January 20 - AMD has a record fourth quarter, still reports a loss for the year. Led
by strong seasonal consumer demand for personal computers, AMD today reported record
sales of $968,710,000 and net income of $65,080,000 for the quarter ended December
26, 1999.
However, even with strong end of year sales the company managed to post an $88 million
loss for the year. The loss would have been over $300 million if AMD had not reported a
gain of $259 from the sale of its Vantis subsidiary.
W.J. Sanders III, chairman and chief executive officer commented, "AMD Athlon
processor unit sales surpassed our goal of 800,000 units for the quarter and enabled us to
achieve our target of cumulative unit shipments of one million for the year."
"AMD continues to execute well to its processor roadmap," Sanders said. "We accelerated
our planned introduction of higher-speed AMD Athlon processors, with 750-megahertz
(MHz) devices in the fourth quarter and an 800-MHz version on January 6. Our transition
to 180-nanometer (0.18-micron) technology is progressing smoothly. Eighty percent of our
wafer output for AMD Athlon processors is currently on 180-nanometer technology, and
our wafer output of AMD Athlon processors will be 100 percent on 180-nanometer
technology in February."
Editorial Comment: Curiously, Mr. Sanders made no mention of the new AMD processor
plant, Fab 30 in Dresden Germany, which is due to come on-line this month. The new plant
is projected to double AMD's CPU production capacity. AMD has also stated previously
that it would move to a copper based CPU manufacturing process at the new plant. AMD
must bring up the new plant to stay competitive and to achieve profitability.
<Copper based CPU manufacturing is a difficult process that was pioneered by IBM and is
used to produce PowerPC processors. Intel and AMD still use an aluminum process to
manufacture their CPUs. Copper is a much better conductor than aluminum, however it is
difficult to use in a CPU as it contaminates silicon. So far only IBM and Motorola have
been successfully manufacturing copper based CPUs.> |
