[FONT=Arial]
If they're going to cut heads, they need to do it in the R&D department. Need to get a fresh set of engineers in there to figure out something innovative that will compete with Intel.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]
Actually thats the last thing they should do (BTW: Thats exactly what the AMD BoD are aiming at). How long do you think it would take for new engineers to get their designs from paper to retail ? How do you know that the designs they come up with today will be relevant when they're ready for primetime? How many qualified engineers and architects would move to AMD knowing the fiefdom-type setup that prevails at AMD ?[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]
AMD's woes start and finish with management. Who dictates the companys strategy and direction? Who hires the CEO's ?[/FONT]
Well, You have to look on the bright side. When AMD bankrupts, Intel with nVidia will be able to stop developement and drive up prices
You don't seem to understand how business works. The retail and enterprise sectors still require an ongoing development regardless of the number of competitors. IBM pretty much has the big iron sector to itself -it doesn't stop them innovating with Power7. People are now used to paying $500 or less for an entry level desktop, that expectation in the future still needs to be met.
I kind of wish that Nvidia would absorb AMD and bring a hard fight against Intel on both CPU's and GPU's. Ideally, I would like AMD to survive any way they can.
Nvidia doesn't need AMD. The x86 and x86-64 cross licence agreement between AMD and Intel I don't think is transferable. Nvidia could merge with AMD I suppose, but why would they? Nvidia then would be in the same position that AMD are in now- namely having to slug it out with an overwhelming market share leader in Intel. Nvidia have already set their course in the processor market by going with ARM (Tegra/Maxwell).
The board of directors should have taken no pay for 1 year before getting rid of engineers. The CEO should have forfitted his annual bonus before he can turn the company around.
QFT.
As I pointed out in another forum, more than half of the BoD have been hanging around since long before Barcelona's protracted problems and have overseen every misstep since. The board hired Hector, the board hired Dirk, the board signed off on
giving AMD's handheld graphics IP away for pocket change.
Robert Palmer- director since 1999*
Bruce Clafin- director since 2003
W.Michael Barnes - director since 2003*
H.Paulett Eberhart- director since 2004
John Caldwell- director since 2006
* Two of the three directors that make up the Audit and Finance Committee.
Compensation and benefits to the board amounted to
$3+million in 2009 - the lowest performing year for the stock
[FONT=Arial]
AMD's only bet now is if software starts to take advantage of their GPUs and their APUs take off but we know software takes half a decade or more to catch up to hardware.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]
Even longer when you're relying on third parties to develop it. For years, AMD followers have been railing against Intel ( compilers) and Nvidia (CUDA) for pushing their own software enviroments, while AMD pontificated about open source...but up until recently did virtually nothing to ensure that those open source based software initiatives achieved fruition in a timely manner.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]
So, on Thursday, Rory will stand up and tell the world that competition and slow economic growth are the reason that AMD has to throw $100 million worth of Llano APU's in the trash, and that everything is fine because AMD is evolving into a future looking, forward thinking, streamlined company that has already started charting its road to success[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]
The truth of the matter is more likely that Rory is firing enough employees so that the next owner of AMD doesn't have to, or that the board can receive a larger compensation package for reducing labour charges.[/FONT]