Advanced Micro Devices announced the consolidation of its microprocessor and graphics businesses today, in an effort to increase operating efficiency. The divisions are structured around its core business elements: products, future development, marketing and sales. In effect of the transition, senior vice president of the Computing Solutions Group, Randy Allen, left the company. Rick Bergman, former senior vice president and general manager of AMD's Graphics Product Group (ATI, as you well know) is now in the cockpit of all AMD's platforms and products.
Although ATI was officially acquired by AMD for $5.4 billion in 2006, it stood as an independent business unit. The merger is effectively introducing ATI to AMD's mainstream operations, which the company hopes will aid in increasing profit after ten consecutive quarterly losses. The acquisition has yet to fulfill AMD's expectations in terms of financial or technological benefits. The company also recently spun off its manufacturing assets to GlobalFoundries in an attempt to slash production costs.
When AMD purchased ATI, it shared plans of fusing a CPU and GPU on a single chip. The release of this aspiration was delayed late last year, from 2009 to 2011, due to development concerns and economies of scale. Despite the newly unified model, the company is still planning on selling graphics products under the ATI name.