AMD surrenders speed crown to Intel

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 14 Dec 2007 at 12:22

AMD executives have played down the importance of processor performance, all but admitting that the speed crown is now firmly attached to Intel's head.

"We operate in an environment where many people feel that AMD needs to have the highest performance CPU component to be successful, and I tell you, that perception is false," AMD's chief operating officer told financial analysts in New York.

"The lion's share of the market opportunity isn't looking for the highest performance CPU, they're looking for value, energy efficiency, a great visual performance and portable internet connectivity and we're delivering all those things to the market."

In a highly charged speech, Meyer admitted that AMD had bungled the "Barcelona" Opteron launch but seemed to suggest that analysts had focused on the one blot on an otherwise rosy picture.

"There's times in your life where you feel the perspective of those around you is quite a bit different to the perspective you have, that folks around you aren't seeing the things that you see or aren't motivated to see the things you see. Now is one of those times."

"We've done a lot of things very well at AMD since Q1, and we've done one thing very poorly, namely we haven't delivered our quad-core products consistent with our plan."

Back on track

However, Meyer claims the company is now back on track and reiterated his earlier promise that AMD would ship "hundreds of thousands" of Opterons in the first quarter.

"At the risk of sounding like I'm really ticked off, which I am, I've got to ask how in the hell can anyone conclude that our company is worth 40% less today than it was just a few week ago, no way, it just doesn't make sense," argued AMD CEO Hector Ruiz.

"I understand we made some commitments, especially on quad-core, we did not meet. Shame on us. We blew it, and we're very humbled by it, and we're going to learn from it, and we're not going to do that again."

You can find out what we made of AMD's quad-core Opteron here.