[mboeller]

Originally Posted by chavvdarrr

It will use GPU+CPU for what?
For video decoding? SB has it.
For video encoding? AMD pr'ed gpu-accelerated encoding years ago, yet it is still broken and cpu-limited.
GPGPU? Where is the killer app? Braking rar/pdf passwords perhaps
Fully APU-accelerated flash (think farmville!!!) would be great for marketing

pick your app:

http://blogs.amd.com/fusion/

[fellix]

Did AMD really waited too long and missed key opportunities in the mobile market?

Netbooks: Expensive, Poor Battery Life. OK Around the House, Not on the Road says AMD. Prefers to Wait and See (2008)

[rpg.314]

Originally Posted by fellix

Did AMD really waited too long and missed key opportunities in the mobile market?

Netbooks: Expensive, Poor Battery Life. OK Around the House, Not on the Road says AMD. Prefers to Wait and See (2008)

At that time, they had nothing to compete in that market and were losing money like a drunk gambler. What do you expect?

FWIW, IIRC bobcat was announced before the netbook fad took off.

[rpg.314]

Originally Posted by chavvdarrr

It will use GPU+CPU for what?

For me, the killer app of fusion is web browsing. But SB has caught up.

[NathansFortune]

Well it is being reported that Meyer was fired for not pursuing the tablet and smartphone market. Silly decision really, Intel with all of their process advantages and amazing engineering can barely make a chipset/SoC that's good for the market. I very much doubt AMD could do better than Intel in that market and the board are being very short sighted.

AMD need to shore up their market position in their core markets before they even attempt to go for tablets and smartphones. Oak Trail has barely any design wins and I can count the number of devices using Intel's platform on one hand. For the board to think AMD can even enter this market using x86 when Intel, with all of the money and muscle, can barely make a scratch is misguided at best and at worst downright negligent.

According to this:

http://www.qualcomm.com/documents/fi...snapdragon.pdf

1.5GHz QSD 8672 consumes 1.4W max while decoding 1080p30 video at 45nm, while the lowest power APU from Intel in the form of Sandy Bridge does 17W at 32nm, and the lowest power Ontario uses 9W at 40nm.

I know it isn't a fair comparison, but that is the point, the market doesn't care and I suppose that's the point...

[mboeller]

Originally Posted by NathansFortune

Well it is being reported that Meyer was fired for not pursuing the tablet and smartphone market. Silly decision really, Intel with all of their process advantages and amazing engineering can barely make a chipset/SoC that's good for the market. I very much doubt AMD could do better than Intel in that market and the board are being very short sighted.

Well, AMD was IMHO in a far better position. They already have a capable UVD/Xilleon, had (before they sold it to qualcomm) a smartphone compatible GPU (ATI's Imageon). So all they would have needed would have been a A8/A9 licence from ARM and/or the bobcat core (which they have now).

So for them both would have been possible; smartphone and tablet SoCs with A8 or A9 and tablet and netbook SoCs with one or two bobcat X86 cores.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imageon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xilleon

AMD need to shore up their market position in their core markets before they even attempt to go for tablets and smartphones.

I agree

Oak Trail has barely any design wins and I can count the number of devices using Intel's platform on one hand. For the board to think AMD can even enter this market using x86 when Intel, with all of the money and muscle, can barely make a scratch is misguided at best and at worst downright negligent.

As already said, ATi had developed the technology already. But unfortunately AMD had to sell it because of financial problems. That's life, and it sucks sometimes.

[edit]
Also, I can understand that former ATi employees (now working for AMD) have a (((GGRRRRR))) feeling every time they see a benchmark of the Adreno GPU or see that the "Broadcom" Xilleon chip helps Intels Atom to compete with AMDs brazos systems..

[digitalwanderer]

All I know for sure right now is if they make Leslie Sobon CEO I will not be buying any more AMD products.

[Tahir2]

They should hire Jen-Hsun Huang.

[AlexV]

Originally Posted by digitalwanderer

All I know for sure right now is if they make Leslie Sobon CEO I will not be buying any more AMD products.

Now, now Dig, don't be a hater. She'd be the perfect person for the job. So very AMD.

[digitalwanderer]

Originally Posted by AlexV

Now, now Dig, don't be a hater. She'd be the perfect person for the job. So very AMD.

Nothing like twisting the knife as you stab it in deeper, eh?

[I.S.T.]

Originally Posted by digitalwanderer

All I know for sure right now is if they make Leslie Sobon CEO I will not be buying any more AMD products.

Why is that?

[digitalwanderer]

Originally Posted by I.S.T.

Why is that?

She's the one who pushed the bright idea of killing off ATi.

[BRiT]

Maybe Digi didn't like her Get a Geek in Five Easy Lessons?

[Lightman]

Originally Posted by digitalwanderer

All I know for sure right now is if they make Leslie Sobon CEO I will not be buying any more AMD products.

You mean permanent CEO and not temporal? I don't like that idea either, but I'm a bit less extreme in my actions.

[I.S.T.]

Originally Posted by digitalwanderer

She's the one who pushed the bright idea of killing off ATi.

God, you are a whiny bitch. It's a NAME. It's not like they bought ATi, fired all the employees, pissed on the hard drives that contained the then latest driver code, and set 'em on fire while dancing and singing "Ding Dong ATi is Dead."

Christ, get over yourself.

[Alexko]

Originally Posted by I.S.T.

God, you are a whiny bitch. It's a NAME. It's not like they bought ATi, fired all the employees, pissed on the hard drives that contained the then latest driver code, and set 'em on fire while dancing and singing "Ding Dong ATi is Dead."

Christ, get over yourself.

Hey, relax, I'm pretty sure he was kidding!

[I.S.T.]

Originally Posted by Alexko

Hey, relax, I'm pretty sure he was kidding!

Given the way Digi has whined about the ATi renaming in the past, I highly doubt it.

[NRP]

Digi's a bit of a drama queen, that's all. No need to exercise hostility.

[digitalwanderer]

Originally Posted by I.S.T.

Given the way Digi has whined about the ATi renaming in the past, I highly doubt it.

You would be correct I.S.T., as would NRP.

[codedivine]

Originally Posted by BRiT

Maybe Digi didn't like her Get a Geek in Five Easy Lessons?

Well, my fear is that she may not be as technically competent as Dirk Meyer.
Take a look at a blog post she wrote.

http://h20435.www2.hp.com/t5/The-Nex...ook/ba-p/60731

She states that Llano has around 500 Gflops of compute power, which is fine. Then she states that it is 6 times the compute capability of Core i7 2600. That is completely incorrect. At least she should verify her facts before making claims about the competition.

[Raqia]

I'm quite saddened by the departure of Dirk from AMD; I just hope this doesn't portend its demise. Despite some of its slip ups, it's always had extremely advanced tech for its bread and butter products, and I think Dirk was all about continuing that trend and maybe branching out when it had a competetive advantage. A safe play for sure, but so very necessary when you're a small fry competing against Intel in such a demanding field. Also, any move toward mobile has to be slow or you risk your existing revenues trying to address an uncertain market.

I think the tech has always been there, but the major thing I'd change would be to market its consumer goods in a savvier way; make consumers more aware of its price / performance advantages to Intel with some clever and hip ad campaign. "The Future is Fusion" is nice, but I think common folks could care less if AMD fused its CPU and GPU. (Also it's doubly bad that the ad campaign didn't happen to have an actual product to hawk when it began!) They really have to try to grab Intel by the balls and make direct comparisons in price and practical differences in experience. Maybe they could run a series of ads illustrating their price / experience advantages to intel w/ some charismatic and recurring sales-person and cap all the ads off w/ a catchy slogan like: "BAM! AMD." Hell, talk about "blast-processing" for all I care, they need to go for the throat! I'm aware that the kind of exposure this needs to work requires a heap load of money, but I also just think the amount that AMD currently spends on marketing is being put to poor use.

I've always also thought that the boring ass type face used for the AMD logo is a bit stodgy; it could look more dynamic if the three letters were overlapping or maybe given a relief effect and slightly slanted toward the right for a sleeker, faster look that would fit well with its logo (which is supposed to be an upward pointing arrow). Intel's logo has just a classier, more premium, and desirable look than AMD's plain caps lock, also-ran treatment of itself. This can affect the desirability of your laptops when they're all in a row at Best Buy and have relatively few distinguishing features to the untrained eye except for the stickers.

Believe me, I care about the tech more than fluff, but marketing is necessary for survival. It's better that AMD gussies itself up a little more than to have it die and neither produce its great products to keep up the pace of innovation nor keep Intel's prices at bay.