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AMD lays off 1400 employees, including execs
- Thread starter jebo_4jc
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not that socket compatibility means anything. I went through three motherboards before finding one that supported my 8120.
I miss how it was in the past.. I'm hoping that AMD will hit this URL
http://www.hardocp.com/10_years_ago_today
and then see how competitive they were back in the day...
Argh... Kills me even more today to hear that but I am not surprised. I really wanted to give BD a chance. Saw worse suck after even worse suck about it since it came out. The cores don't even scale SLI or CF well after the recent reveiw.
I think they are cleaning the house. I am sure they will come back strong after they release the next major GPU. I am waiting for them to comback strong, I wanna buy amd cpu but seriously I got the i5 2500k for 180 and you just cant simply beat that price for that chip, running at 4.5ghz it smokes the amd chips. I miss those days of where all I built was AMD.
First of all I beat the OP by 3 hours on this news in the other thread, so I demand the official [H] newsreporter of the year medal along with the sizable cash prize. Kindly deliver it to my house in a limo with a really hot naked blonde please. 
As for AMD, I don't envy Read. The evisceration that Ruiz caused is now truly coming evident. He ripped AMD apart and then stole the fab only to cut corners to the point where their yields have gone to hell. They have nothing right now but the former ATI and IMHO anyone who has AMD stock should save their butts and dump it.
As for AMD, I don't envy Read. The evisceration that Ruiz caused is now truly coming evident. He ripped AMD apart and then stole the fab only to cut corners to the point where their yields have gone to hell. They have nothing right now but the former ATI and IMHO anyone who has AMD stock should save their butts and dump it.
There seems to be a great deal of talk about AMD refocusing on the low-power markets. I suppose it makes good business sense seeing as how well ARM is doing, but I can't help but feel very disappointed.
That means we can wave good-bye to any reasonable competition to intel in the desktop, enthusiast and server segments.
That means we can wave good-bye to any reasonable competition to intel in the desktop, enthusiast and server segments.
drescherjm
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I guess it depends on what project these 1400 workers were on however I certainly do not see this as a good sign.
Edit: Maybe none of these employees were working on fixing BD. So this could be a temporary move to try to cut the losses while they (and GF) fix BD.
Edit: Maybe none of these employees were working on fixing BD. So this could be a temporary move to try to cut the losses while they (and GF) fix BD.
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Dr. McCoy was talking about BD when he said "It's dead, Jim."
I believe BD will be fixed and restore AMD's competitiveness in the high end CPU field. I also happen to have seen a flying pig in the sky this morning.
Fallout all right, of the Hectdozer variety. Dude set AMD on its current path to self-destruction.
Apparently Carrell Killebrew is one of the people chopped, a VERY big player in their GPU division and the man responsibly for Eyefinity. I really think this is terrible news, they are cutting out all the people who have helped them to this point.
wra18th
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First of all I beat the OP by 3 hours on this news in the other thread, so I demand the official [H] newsreporter of the year medal along with the sizable cash prize. Kindly deliver it to my house in a limo with a really hot naked blonde please.
As for AMD, I don't envy Read. The evisceration that Ruiz caused is now truly coming evident. He ripped AMD apart and then stole the fab only to cut corners to the point where their yields have gone to hell. They have nothing right now but the former ATI and IMHO anyone who has AMD stock should save their butts and dump it.
Dr. McCoy was talking about BD when he said "It's dead, Jim."
I believe BD will be fixed and restore AMD's competitiveness in the high end CPU field. I also happen to have seen a flying pig in the sky this morning.
You're nuts. I love it. Roflmao.
Hornet
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This makes no sense. Their GPU division have been doing great, Eyefinity was a success, is there something they don't like about that?
This makes no sense. Their GPU division have been doing great, Eyefinity was a success, is there something they don't like about that?
GPU division actually lost money last quarter and only made ~26 million this quarter (which granted is not bad by any means).
Im assuming the new CEO just did a standard cost / effect analysis and chopped those who lost, regardless of past with the company.
drescherjm
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ATI was on its way to bankruptcy so I bet they wanted someone to buy them.
mzs_biteme
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I wouldnt worry about news like this usually. That was before I read that AMD only employs around 11,000 people. So they are cutting over 10% of the work force. AMD can't be too angry at the people they are letting go, these guys should be getting severances etc for the trouble. I'm inclined to agree with Cali3350. But 10% of your work force is a big number
octoberasian
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http://techreport.com/discussions.x/21954
(Layoff email notice: http://pastebin.com/FGC10TSB)
According to TechReport, the biggest hit was in the public relations department. All but one person who deals with their graphics card division was removed. I am thinking that JF-AMD was laid off as well since he is the Director of Product Marketing for Server, Embedded, and FireStream products at AMD. Until he says otherwise or there is another blog on AMD from him, I think he was included unless Marketing and Public Relations department are two separate entities in AMD.
This also does not portend good news for a lot of us who wish to buy a desktop AMD CPU. If going by the email linked above and what TechReport mentions, AMD will probably devote more focus on the mobile and APU division than the desktop and server CPU division.
I'm not sure how Trinity will be successful though. It is part Piledriver (Bulldozer with 10 to 15% improvement sans L3 cache), and part Radeon graphics. The Piledriver part is worrying given that recent tests and customer complaints about the Bulldozer CPU shows that the module, shared resource design is flawed in nearly every aspect. How can AMD expect that to succeed? Would it perform faster than current Llano? Or will it just barely be faster or match it? Or even slower?
Everything in the email suggests to me that we may see less funding devoted to desktop CPUs, and more focus towards APUs and possibly their graphics cards divisions.
Is this an indication that Intel may now be the more dominant provider of mid-range to high-end CPUs with what looks like AMD giving up entirely in that area? It makes me think that Intel will have more competition in the mobile and integrated CPU+GPU market, and practically none whatsoever in the mid-range to high-end market. Not like Intel had much competition in that area to begin with...
It really sounds like an admittance of defeat.
AMD: "You won Intel, we give up. We're going to focus our resources and skillsets now in other areas."
(Layoff email notice: http://pastebin.com/FGC10TSB)
According to TechReport, the biggest hit was in the public relations department. All but one person who deals with their graphics card division was removed. I am thinking that JF-AMD was laid off as well since he is the Director of Product Marketing for Server, Embedded, and FireStream products at AMD. Until he says otherwise or there is another blog on AMD from him, I think he was included unless Marketing and Public Relations department are two separate entities in AMD.
This also does not portend good news for a lot of us who wish to buy a desktop AMD CPU. If going by the email linked above and what TechReport mentions, AMD will probably devote more focus on the mobile and APU division than the desktop and server CPU division.
Key growth areas? Does that mean APU (mobile and desktop) and graphics cards?
I'm not sure how Trinity will be successful though. It is part Piledriver (Bulldozer with 10 to 15% improvement sans L3 cache), and part Radeon graphics. The Piledriver part is worrying given that recent tests and customer complaints about the Bulldozer CPU shows that the module, shared resource design is flawed in nearly every aspect. How can AMD expect that to succeed? Would it perform faster than current Llano? Or will it just barely be faster or match it? Or even slower?
They do admit in some ways that they consider their competitors a "serious and significant" threat.
Everything in the email suggests to me that we may see less funding devoted to desktop CPUs, and more focus towards APUs and possibly their graphics cards divisions.
Is this an indication that Intel may now be the more dominant provider of mid-range to high-end CPUs with what looks like AMD giving up entirely in that area? It makes me think that Intel will have more competition in the mobile and integrated CPU+GPU market, and practically none whatsoever in the mid-range to high-end market. Not like Intel had much competition in that area to begin with...
It really sounds like an admittance of defeat.
AMD: "You won Intel, we give up. We're going to focus our resources and skillsets now in other areas."
The module design aspect works pretty much as advertised. The problem is awful single thread performance (which indirectly slows multi-thread performance). If they took out the second integer unit from the module, it would still make for a pretty crappy 4-core CPU.
mzs_biteme
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Let's hope they didn't fire all the people that were soupposed to answer's Kyle's ([H]'s) questions to AMD regarding Bulldozer.....
DaRuSsIaMaN
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Btw, this is kind of off topic, but what kind of retarded math is this:
?
?
octoberasian
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Yeah, that should be 4000 employees out of 40,000 employees worldwide if going by the 10% amount that was laid off. Not 1400 employees.
Eltocliousus
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It happens, happened to intel a few times.
Could not agree more!
Thank you, thank you, please throw bills as coins hurt.
Well yes, yes you have........
That's the one! Exactly! That sucka must be really flying around all over the place today!
It's a typo. Their own site says they have 11,000 worldwide
http://www.amd.com/us/aboutamd/Pages/AboutAMD.aspx
As for your other statements, I would be aghast if they fired John Fruehe... but it wouldn't surprise me. Read has been presented with a huge pile of crap and I'm not sure that he had any other options but to toss out the entire PR dept. which has to be the most inept this side of Netflix and RIM.
crazyeyesreaper
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i wonder if this will be good or bad for AMD time will tell, but FX did pretty much cripple there desktop market,
Cool Vibrations
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I never understood how this myth came to flourish. Everyone says this but it's exactly the opposite. ATi was not on its way to bankruptcy at all. The story is reversed, as in the acquisition almost bankrupted AMD since investors were concerned that the semiconductor manufacturer was overpaying for its purchase. Like I said, I wish they (ATI) hadn't accepted the deal, especially since, word has it that the AMD's GPU team is being trimmed heavily, as evidenced already from Bergman's departure and termination of Killebrew (Led the Eyefinity team and worked on the 4870). At least three people have been cut from their driver team in the Markham office.
J. Huang even said:
Source
I honestly hope their new CEO doesn't take the company to a new direction, at least, outside of the performance products segment, but it looks like he is.
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SixFootDuo
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As much as I love AMD and wise enough to understand that competition is very important to keep companies hungry and aggressive and prices low, I could care less if AMD loses its ass over BD. Personally, sick of the lies and being told to wait 2 years, then, told to wait 2 more. Tired of all this talk about we build our cpu's "furture proof" and all that other horseshit. Why? Never seems like it works out too well. I hope they lose millions of dollars and even more people lose their jobs. I hope it gets so bad for them that they wake up and realize, oh shit, I guess we need to stop screwing around and actually build a CPU for today's enthusiasts that has blistering single tread performance when needed and multi-cores when needed, tons of cache all over the damn cpu, blah blah, a cpu that just rocks and kicks much ass. Tired of all the big words and bullshit, sick of it. Just give us a damn CPU already.
So you hope a company that employs 10k+ people, loses millions and millions of dollars because you kept waiting for a now defunct CPU. How is that AMDs fault? Hoping that hardworking people lose jobs... I think you take your processor fandom to a whole new level....
Red Squirrel
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Not fun seeing anyone lose their job. I kinda saw this coming though. I really hope AMD brings it back together and comes up with a much better processor sooner than later.
cdr_74_premium
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LOL. As if a company needs, or even wants, to cater to enthusiasts. Small percentage, too vocal, never satisfied (per definition), and fickle.
(snip) I honestly hope their new CEO doesn't take the company to a new direction, at least, outside of the performance products segment, but it looks like he is.
Remember that Read comes from Lenovo, that renowned manufacturer of cutting-edge ultra-high-performance elite hardware for the discerning enthusiast.
Welcome to the (high-end) Intel monopoly and may Gawd save us all. ARM wars, here comes AMD!
octoberasian
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http://www.anandtech.com/show/5050/...-workforce-reduction-carrell-killebrew-is-out
Yup, Killebrew is definitely out. It'd be crazy he gets picked up by Nvidia. NV Surround implemented using a single card instead of two? I think AMD just made a big mistake, and I don't think Killebrew should be one to take blame for any losses AMD may have gotten in the past fiscal year.
As for John Fruehe, his last blog was November 1st. No word anywhere or even on his Twitter page whether he was let go as well.
Icrontic has listed more people who were let go outside of Killebrew.
http://tech.icrontic.com/news/the-axe-falls-at-amd-as-layoffs-sweep-through-the-company
I'm still surprised they laid off their Senior Engineer. With the way AMD FX was receiving poor reviews, and future products on the table, as well as upcoming 7000-series Radeon GPUs, wouldn't that be a bad idea to do?
The outlook for future AMD desktop CPUs (non-CPU+GPU integrated ones) and now their GPU products isn't looking so bright now. The email linked above and on Icrontic, and whatever is going on in Read's screwed up thinking at the moment is really pointing AMD at a different direction.
We may possibly see AMD FX be the very last mid-range or high-end CPU to be released from AMD unless someone from AMD says otherwise. This is again, sounds like an admittance of defeat from AMD. We'll probably just see a more increased focus on desktop and mobile APUs as the email alludes to, as well as other reports on the internet.
Yup, Killebrew is definitely out. It'd be crazy he gets picked up by Nvidia. NV Surround implemented using a single card instead of two? I think AMD just made a big mistake, and I don't think Killebrew should be one to take blame for any losses AMD may have gotten in the past fiscal year.
As for John Fruehe, his last blog was November 1st. No word anywhere or even on his Twitter page whether he was let go as well.
Icrontic has listed more people who were let go outside of Killebrew.
http://tech.icrontic.com/news/the-axe-falls-at-amd-as-layoffs-sweep-through-the-company
I'm still surprised they laid off their Senior Engineer. With the way AMD FX was receiving poor reviews, and future products on the table, as well as upcoming 7000-series Radeon GPUs, wouldn't that be a bad idea to do?
The outlook for future AMD desktop CPUs (non-CPU+GPU integrated ones) and now their GPU products isn't looking so bright now. The email linked above and on Icrontic, and whatever is going on in Read's screwed up thinking at the moment is really pointing AMD at a different direction.
We may possibly see AMD FX be the very last mid-range or high-end CPU to be released from AMD unless someone from AMD says otherwise. This is again, sounds like an admittance of defeat from AMD. We'll probably just see a more increased focus on desktop and mobile APUs as the email alludes to, as well as other reports on the internet.