AMD Piledriver rumours ... and expert conjecture

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Reynod

Reynod

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Mar 26, 2007
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We have had several requests for a sticky on AMD's yet to be released Piledriver architecture ... so here it is.

I want to make a few things clear though.

Post a question relevant to the topic, or information about the topic, or it will be deleted.

Post any negative personal comments about another user ... and they will be deleted.

Post flame baiting comments about the blue, red and green team and they will be deleted.

Enjoy ...
 
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http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/29235-amd-faces-cash-crunch

AMD's cash supply has fell to $1.5 billion in the third quarter, shedding $279 million from the previous period. If this goes on the company might only have $600 million in the bank by this time next year. AMD has $2.04 billion of debt.
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Not sustainable for too much longer. AMD needs cash, today, not a year from now. I'm suspecting a spin-off in the VERY near future, unless PD significantly improves AMD's cash flow.
 
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Not quite. Zambezi was bad for servers, but Vishera proved to be way better in the areas that matter for servers: consumption and performance.

I don't know if they can sway clients from Intel in mass quantity; really doubt it, but at least now they can get some more clients in more budget oriented servers.

That could help them improve cash flow in the short term. Consumer sales could help them as well. Vishera is an upgrade for most people now, so that counts as well.

Cheers!
 
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And that, folks, is precisely why a company's credit rating does matter. If ya ain't got no cash, then ya gonna need credit, no matter what the loansharks wanna charge. If ya can't get credit, then it's coitens fer soiten 😛

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-25/amd-faces-looming-cash-crunch-amid-quest-for-new-markets-tech.html?cmpid=msnmoney

AMD Faces Looming Cash Crunch Amid Quest for New Markets

Chief Executive Officer Rory Read is firing workers to pare expenses as the chipmaker’s sales slide. Still, he can’t cut costs fast enough to head off his next looming challenge: shrinking cash reserves. Cash declined to $1.5 billion in the third quarter, shedding $279 million from the previous period.

If the trend continues, cash levels may drop to $600 million by this time next year, according to an estimate by Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. That compares with the $1.1 billion in reserves the company said it requires, and a quarterly operating expense target of $450 million. AMD has $2.04 billion of debt.

“I’d never been worried about cash flow; I am now worried,” said Stacy Rasgon, an analyst at Bernstein.

Read said the decline of the PC market -- which provides 85 percent of AMD’s sales -- happened faster than he expected and left him with less time to remake the company. As AMD concentrates on developing products for new markets, Rasgon, Chris Caso at Susquehanna International Group and Craig Berger at FBR Capital Markets are among analysts who say they’re concerned AMD might run out of money before any transformation can happen.

Rasgon, who cut his rating on the stock to market perform earlier this month, said a lack of compelling new products from AMD could leave the Sunnyvale, California-based company with as little as $300 million by the end of next year, he said.

Amid a squeeze by the weak economy and changing consumer tastes, the global PC market will contract by 1.2 percent to 348.7 million units this year, according to IHS ISuppli. That would be the first annual decline since 2001.

As the market shrinks, AMD’s spot as the alternative to Intel (INTC) in PC processors is also being threatened by the entrance of companies such as Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) and Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) At the same time, computer makers looking to move into tablets -- responding to the success of Apple Inc.’s iPad -- may turn away from AMD, according to Pat Becker Jr., a fund manager at Becker Capital Management in Portland, Oregon.

“You have to wonder if this is it for AMD,” Becker said. “Are they done?”
...
AMD interim Chief Financial Officer Devinder Kumar, who stepped in last month after the resignation of Thomas Seifert, said that once AMD completes its operating-expense cuts, cash reserves of $700 million to $800 million will be sufficient. In addition, AMD is negotiating with a chip supplier, Globalfoundries Inc., to reduce purchase commitments and therefore expenses, he said.
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Like I said before, their GPU division is standing straight, and if they manage to release their next generation of GPU's in december/january, that would be 3 months before nvidia plans to release its 700 series. AMD also promises to launch them at much more reasonable prices than last time around. If they pull that off, the company might just make a fat buck out of it.
 
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not going to happen really. AMD should start making money again in the 4th quarter even if its not much.
 
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not in gaming..
but still, 8 weak cores with stronger but still weak single core performance than Bulldozer to me is still behind where it should be.
 
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APU's and HD Radeon is what's keeping AMD operating right now.
doing well in the server platform are they.?
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True, although the graphics part of AMD is still pretty small compared to the rest of it.

http://www.answers.com/topic/ati-technologies-inc

From desktops to laptops, workstations to handheld devices, video game consoles to integrated solutions, ATI has established itself as a world leader in the design and manufacture of innovative 3D graphics solutions.

Key Dates

1985: Company is founded.
1993: Company goes public and is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
1999: ATI becomes largest chip maker in world.
2000: ATI is listed on the NASDAQ.
2004: Founder retires.

Type: Public Company
Address: 1 Commerce Valley Drive East, Markham, L3T 7X6, Canada
Telephone: (905) 882-2600
Fax: (905) 882-2620
Web: http://www.ati.com
Employees: 2,700
Sales: $2.22 billion (2005)
Stock Exchanges: NASDAQ Toronto
Ticker Symbol: ATYT; ATY
Incorporated: 1985 as Array Technology Inc.
...
In 2004 ATI continued to surge, as sales approached $2 billion and net income totaled $204.8 million. Nvidia staged a comback in 2005 by launching a popular dual graphics card, while ATI had nothing comparable to offer for several months. Although sales increased to more than $2.2 billion in 2005, net income plummeted to $16.9 million. ATI enjoyed strong business the first quarter of 2006, but the future would remain competitive and uncertain. Not only would it have to continue to slug it out with Nvidia at the high-end of computer-graphics chips, they both faced increasing competition from giant Intel, which was gaining market share by making performance improvements to its mainstream graphics chips.
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So basically you're looking at a 3,000 person company being run at a 9,500 person level (after the layoffs at AMD). Profit-wise, ATI has never approached that golden year of 2004 when they exceeded $200M. So this is why I still think AMD could have waited 6 months and bought ATI for half of that $5.4Bn - they were in the same boat against nVidia as AMD is against Intel right now...
 
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?? Did you see Read's conference call last week? Guidance for Q4 is 10% down from Q3, and they don't expect to 'break even' until Q3 of next year..
 
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granted 50% was a bit of a stretch, but in gaming, the 8350 is now the better choice over the phenom II.

skyrim%201920.png


granted skyrim favors intel, there is no denying that PD improved over Phenom II where BD failed. Skyrim itself scales to 4 cores and stops. It will not load on the additional 4 cores on the 8xxx cpus, so core count is not why its faster.
 
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and again...
8 cores (4 modules) vs the true quad core of the Deneb C3...
SHAMEFUL..

I hear your argument about Skyrim and past four cores.
we will see what the FX-4350 (or whatever) will do against the 980BE..
 
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The thing n00b points out is close enough to the truth. Maybe clock per clock it is still weaker, but they are close; look at the benchies where they're at 4Ghz.

Remember, that 980 has no OC on it's back as well; if you push it to 4.3Ghz (which is actually achievable on the 980 AFAIK) I'm sure the clock difference from Vishera will pull it far away from the Phenom II.

Clock per clock is a good metric when you want to compare CPUs within close production nodes, but in this case, the mature 45nm is no match to the 32nm in it's (maybe?) mature state and the tweaks over BD's attempt.

The other thing is price. Vishera is priced in a great spot and kudos to AMD for that indeed, but take my case for instance; a 2700k at the same price.

For a new builder, if they find any unlocked Intel and want to game mostly, they'll now can look at the extra value for each CPU. AMD gives you MOAR CORES and Intel gives you better scaling with OC for games. Take your pick. We got choice in the price point Vishera stands now (as long as there is no i7 priced to match, haha).

Cheers!

EDIT: Completed idea.
 
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Load of crap the 8150 even beats the CRAP out of the X4 in anything multithreaded now with Piledriver it beats the phenom in games as well(when the Program only uses 4 cores or less so it doesn't take a 8 core PD to beat this.)

Piledriver is clearly better in single threaded performance just not in IPC by like 5-10% at most on some benchmarks. Even the 980 was pretty competitive with the 4170FX in games i'm pretty sure PD's 4 core is better but why get it when for 10$ more the 6300 is right their.
 
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were talking about gaming....
why so sensitive.?
defend your AMD unit huh.? :sarcastic:

and the 980BE beats the FX-4170. 😛

as for PD (8350) beating the P2 X4 in gaming... don't you think it's about time....?
if that's true...

I still want to see the Piledriver quad (FX-43xx) vs 980BE..
then we'll talk.
 
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but when it comes down to it the 980BE is a better chip then the FX-4170.
and that's not even mentioning power consumption.
 
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Easy to say things with no proof

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/amd_fx_8350_8320_6300_processor_4300_performance_review,10.html



At stock its about even
 
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