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AMD Confirms End for Three Chip Families
By Lisa Gill, www.NewsFactor.com
Integrated circuits supplier Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD - news) surprised manufacturers this week with an announcement it would cease production of several key CPU chips.
The discontinuation notice was given Monday for the older 486 and 586 families, as well as a newer K6 line. The chips are expected to be produced until July 2003, with orders taken until July 2002.
AMD produces microprocessors, Flash memory devices, and support circuitry for communications and networking applications. The Sunnyvale, California-based AMD plans to use the facility that produces the three chips for another product line.
Paul Smith, AMD's director of business marketing, told NewsFactor Network the company intends to shift its low-end Duron processors to the embedded production space, while customers will be asked to migrate to that processor from the K6 family.
"We see the embedded PC marketplace to move to the embedded Duron in the two-and-a-half-year period. We're essentially transitioning to a higher performance product for embedded," said Smith.
Ripple Effect
The announcement affects companies like VersaLogic that use such chips in the production of high-speed processor modules and embedded computer chips and boards.
A VersaLogic spokesperson told NewsFactor the company was surprised by the AMD move away from supplying embedded chips, and that the company expected support for the processors for another five years.
"This is a time period much longer than what is standard in the integrated circuit systems to make something obsolete. We gave as much time as we could to our customers," said AMD's Smith, who acknowledged that VersaLogic would like to see the chips last longer in the marketplace.
In a statement released Wednesday, VersaLogic sought to steer customers to a new Intel-based single-board component.
"It's certainly VersaLogic's decision, but we believe we have a better product and better value than Intel does," said Smith, who said he believed a number of its other clients will make the switch.
Expected To Last
VersaLogic also explained that unlike the consumer PC market, medical and aerospace industry computers are built to remain up-to-date for five to 10 years, and suffer the most from embedded computer changes.
"Obsolescence of a significant component such as the single board computer can require a costly and time-consuming redesign involving changes to the software, enclosure, and other related hardware," said the statement.
According to an e-mail posted on VersaLogic's Web site, AMD's announcement comes on the heels of a commitment made last year to support the K6 line for an additional five years.
"It's not as though we're abandoning the embedded marketplace, this is part of a continuing business lifestyle standard in most industries," explained Smith.
Giant Steps
Computer maker IBM confirmed Tuesday it would replace AMD chips in its North American computers with processors from market leader Intel (Nasdaq: INTC - news). IBM offered AMD chips last fall in custom-built computers.
Compaq (NYSE: CPQ - news) and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HWP - news) currently use AMD microchips in their computers. |
