De Austin American Statesman (krant in Austin/Texas, waar AMD gevestigd is) heeft een artikel over de geschiedenis van AMD in elkaar geplakt. Hier heb je een stuk over recente ontwikkeling (Fab30 / Dresden enz.):
Atiq Raza, who was AMD's chief technology officer for more than three years, said recently that the company had made considerable progress in getting its design teams, its research scientists and its factory managers to work together more effectively."AMD has become a much more efficient manufacturing machine," Raza said recently. "It is on the same technology road map as Intel."
But it was Raza, considered by financial analysts as the most credible figure in AMD's senior management, who created the latest cloud of uncertainty. In July, Raza suddenly resigned as company president, chief technology officer and chief operating officer, stunning Sanders and the microprocessor community. Raza explained that he wanted to become a venture capitalist. But he also voiced some concerns about AMD's high level of spending, particularly on its new $1.9 billion factory in Germany.
Bringing the German factory on line has driven AMD's operating expenses up far higher than ever. Now, the company must sell more chips than it has ever sold, just to break even.
"The whole idea of the German factory is something that AMD should reconsider," Raza said, "no matter what the cost is of getting out of it."
Sanders disagrees. The German factory, he said, will have the advanced technology that AMD will need to hit high-performance targets in the future.
Just as it needs success with Athlon, AMD needs that factory, he said, to stay competitive with nemesis Intel. Despite the heavy spending required to stay in the game with Intel, Sanders acknowledges that his company must soon achieve consistent profits.
"Profitability is a great deodorant," Sanders said. "It makes criticism go away. We are going to make history."
