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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cirruslvr who wrote (79198)	11/10/1999 12:40:00 AM
From: Yougang Xiao	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573070

So, Raza left for making more money, an interesting read. AMD Ex-President Raza Forms Funds That Will Focus on Communications By DEAN TAKAHASHI Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL As president of Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Atiq Raza used to compete against some of Silicon Valley's high-tech heavy hitters. Nowadays, he is hitting them up for money. Since resigning from the presidency of AMD in July, Mr. Raza has worked 20-hour days forming two new venture-capital funds focused on communications -- thus joining a growing number of former top executives trying to make big money investing in start-ups rather than running a big company. Other notables who have joined the venture-capital crowd include James Barksdale, former CEO of Netscape Communications Corp., James Clark, cofounder of Netscape, and Gil Amelio, former CEO at Apple Computer Inc. and National Semiconductor Corp. A Basis for Confidence While they are newcomers to a business with plenty of established stars, these executives think they can set themselves apart from the pack because of their familiarity with certain technologies and markets. "I'm finding there is a lot of venture-capital support for someone with a track record of managing technology," says Mr. Raza, who made about $30 million in 1996 when he sold the start-up NexGen Inc. to AMD for about $615 million, a hefty price for a company with only 140 employees at the time. The first of his funds will be a $25 million fund called Raza Venture Fund A, and its investors will include a "who's who of Silicon Valley" entrepreneurs such as Sun Microsystems Inc. co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim and Rambus Inc. co-founder Michael Farmwald. The fund will invest in business-to-business electronic-commerce start-ups, as well as optical-networking technology, high-bandwidth wireless technology and network processing chips. "A lot of the venture people are focused on the Internet and nothing else," says Mr. Bechtolsheim. "Atiq is eminently qualified to judge a lot of the chip start-ups, like whether they have the right talent and plan. [Venture capitalists] can pick a company and attend board meetings, but there's a lot more value added when you add someone with operational experience." The second fund is expected to be a $100 million to $125 million fund, dubbed Raza Venture Fund I, in partnership with various established Silicon Valley venture capitalists such as New Enterprise Associates. But Mr. Raza says now that demands on his time are so tight that he may skip this fund and move on to a third idea. In that business, Mr. Raza says he may start a consulting firm, much like entrepreneur Bill Gross's ideaLab! incubator firm in Pasadena, Calif. Mr. Raza says he would offer management-consulting services to start-ups associated with his venture investments. Mr. Raza has also joined the boards of 10 companies, among them: Nishan Systems Inc. in San Jose, Calif.; Siara Systems Inc. in Mountain View, Calif.; VxTel Inc. in Fremont, Calif.; Magma Design Automation Inc. in Cupertino, Calif.; and SwitchOn Networks Inc. in Milpitas, Calif. Mr. Raza is setting up an office in San Jose, Calif. Reasons for the Move Why the shift from microprocessors to communications? Mr. Raza says, "The economic value has shifted from the desktop to communications, such that microprocessor performance improvements offer a smaller benefit to the productivity of users in comparison to communications improvements." For Mr. Raza, the shift to venture capital could mean working with former adversaries. He was once scheduled to be a witness against Intel Corp., an AMD foe, in the Federal Trade Commission's antitrust lawsuit before that matter was settled earlier this year. Asked what that means for his new venture's relationship with Intel, a major purchaser of communications companies, he says, "I don't look upon Intel as someone to wage war against. Intel is a major player, and, who knows, maybe a future friend."

To: Cirruslvr who wrote (79198)	11/10/1999 12:41:00 AM
From: Ali Chen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573070

Cirruslvr, <Of course, there is quite a performance difference between the K6-2 and PIII.> Not in notebooks. Never saw Winstone numbers for notebooks (or paid attention to). I guess the application runtime will be dominated by slow disks and mediocre video controllers. I would guess the battery time will be the most important thing to compare in portables, and quality and resolution of displays. Therefore, the raw MHz must be even more important (tm Jim). :)