AMD's 40th anniversary comes as the 500 millionth chip is shipped

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AMD's 40th anniversary comes as the 500 millionth chip is shipped

Essential Linkage: AMD makes a lotta chips, hits a birthday mark, but the future looks shaky.

Birthday celebrations are in order for the big green chip company AMD, as they reach their 40th anniversary and make it a pretty huge amount of time from their initial founding in 1969. Jerry Sanders and a few other people threw their collective will together to found the company, and while the staff have changed the company is very much true to its origins.

To celebrate still being around they're having a competition to win four HP notebooks with AMD's Athlon Neo X2 CPUs; a 1.6GHz low-powered chip that gobbles up very little power and makes a teensy amount of heat. Of course they're doing it in a funny way, making you follow their Twitter feed to be in time to answer AMD-centric questions, but hey - it's free!

Unfortunately for AMD however is that CNET report analysts of the business see it as being on rocky ground financially,  with their product share dropping faster than a runaway boulder. Their not-quite-as-competitive notebook processors are to blame (compared to Intel's Atom anyway), and their Phenom II CPUs are also not quite as attractive compared to Core i7 and even Core 2 Duo.

We're happy enough to still have AMD around, and their graphics brand ATI is still going forwards on all cylinders, so we raise a glass to the next (hopeful) forty years for AMD. Check out their birthday announcement over at their website, and drool at the moist chocolatey cake they've got pictured there.

 

 
 
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6 Comments
Thoughts on this article? Add a comment below.
AIMBOT
Jul 24, 2009 11:52 AM
God damn it! Now I feel like cake.

Not too happy to hear about their poor financials. It'll be a bad day for the industry if they fall, removing what little competition they provide. And I'll cry if ATI follow suit.
TheFrunj
Jul 24, 2009 12:01 PM
Hehe, I did the same to quite a few people with this story too :D

http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/News/144989,google-reduces-searches-to-cheeseburgers-and-orange-juice.aspx

It doesn't seem like the best sign, but I'm pretty hopeful.

-JR
SlickGrunt
Jul 24, 2009 12:14 PM
It's funny how AMD was reigning supreme, yet didn't hold more ground in the share market compared to Intel - at least twice as many die-hard Intel fans out there too. I understand it would take years for that to change, years of AMD reigning supreme. With Intel dominating every sector, from retail to OEM, through a series of strategies (petty and clever); I have to commend AMD on their efforts, for a chip giant as big as Intel is almost unstoppable. Yet they lasted this long - and I am only waiting for the next rabbit out of the hat (like they pulled with the Athlon XP's). So pull it together, AMD! And to you Intel fan-bois, without AMD you'd pay through the nose for the slowest Intel CPU out there.
fredzfrog
Jul 24, 2009 12:15 PM
failcomp! Eligibility: Residents of United States and Canada (excluding Quebec), ...

worse then some atomic comps.. (damn not being in sydney.. :P)
Lambo
Jul 24, 2009 1:20 PM
Just in time for them to announce yet another quarter loss....

How long can they sustain this?
CK
Jul 24, 2009 6:37 PM
The cake is a lie...sorry to be the one to let you know. I think i'll still keep a hold of my old XP Barton 2800+ for old times sake, they were good times they were.
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