Sad?? Hector Ruiz is a complete idiot! His close association with George W Bush pretty much caps the lack of brain power, stupid people tend to hang out with other stupid people.
What is really sad, is the Fab will now be another company run by once again Hector Ruiz. Say what??? Makes no sense unless they have some Mexico connection for super cheap labor on the Fab factories or plan to put a lot of illegal immigrants to work?? Either way, this is good because...???
There is absolutely NO data to prove AMD is more or less a stable processor than Intel. Myth and urban legend at work.
It's sad to see AMD in this situation, but Hector lead them down this road with one bad decision after another. He had NO vision because he couldn't really understand the connection between the companies technology and what consumers want. That happens when one does not understand the necessary details of the technology that IS AMD.
Meyer at least has the technical understanding to know a good direction from a bad direction (i.e. what will pay off and what will not pay off).
What gave AMD big financial gains was the simple fact they "had the fastest processor". This WILL always be the case, this should be the goal, big profits are made when you have the fastest processor, that's where the margin is. This has not changed and will never change. Nobody gives a rats ass if you produce the most heat efficent, the lowest power consumption, consumers want speed. Zoom Zoom. Get the zoom zoom first, then worry about heat/power later.
Nobody builds a process for a market knowing they can only get a very small profit. It's the king of the hill where the money is at.
AMD didn't actually NEED to beat Intel, they really just needed to keep it close, very close, but they failed, they lost focus, and they didn't understand the importance of smaller Fabs and being able to transition to those Fabs quickly. And now Hector Ruiz is going to head up the Fabs, oh joy -- give the heart of the company to Hector and leave the brains with Meyer?? Guess what, the brain don't work when the heart stops beating.
Hector needs to be run out of town, maybe he can find a job at one of George W Bush's oil companies. Oil is more Hector's "thing" -- simple and easy to understand.