The rise and fall of AMD: How an underdog stuck it to Intel
In part one of this two-part series, we look at the evolution of AMD from a second-source supplier for companies using Intel processors towards CEO Hector Ruiz's ideal of a "premium" chipmaker that could sell to the likes of Dell and Intel.
On June 10, 2000, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) wanted to partyand party big. The companys CEO, Jerry Sanders, arranged to rent out the entire San Jose Arena (now called the HP Pavilion) and then paid big bucks to bring in Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, the husband-and-wife country music superstars.
Employees could bring anybody, your wife, your kids, your friendsit was big doings. There were celebrations, gifts and awards, recalled Fran Barton, who served as AMDs chief financial officer from 1998 to 2001. The boss even got in on the fun. [Sanders] was on a high wire, he did a unicycle ride. It was totally Hollywood. He could really put on a show when he wanted to put on a show.
And why not celebrate in style? AMDs successful Athlon chipsArs named the Athlon its "CPU of the Year" in 1999had finally put the screws to archrival Intel, and in 2000 the company earned nearly $1 billion in profits.
By 2005, years of solid chip design and technological execution had the company walking with a swagger, as seen in marketing stunts which challenged Intel's then-current server processors to a "dual-core duel. Nowhere was this attitude more apparent than AMD's 2005 lawsuit against Intel for anti-competitive business practices.
http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/04/the-rise-and-fall-of-amd-how-an-underdog-stuck-it-to-intel/
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)In my experience they're more reliable, don't die as easily, are much easier to overclock and a hell of a lot cheaper.
Mnpaul
(3,655 posts)Last edited Tue Apr 23, 2013, 12:55 AM - Edit history (1)
Yanked it out and replaced it with a K6-2 400. Their adding memory in pairs crap was the reason. They always seem to go with these expensive requirements for upgrades. I can't see paying a $100 premium for a mother board either. Even the high end AMD based boards are usually cheaper than the basic Intel boards.
jrandom421
(1,005 posts)And Intel's engineering and manufacturing crushed AMD's market share, after AMD's questionable acquisition of ATI.