sgolds, on AMD price decline
FWIW, I agree with you that most of AMD's decline is due to its large beta, and that it is (generally) in line with the broad tech market decline.
I suppose the next question to ask is how AMD can get out of this position. It appears to me that the situation results from being perceived as a clear "small time player" in all of its markets. You would think that frequent repetition of the "#1 NOR flash maker" status would help.
The microprocessor end is more problematic, and I think AMD must find a niche in which it is number one as well. How about this: survey the most prominent Linux developers and find a niche in which Athlon-64 is the most prominent chip, then advertise the h*ll out of that? Or perhaps the Red Storm installation will provide the impetus to break clear?
I would say we certainly haven't had the PR push from AMD that all the Opteron installations could have provided. I remember asking them about their Pirelli reference in some of the slides last year, asking where I could read any PR about it. The reply from Ruth Cotter was that there was none.