source: fudzilla.com

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Z77 Ivy Bridge boards could launch today

Motherboard manufacturers are telling us that some of their Z77 based motherboards are ready and could launch today.

They have been testing them for months now and silicon ready for production is already available. Our sources indicate that if Intel had enough CPUs, they would simply launch the boards within weeks. The big thing that this platform brings is native USB 3.0 support, something that we’ve all been missing for a while, at least on Intel platforms.

In real life Z67 or any other 6-series boards had USB 3.0 via third party controllers, but for the most part this one was working quite fine. Let’s see if Intel’s implementation can make things faster, and cheaper for that matter.

CPUs still not ready

Motherboard manufacturers are telling us that some of their Z77 based motherboards are ready and could launch today.

They have been testing them for months now and silicon ready for production is already available. Our sources indicate that if Intel had enough CPUs, they would simply launch the boards within weeks. The big thing that this platform brings is native USB 3.0 support, something that we’ve all been missing for a while, at least on Intel platforms.

In real life Z67 or any other 6-series boards had USB 3.0 via third party controllers, but for the most part this one was working quite fine. Let’s see if Intel’s implementation can make things faster, and cheaper for that matter.

Despite this, Intel still looks like a winner, as it will simply overtake its own part of the market, currently dominated by 6-series chipset. Intel also has business version of chipset in the works, and talking a lot of care about security these days is quite appealing for business users.

The Z77 looks like a decent chipset and platform, provided you can wait for new CPUs.

Source: fudzilla.com

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Commentary: FX Marketing

AMD’s (NYSE:AMD) marketing has been the center of much community ire as of late. Issues like the mismatch between expectations for, and the actual performance of, its FX series CPU have cost AMD dearly in terms of credibility in the enthusiast community. Despite this, rumors have been floating around that sales of AMD’s FX CPU have actually met their targets. With sales targets at around ten percent of revenue AMD’s sales reps are definitely worthy of some praise for managing to convince OEMs to adopt the arguably minor improvement that the FX series represents over the older Phenom II branded processors. But the way that AMD is marketing its long awaited “Bulldozer” is bothering me.

Trading enthusiast mind share for consumer sales

AMD’s (NYSE:AMD) marketing has been the center of much community ire as of late. Issues like the mismatch between expectations for, and the actual performance of, its FX series CPU have cost AMD dearly in terms of credibility in the enthusiast community. Despite this, rumors have been floating around that sales of AMD’s FX CPU have actually met their targets. With sales targets at around ten percent of revenue AMD’s sales reps are definitely worthy of some praise for managing to convince OEMs to adopt the arguably minor improvement that the FX series represents over the older Phenom II branded processors. But the way that AMD is marketing its long awaited “Bulldozer” is bothering me.

Let review the background first. I’m sure that you all know about the performance issues of AMD’s FX series CPUs which have been widely covered. A recent Tom’s Hardware article confirmed that AMD was unable to make good on its promises of significantly improved efficiency over the last generation of AMD CPUs. Saying that, “We’re pretty sure something went wrong along the way.” So now that we’re all firm on the general feeling of meh that the FX series of processors engender let’s get back to the way AMD’s marketing them.

“Unlock and load.” Okay, overclocking and gun references, doing good… “Blow away the competition…” Hmm, I doubt any of the reviewers that have FX-8150′s and I5-2500K’s running side by side would say that Intel got blown away… “…with the unrestrained power of an AMD FX processor.” More than silly internet memes though, it’s really hard to take this ad seriously because of how out of touch that statement is with the competitive landscape that AMD is trying to navigate.

With the Phenom II series AMD didn’t tell us that it’s ~$250 CPU blew away with competition with unrestrained performance. Instead they offered a product that, while often slower than their Intel based competition, offered more cores, unlock-able cores, and pricing that made those processors a strong value proposition. Admittedly, this ad gets better as it goes along. These CPUs are fully unlocked and arguably their pricing is competitive. Although, it’s a bit of a stretch to call the performance levels of the FX series aggressive. And as far as “lighting fast responsiveness” goes, pretty much any semi-modern desktop computing platform will offer that if you drop an SSD into it. So basically what we’re left with is an ad that turns off anyone that bothered to read a review of AMD’s FX and then proceeds to some give actual reasons to buy it only after the point that everyone would have quit reading it anyway. *Sigh*

This is not to say that AMD marketing efforts for FX processors is worse than its campaign for the old Phenom II. On the contrary the red, black, and white color scheme is a keeper. But AMD really needs to treat its enthusiast customer base with more respect. The overclocking events and give aways are great tools to build momentum and customer support, but white washing the competitive situation with increasingly flashy buzz words is taking a short term gain at the expense of building long term trust. Is this the right way to make the best of tough competitive position? In my opinion no. But obviously someone at AMD thinks that it is, and I hope for the sake of AMD’s long term CPU business that they did their homework.

Source: semiaccurate.com

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