To: Cirruslvr who wrote (119372 ) 7/6/2000 1:19:16 AM From: survivin Respond to Conclusion to the IBD articleChipmaker AMD's President Looks To Mine Copper, Flash IBD: What's AMD's current condition? We are in a strong position by any measure. Our Athlon seventh-generation microprocessor is the best you can get. In terms of technology, we have a good road map. Our strategy is to be innovative. Flash does that for us. And we have about 200 engineers who do nothing but worry about how to bring CPU (central processing unit) innovation to market. IBD: What is AMD's strategy to compete with Intel in the chip market for business computers? At the center of our strategy, we are focusing on trying to be innovative in technology. One example is Athlon, which has an architecture that's quite different from the (Intel) Pentium III architecture. The technology used to build Athlon is copper-based. A second thing is that we don't have a strategy based on us doing everything ourselves. Whether it's motherboards or software, we are building partnerships in the area of high-performance workstations and servers. IBD: What's AMD's strategy in the consumer market? Our objective is to play a major role in the network appliance market. The appliance market has been fragmented and not well defined. There are so many platforms for it. We are beginning to crystallize the role we can play and we are articulating it. IBD: Does that mean you'll talk about a network appliance strategy later this year? Yes. IBD: Is AMD planning to build any new chip plants? We are building new capacity of flash with our partner, Fujitsu. We're putting large amounts of capacity in place. I believe we will continue to be one of the flash market leaders. In terms of microprocessors, the (focus) is on completing the production ramp-up in Dresden, Germany. We are at about 25% . to full capacity. We are also in the beginning stages of planning our next microprocessor factory and (determining) where it should be. We are hoping to have that nailed down by the end of the year. IBD: You mentioned the joint venture with Fujitsu. Is AMD planning to do more joint ventures? Because we chose to be on a partnership path, we will need to expand our partnerships going forward. All the elements will require hardware people such as motherboard suppliers. At some point in time we might consider a manufacturing alliance, either producing silicon or testing silicon. IBD: What other challenges does AMD face? The flash challenge is more than we thought it would be. Demand for flash is strong, and we are working hard to squeeze every unit out that we can. Things are pretty tight. I think customers are adjusting to what they can get. IBD: Finding good technical employees is a problem for a lot of companies right now; how about for AMD? Human-capital needs are the biggest challenge we face going forward. More so in this country than in other countries, where there is not as much of a shortage. Microprocessors are usually more technology-centric. That's the biggest challenge in the industry this year and in the years ahead.
