Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[bobs10]

Can anyone on these threads remember even one instance when an Intel stooge admitted (while it was happening) that Intel had huge production problems moving to .18um, that Rambus was a billion dollar blunder, that MTH was a bad idea to fix a bad idea, that 1.13GHz was a fiasco that should never have happened,
that Intel was pretty much the laughing stock of the industry? Anyone? Anyone at all??

Me...

Kind of a strange conversation, almost as if we were arguing who was worst INTC/AMD. My point was that though AMD was making progress on the design front with the Athlon overall it was still getting creamed by INTC. It wan't until the AMD/IBM R&D deal that AMD finally started to get its manufacturing process act together.

That was another very strange thing. I had more or less giving up that AMD would ever get its' manufacturing anywhere near INTC's standards. Frankly, at first I wasn't too enthused about AMD combining with IBM to co-develop the 65nm and lower processes. IBM had been having a lot of problems with its' 90nm fab and I was worried that AMD wouldn't get much for the money it gave to IBM. But low and behold the synergies that came out of that union have been truly astounding. The only thing I can think of to rationalize the apparent gift from god was that both had been working on similar problems in their own ways and that they each had answers to the others problems. Or something like that.

Whatever, clearly something worked as AMD's manufacturing processes seemed to turn on the nitro in the last year. Particularly with the "E" stepping. Strange that the agreement was for 65nm and below yet AMD was able to use the information to make their 90nm process the best in the industry. INTC still seems to be having 90nm problems while AMD is coasting. Which makes me wonder just how well INTC is doing with 65nm?