AMD OverDrive

Ultimate overclocking* to push your system to extreme limits
Personalize your experience with state-of-the-art real-time overclocking*. Experience the power of AMD OverDrive™ as you adjust your processor, memory and graphics settings to push the performance envelope further than it has ever gone before










Amazing control to monitor your system settings
The power over your system is within reach. AMD OverDrive™ lets you sit back and monitor all your performance settings including clock memory, voltage and memory timing.










Advanced stability tests to ensure your PC runs smoothly
Monitoring system stability has never been easier. AMD OverDrive™ utilizes multi threaded CPU tests to ensure overall system stability so you can focus on your game.











Custom performance for novice and enthusiast users as well as an auto clock option

Custom performance for Novice users
Novice and beginner users need not be intimidated. AMD OverDrive™ provides a simple performance slider to control system settings. Adjust the slider to achieve your desired performance.










Advanced performance for Enthusiast users
Enthusiast users will be elated at the amount of control at your fingertips. AMD OverDrive™ exposes all controls so experienced gamers can monitor and modify performance settings to achieve extreme performance.










Overclocking* made easy
Maximizing your system performance doesn’t get any easier than this. AMD OverDrive™ includes a single-click performance tuning feature that optimizes your system performance automatically.

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AMD Opteron (1)

The Opteron is AMD's x86 server processor line, and was the first processor to implement the AMD64 instruction set architecture (known generically as x86-64). It was released on April 22, 2003 with the SledgeHammer core (K8) and was intended to compete in the server market, particularly in the same segment as the Intel Xeon processor. Processors based on the AMD K10 microarchitecture (codenamed Barcelona) were announced on September 10, 2007 featuring a new quad-core configuration.

Two key capabilities

Opteron combines two important capabilities in a single processor die:
native execution of legacy x86 32-bit applications without speed penalties
native execution of x86-64 64-bit applications

The first capability is notable because at the time of Opteron's introduction, the only other 64-bit processor architecture marketed with 32-bit x86 compatibility (Intel's Itanium) ran x86 legacy-applications only with significant speed degradation. The second capability, by itself, is less noteworthy, as all major RISC makers (Sun SPARC, DEC Alpha, HP PA-RISC, IBM POWER, SGI MIPS, etc.) have had 64-bit implementations for many years. In combining these two capabilities, however, the Opteron earned recognition for its ability to run the vast installed base of x86 applications economically, while simultaneously offering an upgrade-path to 64-bit computing.

The Opteron processor possesses an integrated DDR SDRAM / DDR2 SDRAM (Socket AM2/F) memory controller. This both reduces the latency penalty for accessing the main RAM and eliminates the need for a separate northbridge chip.


Multi-processor features

In multi-processor systems (more than one Opteron on a single motherboard), the CPUs communicate using the Direct Connect Architecture over high-speed HyperTransport links. Each CPU can access the main memory of another processor, transparent to the programmer. The Opteron approach to multi-processing is not the same as standard symmetric multiprocessing as instead of having one bank of memory for all CPUs, each CPU has its own memory. Thus the Opteron is a Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA) architecture. The Opteron CPU directly supports up to an 8-way configuration, which can be found in mid-level servers. Enterprise-level servers use additional (and expensive) routing chips to support more than 8 CPUs per box.

In a variety of computing benchmarks, the Opteron architecture has demonstrated better multi-processor scaling than the Intel Xeon[citation needed]. This is primarily because adding an additional Opteron processor increases bandwidth, while that is not always the case for Xeon systems, and the fact that the Opterons use a switched fabric, rather than a shared bus. In particular, the Opteron's integrated memory controller allows the CPU to access local RAM very quickly. In contrast, multiprocessor Xeon system CPUs share only two common buses for both processor-processor and processor-memory communication. As the number of CPUs increases in a Xeon system, contention for the shared bus causes computing efficiency to drop.


Multi-core Opterons
In May 2005, AMD introduced its first "Multi-Core" Opteron CPUs. At the time, AMD's use of the term "Multi-Core" in practice meant "dual-core"; each physical Opteron chip contained two separate processor cores. This effectively doubled the computing-power available to each motherboard processor socket. One socket can now deliver the performance of two processors, two sockets can deliver the performance of four processors, and so on. Because motherboard costs increase dramatically as the number of CPU sockets increase, multicore CPUs enable a system of higher performance to be built at lower cost.

AMD's model number scheme has changed somewhat in light of its new multicore lineup. At the time of its introduction, AMD's fastest multicore Opteron was the model 875, with two cores running at 2.2 GHz each. AMD's fastest single-core Opteron at this time was the model 252, with one core running at 2.6 GHz. For multithreaded applications, the model 875 would be much faster than the model 252, but for single threaded applications the model 252 would perform faster.

Second-Generation AMD Opteron processors are offered in three series: the 1000 Series (up to 1P/2-core), the 2000 Series (up to 2P/4-core), and the 8000 Series (4P/8-core to 8P/16-core). The 1000 Series is built on AMD's new Socket AM2. The 2000 Series and 8000 Series are built on AMD's new Socket F.

AMD launched its Third-Generation Quad-core[1] Opteron chips on September 10th, 2007 [2] with hardware vendors to follow suit with servers in the following month. Based on a core design codenamed Barcelona, new power and thermal management techniques are planned for the chips. Existing dual core DDR2 based platforms will be upgradeable to quad core chips[3].


Socket 939

AMD has also released Socket 939 Opterons, reducing the cost of motherboards for low-end servers and workstations. Except for the fact they have 1 MiB L2 Cache (versus 512 KiB for the Athlon64) the Socket 939 Opterons are identical to the San Diego and Toledo core Athlon 64s, but are run at lower clockspeeds than the cores are capable of, making them more stable. They are also the only dual core Socket 939 processors still easily available now that the Athlon 64 X2s for that platform have been discontinued, though even these processors are becoming more and more difficult to find. [1]


Socket AM2
Socket AM2 Opterons are available for servers that only have a single-chip setup. These chips may prove to be as successful as the previous generation socket 939 Opterons due to the Opteron's overclockability. Codenamed Santa Ana, rev. F dual core AM2 Opterons feature 2×1 MiB L2 cache, unlike the majority of their Athlon 64 X2 cousins which feature 2x512 KiB L2 cache.


Socket F

Socket F (LGA 1207 contacts) is AMD’s second generation of Opteron socket. This socket support processors such as the Santa Rosa, Barcelona and Shanghai codenamed processors. The “Lidded Land Grid Array” socket adds support for DDR2 SDRAM and improved HyperTransport version 3 connectivity. Physically the socket and processor package are nearly identical, although not generally compatible with socket 1207 FX


Micro-architecture update

The Opteron line saw an update with the implementation of the AMD K10 microarchitecture. New processors, launched in the third quarter of 2007 (codename Barcelona), incorporate a variety of improvements, particularly in memory prefetching, speculative loads, SIMD execution and branch prediction, yielding an appreciable performance improvement over K8-based Opterons, within the same power envelope.[4]

In the meantime, AMD has also utilized a new scheme to characterize the power consumption of new processors under "average" daily usage, named Average CPU Power (ACP).nice posting bro

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AMD Opteron (2)

Models

For Socket 940 and Socket 939 Opterons, each chip has a three-digit model number, in the form Opteron XYY. For Socket F and Socket AM2 Opterons, each chip has a four-digit model number, in the form Opteron XZYY. For all Opterons, the first digit (the X) specifies the number of CPUs on the target machine:
1 - Designed for uniprocessor systems
2 - Designed for dual-processor systems
8 - Designed for systems with 4 or 8 processors

For Socket F and Socket AM2 Opterons, the second digit (the Z) represents the processor generation. Presently, only 2 (dual-core, DDR2) and 3 (quad-core, DDR2) are used.

For all Opterons, the last two digits in the model number (the YY) indicate the clock frequency of a CPU, a higher number indicating a higher clock frequency. This speed indication is comparable to processors of the same generation if they have the same amount of cores, single-cores and dual-cores have different indications despite sometimes having the same clock frequency.

The suffix HE or EE indicates a high-efficiency/energy-efficiency model having a lower TDP than a standard Opteron. The suffix SE indicates a top-of-the-line model having a higher TDP than a standard Opteron.

A detailed list of Opteron microprocessors is here. The broad model families are:


Opteron (130 nm SOI)
Single-core — SledgeHammer (1yy, 2yy, 8yy)
CPU-Steppings: B3, C0, CG
L1-Cache: 64 + 64 KiB (Data + Instructions)
L2-Cache: 1024 KiB, fullspeed
MMX, Extended 3DNow!, SSE, SSE2, AMD64
Socket 940, 800 MHz HyperTransport
Registered DDR SDRAM required, ECC possible
VCore: 1.50 V - 1.55 V
Max Power (TDP): 89 W
First Release: April 22, 2003 [2]
Clockrate: 1400–2400 MHz (x40 - x50)


Opteron (90 nm SOI, DDR)
Single-core — Venus (1yy), Troy (2yy), Athens (8yy)
CPU-Steppings: E4
L1-Cache: 64 + 64 KiB (Data + Instructions)
L2-Cache: 1024 KiB, fullspeed
MMX, Extended 3DNow!, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, AMD64
Socket 940, 800 MHz HyperTransport
Socket 939/Socket 940, 1000 MHz HyperTransport
Registered DDR SDRAM required for socket 940, ECC possible
VCore: 1.35V - 1.4V
Max power (TDP): 95W
NX Bit
64-bit segment limit checks for VMware-style binary-translation virtualization.
Optimized Power Management (OPM)
First Release: February 14, 2005
Clockrate: 1600 - 3000 MHz (x42 - x56)
Dual-core — Denmark (1yy), Italy (2yy), Egypt (8yy)
CPU-Steppings: E1, E6
First Release: Spring 2005
Clockrate: 1600–2800 MHz (x60, x65, x70, x75, x80, x85, x90)
...
Socket 939/Socket 940, 1000 MHz HyperTransport
...
NX bit


Opteron (90 nm SOI, DDR2)
Dual-core — Santa Ana (12yy), Santa Rosa (22yy, 82yy)
CPU-Steppings: F2, F3
L1-Cache: 64 + 64 KiB (Data + Instructions)
L2-Cache: 2*1024 KiB, fullspeed
MMX, Extended 3DNow!, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, AMD64
Socket F, ??? MHz HyperTransport - Opteron 2yy, 8yy
Socket AM2, ??? MHz HyperTransport - Opteron 1yy
VCore: 1.35 V
Max Power (TDP): 95W
NX Bit
AMD-V Virtualization
Optimized Power Management (OPM)
First Release: ?????? 2006
Clockrate: 1800–3200 MHz (xx10, xx12, xx14, xx16, xx18, xx20, xx20, xx22, xx24)


Opteron (65 nm SOI)
Quad-core — Barcelona (23yy, 83yy), Budapest (13yy)
CPU-Steppings: BA, B3
L1-Cache: 64 + 64 KiB (Data + Instructions) per core
L2-Cache: 512 KiB, fullspeed per core
L3-Cache: 2048 KiB, shared
MMX, Extended 3DNow!, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, AMD64, SSE4a
Socket F, Socket AM2+, HyperTransport 3.0 (1.6 GHz-2.0 GHz)
Registered DDR2 SDRAM required, ECC possible
VCore: ?
Max Power (TDP): ?
NX Bit
AMD-V Virtualization
Split power plane dynamic power management
VCore: 1.2 V
First Release: September 10, 2007
Clockrate: 1700–2500 MHz

Supercomputers

On the November 2007 TOP500 list, 15.8% of the world's 500 fastest known supercomputer installations were AMD64 Opteron-based systems (down from 22.6% on 11/06), while 64.4% were Intel ia32e/EM64T/Intel 64 Xeon-based.

Supercomputers based on Opteron mentioned in the top 10 fastest supercomputers in the world:
#6: Sandia National Laboratories, USA. Red Storm - Sandia/ Cray Red Storm, AMD64 Opteron Dual Core 2400 MHz. Cray Inc. 26,569 total cores. Rpeak: 127.531 TeraFlops.
#7: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA. Jaguar - Cray XT4/XT3. AMD64 Opteron Dual Core 2600 MHz (5.2 GFlops/unit). Cray Inc. 23,016 total cores. Rpeak: 119,350 TFlop.
#9: NERSC/LBNL, USA. Franklin - Cray XT4. AMD64 Opteron Dual Core 2600 MHz. Cray Inc. 19,320 total cores. Rpeak: 100,464 TFlop.

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AMD Opteron (3)

Opteron recall

AMD has recalled some E4 stepping-revision single-core Opteron processors, including x52 (2.6 GHz) and x54 (2.8 GHz) models which use DDR memory. The following table describes affected processors, as they are listed in AMD Opteron x52 and x54 Production Notice.[5]Max P-State
Frequency Uni-Processor Dual Processor Multi-Processor Package-Socket
2600 MHz 152 252 852 Socket 940
2800 MHz N/A 254 854 Socket 940
2600 MHz 152 N/A N/A Socket 939
2800 MHz 154 N/A N/A Socket 939


The affected processors may produce inconsistent results in the presence of three specific conditions occurring simultaneously:
The execution of floating point-intensive code sequences
Elevated processor temperatures
Elevated ambient temperatures

A software verification tool for identifying the AMD Opteron processors listed in the above table that may be affected under these specific conditions is available only to AMD OEM partners.[citation needed] AMD will replace those processors at no charge

Future
Future Opteron processors will see an implementation of the Shanghai core based on a 45 nm fabrication node and codenamed Istanbul products in early 2009, later in 1H 2009- 2H 2010 the lineup will be replaced with codenamed six-core Sao Paolo and twelve-core Magny-Cours products manufactured using the MCM technique, utilizing Socket G34. Further, the server line of processors will incorporate the newly announced Bulldozer core with native 4 cores or more configurations on 32 nm process, each supporting SSE5 aimed at better HPC and cryptographic computations. Currently,[when?] Bulldozer-based products are expected to be released in 2011.

References
^ "AMD Quad-Core Product Images". Retrieved on 2008-09-02.
^ [AMD Introduces the World’s Most Advanced x86 Processor, Designed for the Demanding Datacenter AMD to Ship Industry’s First Native x86 Quad-Core Processors In September]
^ "Quad-Core Upgradeability". Retrieved on 2007-03-06.
^ Merritt, Rick. "AMD tips quad-core performance", EETimes.com. Retrieved on 2007-03-16.
^ Advanced Micro Devices (2006-04). "AMD Opteron Processor Models x52 and x54 Production Notice". Press release. Retrieved on 2006-11-30.

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Intel: solid-state drives boost battery life

Intel said Tuesday that solid-state drives can extend battery life up to 30 minutes compared to hard disk drives.

Add the speed advantage of solid state drives and that's two strikes against hard disks. Price parity--strike three--is still a ways off, however. That--and the fact that hard drives offer much larger capacities--will keep hard drives competitive next year.

For now, Intel is evangelizing the benefits of speed and power efficiency.

Most independent benchmarks show that solid state drives perform better than hard disk drives. In some cases, a lot better. That's a given now. One area, however, that isn't so clear cut is power efficiency. Intel tried to lay that argument to rest Tuesday in a conference call.























Intel claims that its SSD extends batter life about 30 minutes on a laptop
(Credit: Intel)

As a preface to the presentation, Knut Grimsrud, Intel fellow and director of storage architecture, made the often-overlooked point that one of the reasons Intel makes solid-state drives is "in order to realize the full value of Intel CPUs." In other words, systems that couple Intel processors with SSDs can deliver better performance overall and do it more efficiently.

In the portion of the presentation focused on power, Grimsrud first compared an Intel SSD with a 5400rpm and 7200rpm hard disk drive. He showed a slide claiming that Intel's SSD spends about 96 percent of its time in low-power states, while a hard drive spends only about 10 percent (see graphic).

Looking at why SSDs are power efficient, he explained that "they way we look at power efficiency is how much power does it takes to get a certain amount of work done."

"So, it's really measure of power per operation performed or operations performed per watt," he said.

While one chart showed an Intel solid state drive's "active power" falling between that of two competing solid-state drives, Grimsrud claimed that Intel's drives get more done in the active state than competitors' drives. "It's how much work are you getting done while you are energized," he said.






















Intel compared time spent in lower-power states between SSDs and HDDs
(Credit: Intel)

More specifically, how much power per I/O (input/output) operation is consumed. "That's really the metric for power efficiency," he said. "A very slow SSD that has low power is not necessarily more power efficient. It's just not getting work done at the same rate," according to Grimsrud.

In a real life scenario, Intel showed three systems: one using a hard disk drive, one using a competitor's SSD, and another an Intel SSD. Both the hard drive and competing SSD ran out of power in four hours, Intel claimed, while its SSD allowed the battery to last another 32 minutes, for about a 13 percent battery life extension.

"We're getting secondary savings that are compounding the benefits. Since the Intel SSD is higher performance than the hard drive, the rest of the system can also enter its lower-power state much more quickly than it otherwise would," he said.

Finally, Grimsrud mentioned the 24-hour battery life achieved by the HP EliteBook 6930p. He said that Intel's SSD contributed to this and that internal HP benchmarks show overall performance boosts of up to 57 percent on industry benchmarks, and data transfer rates almost six times faster than traditional hard disks.

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Graphics market on fire; AMD gains

The economy may be under water, but the graphics chip market is on fire.

The market for graphics processing units (GPUs) saw the biggest increase in third-quarter shipments in six years, according to Jon Peddie Research (JPR), as AMD gained in both the desktop and laptop segments.


Laptop graphics chip shipments soared by almost 40 percent quarter-to-quarter, as AMD gained
(Credit: Jon Peddie Research)

In the third quarter of 2008, more than 111 million GPUs were shipped, the market researcher said. During the same quarter last year, 91 million GPUs shipped, and 94 million units shipped in the previous quarter. That's an annual increase of 22.5 percent and a quarter-to-quarter increase of almost 18 percent, according to JPR.

In the overall market, Intel jumped from 33.4 percent in the third quarter of 2007 to 49.4 percent in the third quarter of this year, according to JPR. AMD saw year-to-year growth of 22.8 percent, while Nvidia lost 6.4 percent year-to-year.

For desktop GPUs, Intel increased its first place position to a 43.9 percent share, while Nvidia's position slipped to 32.6 percent, and AMD climbed to 20.3 percent, JPR said. Desktop GPUs saw an increase of 4.7 percent this quarter to 61.9 million units.

On the laptop front, Intel GPU shipments dropped one point to 56.2 percent, while Nvidia GPU shipments declined to 21.8 percent, and AMD jumped to 20.9 percent. Laptop graphics chips soared almost by 40 percent quarter-to-quarter to 49.4 million units, to claim 44.4 percent of the market, JPR reported.

Though the third quarter is typically up as PC makers place orders for chips for the holiday season, "this quarter was up more than any other for some time, and in spite of suggestions of a recession that started last Q4," said Jon Peddie, president of the Tiburon, Calif.-based firm.

Peddie cautions, however, that the doom-and-gloom scenarios may be having their effect on business and consumer spending plans and the fourth quarter could be flat (compared with the third quarter) this year.

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AMD talks more about chipmaking exit strategy

Advanced Micro Devices talked more about options for reducing its participation in a new manufacturing venture during its third-quarter earnings call on Thursday. The chipmaker also offered more details on conversion to 45-nanometer processors.


Earlier this month, AMD announced that it was splitting into two companies: one for designing chips (AMD), the other for manufacturing them (The Foundry Company). The latter company will be owned approximately 56 percent by Advanced Technology Investment Co. (ATIC) and 44 percent by AMD.

During the conference call, AMD Chief Financial Officer Bob Rivet responded to a question from an analyst about an "exit strategy" for the foundry (manufacturing) side of the business by saying that AMD will "turn in more shares and ownership of the company" if necessary.
AMD 45-nanometer die
(Credit: AMD)

As Rivet put it, the foundry deal provides that "when a capital call is required for the foundry business, it allows us to either pay our fair share of that capital call or turn in more shares and ownership of the company...We'll make that determination at each point in time...There's a natural way to get out of it if we want to."

All of this--whether accounting is done on a consolidated or nonconsolidated basis--can get a little confusing for nonaccountants (and AMD even volunteered that it's "confusing") but Rivet put it this way. "Think of it this way: The Foundry Company piece of the bucket will have profits and losses...but they're all cashless. The cash generating machine of AMD is the AMD design product (company)."

Both Rivet and CEO Dirk Meyer also discussed AMD's conversion to 45-nanometer chips. "We'll be fully converted in first half of next year," said Meyer. Rivet added that it will be a "very fast ramp" to 45 nanometer chips. AMD is currently shipping processors based on 65-nanometer technology. Smaller geometries typically result in faster processors that use less power.

Speaking about AMD's 45-nanometer Shanghai server processor, Meyer said, "You'll see OEM (server) systems in the market this quarter," and added that AMD is "shipping the desktop variant this quarter and you'll see OEM systems in the market early next quarter."

Responding to a question about AMD's Netbook chip strategy and its response to Intel's Atom processor, Meyer said: "Clearly the Netbook is a new form factor and new market opportunity and one we're not participating in right now, today."

He said more details will come at an upcoming analyst meeting. "We do have strategies together with our OEMs for pushing solutions both down into smaller form factors and lower notebook price points."

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AMD reports smaller loss, better revenues

Advanced Micro Devices reported a much smaller loss for the third quarter and better-than-expected revenue.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based chipmaker reported third-quarter 2008 revenue of $1.776 billion, including process technology license revenue of $191 million.

Revenue increased 32 percent compared to the second quarter of 2008 and 14 percent compared to the third quarter of 2007.


A positive surprise is the net loss, which was significantly smaller than expected. The company reported a net loss of $67 million, or 11 cents per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected a third-quarter loss of 40 cents per share on $1.48 billion in revenue. The company also reached operating profitability in the quarter.

Analysts were impressed by the numbers. "Even in a normal environment this would be a pretty remarkable achievement. In today's environment, it's extraordinary," said Ashok Kumar, an analyst at investment bank Collins Stewart.

"Improved execution across all of our businesses," Robert J. Rivet, AMD's chief financial officer, said in a statement, "was punctuated by a refresh of our graphics product line-up, driving 55 percent sequential revenue growth and market share gains. In addition, customer adoption of our quad-core microprocessors was strong, with unit shipments increasing 46 percent sequentially."

In the second quarter of 2008, AMD had revenue from continuing operations of $1.349 billion and a net loss of $1.189 billion. In the third quarter of 2007, AMD had revenue from continuing operations of $1.558 billion and a net loss of $396 million.

Third-quarter 2008 gross margin was 51 percent, or 45 percent excluding process technology license revenue. This compares favorably to both the second-quarter 2008 non-GAAP gross margin of 37 percent, and the third-quarter 2007 gross margin of 41 percent.

"We achieved a significant milestone with the recent announcement of our Asset Smart strategy, which will transform both AMD and the industry," Dirk Meyer, AMD's president and CEO, said in a statement.

Earlier this month, AMD announced that it was splitting into two companies: one for designing chips (AMD), the other for manufacturing them (The Foundry Company). The capital-intensive business of manufacturing chips had been weighing on AMD as it reeled under a $5 billion debt load, partially due to its purchase of ATI Technologies in 2006.

The investment is expected to allow AMD to remain directly involved in chip manufacturing--crucial for competing with Intel.

AMD said it has secured $5.7 billion of "confirmed, pledged investment," with some of the money earmarked for a future manufacturing facility in Malta, N.Y. It will own part of the new manufacturing entity, and Advanced Technology Investment Co. (ATIC) will own the rest.

In addition, ATIC will commit a minimum of $3.6 billion and up to $6 billion in additional funds over the next five years for the upgrade and expansion of fabrication facilities in Dresden, Germany, and construction the Malta, N.Y., facility.

One of the largest investors, Mubadala Development, now owns 19.3 percent of AMD.

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Chip forecasts head south

Along with the economy, chip forecasts are heading south.

Following an outlook about weak chip industry capital spending from market researcher Gartner on Wednesday, iSuppli cut its 2008 IC revenue forecast to 3.5 percent from 4 percent on Thursday.


The memory chip industry is the canary in the coal mine. At least two memory chip manufacturers are on life support right now. Hynix, the world's second largest maker of memory, is trying to scare up cash by seeking buyers for a 36 percent stake in the company. The other ailing memory maker is Qimonda AG. Rumors have been rife that the manufacturing assets of the loss-ridden company will be snapped up.

Hynix and Qimonda won't get any help from the market in the coming months. Gartner said that the oversupply in memory, combined with a slowing consumer market, "gives little hope for an upside until 2010." Semiconductor industry capital spending is forecast to decline 25.7 percent in 2008--this would be the steepest decline since 2002--and another 12.8 percent in 2009, according to the market researcher.

The iSuppli report isn't any brighter. The outlook for memory revenue has been revised downward by 5.8 percentage points for 2008. iSuppli is citing the "credit crisis" as adversely affecting demand.

And let's not forget the Micron surprise on Thursday. The largest maker of memory chips in the U.S. said it would reduce its workforce 15 percent during the next two years. "Selling prices for NAND flash memory (are) significantly below manufacturing costs," Micron said in a statement.

SanDisk--the largest supplier of retail flash memory products--has problems of its own. It has become a buyout target as its stock price has steadily declined over the last 12 months.

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AMD deal triggers Intel license warning

Advanced Micro Device's new manufacturing venture may come with some old baggage.

After AMD announced on Tuesday that it would spin off its manufacturing assets to a new company partially owned by the Abu Dhabi government, Intel was quick to warn AMD about patent and cross-licensing concerns.

AMD will own part of the new manufacturing entity, for the time being to be called The Foundry Company, while Advanced Technology Investment Co. (ATIC) will own the rest (55.6 percent) and have equal voting rights with AMD in The Foundry Company. The total investment is expected to come to approximately $8 billion.

Intel-AMD disputes are certainly not new. AMD sued Intel in 2005 alleging antitrust violations. But this time Intel has AMD in its sights.

At the moment, Intel is simply expressing concern about the deal, per the Patent Cross License Agreement between the two companies. (The two chipmakers have cross-licensing agreements that go back to 1976.)

The Agreement, which was signed in 2001 and expires in 2010, has restrictions related to the transfer of licenses and patents.

"We don't know enough yet. We have a lot of questions about how this deal is structured," said Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy.

"According to the public statements they made in their press releases, they (ATIC) also have 50 percent voting rights. So we need to understand a lot more about it. We just have to do due diligence. Make sure that our IP (intellectual property) rights are protected."

AMD, for its part, believes the transaction is structured in a way that doesn't violate any agreements. "We are completely confident the structure of this transaction takes into account our cross-license agreements. Rest assured, we plan to continue respecting Intel's intellectual property rights, just as we expect them to respect ours," said AMD spokesman Drew Prairie.

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AMD finds 'fabless' alternative

The dramatic announcement by AMD Tuesday, which focuses on a new entity known for now as The Foundry Company, shows that there is another way to restructure that doesn't entail completely jettisoning manufacturing operations--referred to in the semiconductor industry as fabs or fabrication facilities.

"Real men have fabs." This quote attributed to former AMD CEO and Chairman Jerry Sanders has some import here. Though fabless concerns, such as Nvidia, have been held up as lean, mean chip-supplying machines that don't have the burden of funding costly manufacturing facilities, the downside is often ignored by Wall Street.

Going completely fabless separates the company from key process technologies that are needed to stay ahead. That's especially true in AMD's case, where the sole processor rival is chip behemoth Intel, which derives much of its strength by moving quickly from one chip manufacturing process to another. Going to a new manufacturing process typically results in faster, more power-efficient processors.




























This artist's rendering shows what AMD expects its New York facility to look like when it opens for business about three to four years from now.
(Credit: AMD)

Look no further than the state AMD finds itself in today. It is a generation behind Intel, which has been shipping chips based on the 45-nanometer process for almost year. AMD is currently struggling to get out its first generation of 45nm processors.

The newly created Foundry Company was described by AMD Chief Executive Dirk Meyer on Tuesday as a "brand-new and leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing company." It will be run by Doug Grose, who will relinquish his current role as AMD's senior vice president of manufacturing operations to become CEO of The Foundry Company.

Two things will happen as a result of the backing by the Abu Dhabi-based investors. First, AMD, through the joint company Advanced Technology Investment Co. (ATIC), will expand its current manufacturing facilities in Dresden, Germany, and transform this into a foundry company that also builds chips for other companies.

As part of this expansion, Dresden will bring in IBM's silicon-on-insulator (SOI) and so-called "bulk silicon" technologies. "We deepen and widen our relationship with IBM," AMD said Tuesday. "So we'll be able to take bulk and SOI together to the 22-nanometer generation and beyond." (The next generation of chips will be made on a 32-nanometer process, followed by 22-nanometer in the 2012 time frame.)























AMD's Fab 36 in Dresden will focus on IBM's silicon-on-insulator (SOI) and so-called "bulk silicon" technologies.
(Credit: AMD)

Second, AMD will move forward to build manufacturing facilities at the Luther Forest Technology Campus, near the town of Malta, N.Y. "At the earliest opportunity we will break ground on upstate New York and begin work on what we believe will be the most sophisticated manufacturing facility in the United States," AMD said.

The intention is to "bring that fab online in the late 2011, 2012 time frame," AMD said. "And further cementing that upstate New York corridor as one of the leading (areas) in the world for nanotechnology." The planned facility will provide 1,400 jobs for the region, according to AMD.

AMD may also expand beyond Dresden and New York. "Once we complete the Dresden expansion and build out upstate New York--and if commercially justified--we will consider the creation of research and manufacturing facilities in Abu Dhabi," said Grose.

Hector Ruiz--the current AMD chairman--will relinquish his role as AMD's executive chairman to become chairman of The Foundry Company.

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AMD to spin off manufacturing

On Tuesday, Advanced Micro Devices will announce a long-expected restructuring, according to sources familiar with the deal.

As expected, the No. 2 supplier of PC processors will split into two companies: one for designing chips, the other for manufacturing them. The capital-intensive business of manufacturing chips is weighing on AMD as it reels under a $5 billion debt load.

The investment is expected to allow AMD to remain directly involved in chip manufacturing--crucial for competing with Intel, which has used its manufacturing prowess to great advantage.

AMD would not comment Monday.

The company has secured about $5.7 billion of "confirmed, pledged investment," with some of the money earmarked for a future manufacturing facility in Malta, New York, according to sources.

AMD will own part of the new manufacturing entity, for the time being to be called The Foundry Company, while Advanced Technology Investment Co. (ATIC) will own the rest. One of the investors, Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Development Co., invested approximately $622 million in AMD last November.

Mubadala already holds an 8.1 percent stake in AMD. Upon closing the deal, Mubadala will own 19.3 percent of AMD, according to sources.

ATIC--also based in Abu Dhabi--will have equal voting rights with AMD in The Foundry Company and own 55.6 percent of the new entity. ATIC will invest an initial $2.1 billion, of which $1.4 billion will be invested directly in the new company and $700 million will be paid directly to AMD, according to sources close to the deal.

In addition, ATIC will commit a minimum of $3.6 billion and up to $6 billion in additional funds over the next five years for the upgrade and expansion of fabrication facilities in Dresden, Germany, and construction of a new facility in upstate New York, near the town of Malta.

Mubadala, for its part, will purchase 58 million newly issued AMD shares valued at $314 million and warrants for 30 million additional shares, giving it a total stake in AMD of approximately 19.3 percent on a fully diluted basis, sources said.

Mubadala will also have the right to designate a representative for election as a member of the board of directors of AMD.

All of this is expected to greatly improve AMD's liquidity.

AMD CEO Dirk Meyer and other company executives are expected to make the announcement Tuesday.

The investment is characterized by one source as coming from investors with "a long-term vision, who want to help (AMD) scale the foundry operations to compete globally." A foundry is a manufacturing facility.

AMD has been laboring for months over details of the restructuring, which it has termed "Asset Smart." AMD Chief Financial Officer Bob Rivet said during AMD's second-quarter earnings conference call that Asset Smart would be "a major reformation of the company."

Also, at that time, AMD announced that Meyer would take over as CEO and Hector Ruiz would relinquish that post but remain as chairman to oversee AMD's transition to Asset Smart.

AMD already has a relationship with IBM in which AMD uses IBM's advanced test manufacturing facilities.

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AMD 'Shanghai' chip debuts at resellers

Advanced Micro Devices' first 45-nanometer chip, the Shanghai quad-core Opteron, has made its debut at resellers.


The officially unannounced Opteron 837X and 838X series processors are not cheap. Online reseller PC Connection lists the Opteron QC (quad-core) 8384 at $2,509. Another reseller, Buy.com lists the same processor at $2,240.

The 8384 is expected to run at 2.7GHz and draw 75 watts, relatively low power consumption for a quad-core server processor.

The 8385--same clock speed with a faster system bus--is offered for $2,509 at PC Connection.

Other processors listed include the 8382 (2.6GHz), 8380 (2.5GHz), and 8378 (2.4GHz), priced at $2,177, $1,768, and $1,360 respectively at PC Connection. Note that these prices will differ from official pricing from AMD.

The Shanghai Opteron 230X series includes the 2382 (2.6GHz) and 2380 (2.5GHz). These are priced at $1,019 and $814 respectively at PC Connnection.

Rollout of the chip is expected officially on November 13, according to industry sources.

AMD is hoping to make a much better impression with Shanghai. Its first quad-core chip, Barcelona, was rolled out in September 2007 to great fanfare only to be delayed a whopping eight months (or more, depending how the delay is calculated) due to production glitches and bugs. This gave Intel an opportunity to regain ground it had lost to AMD in the server chip market.

Shanghai is in full production right now, Pat Patla, general manager of AMD's server and workstation chip business said last month. The was confirmed during AMD's earnings conference call earlier this month.

Server vendors are expected to be shipping systems as early as this quarter. A Sun Microsystems spokesperson said Tuesday that it plans to offer Shanghai processors on its current x64 platforms running Barcelona. Systems using the new processors are targeted for the first quarter of 2009, the spokesperson said.

At the same clock frequency (speed), Shanghai will outperform Barcelona by about 20 percent, Patla said last month.

AMD is also boosting the size of the cache memory, which typically speeds performance, from 2 megabytes to 6 megabytes. Another speed improvement will come from increasing "instructions per clock."

Patla also said last month that AMD is "turning on HT3 (HyperTransport 3)"--a communication path between chips--and that partners will start to validate systems in the first quarter of next year with this technology.

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Atom chip demand redefining Intel

Intel is seeing solid results for the Atom processor--possibly giving the first significant evidence of Intel's likely future as a bigger provider of low-cost processors.


Intel confirmed on Tuesday that Atom is hot. CEO Paul Otellini said that Intel didn't meet demand in the third quarter and still can't meet demand. "We did not meed demand in Q3 for the product. We are up again substantially in the fourth quarter. Our expectation is that we will meet demand by the end of the year," Otellini said.

And many of the questions from analysts in Tuesday's earnings conference call revolved around Atom as it delivered $200 million in revenue to Intel in the quarter. "Between the microprocessor and the chipset, we did have a couple hundred million dollars of revenue from Atom in the third quarter," Chief Financial Officer Stacy Smith said. "We do expect that to grow rapidly in the fourth quarter."

What Intel appears to like most about Atom is what it calls "margin characteristics." In other words, it's a low-cost processor, but it yields better margins than typical inexpensive chips like the Celeron. "What we've seen in the third quarter is a very healthy product margin," Smith said.

"On a dollar basis it's equivalent to what we see in Celeron and on a product margin percent it's higher. So if you look at it relative to our low-end mainstream stack, it's generating nice product characteristics," Smith added.

Here's the question: if more and more consumers--particularly in places like China and India--opt for Netbooks with the Atom processor rather than traditional notebooks with standard Intel mobile processors, what kind of an impact will this have on Intel's profits?

Intel claims cannibalization of (higher-margin) mainstream mobile processors is not taking place. "To date we haven't seen any evidence of cannibalization. And believe me we're looking. It's something we watch very carefully," Otellini said. "And one of the best pieces of evidence that we have is the strength in the core mobile business independent of Atom," he added.

But tighter consumer budgets worldwide could push more people toward Netbooks. A Gartner report came out Tuesday that said third-quarter PC shipment growth was driven by sales of sub-$500 notebooks. Netbooks typically sell for less than $500.

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Intel's Nehalem now officially Core i7

Intel's Nehalem now officially Core i7
Intel on Sunday quickly confirmed recent leaks with official word that its next-generation Nehalem processor architecture will be named Core i7. The move continues the Core name despite a major platform change and signals the new line's status as Intel's seventh major architecture since it began with the 8086 decades earlier. The highest-performing versions of the processor line will still add the Extreme Edition badge to reflect their extra features, which often include a speed multiplier unlock friendly to overclockers.

The first chips to bear the Core i7 name will be mainstream desktop parts meant for gamers and conventional systems; Intel doesn't allude to the expected 3.2GHz speed but has previously confirmed the new architecture's switch from a front side system bus to point-to-point connections between the processor and peripherals, an on-die memory controller, and Hyperthreading that can at times double the number of effective cores working on a given task at any one time.

Intel ships its first desktop Core i7 processors in the fall and will follow up with mobile equivalents in early 2009; workstation chips are expected to continue using the Xeon name.

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