Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Advanced Micro Devices - Moderated (AMD) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Eagle who wrote (257583)	12/27/2008 1:30:45 PM
From: rudedog	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 275872

I have a couple of questions for those who watch AMD the company more closely than I do... I have been building a small position based on three factors: 1 - Decent execution for a change: 45nm parts were more or less on time and appear to be exceeding expectations. 2009 should show both lower power ('EE') and higher speed ('SE') parts just based on minor process improvements and binning. The new ATI products put nVidia on its heels 2 - The 'asset smart' strategy relieved the 'near death' financial condition of AMD and, at least for me, made it more likely that AMD will be able to maintain closer process parity with Intel over time. 3 - The stock crash made the price attractive I was not much of a fan of former CEO Ruiz (or of Sanders before him) - neither seemed to have much of a strategy. I had followed Dirk Meyer's tenure at AMD from a technology perspective with great interest. Basically, it seems that every time AMD pulled a rabbit out of its hat, Meyer was waving the wand. He was the one who combined Alpha bus and memory technology, and a RISC core, to produce the K7, which for the first time put AMD into leadership in desktop processors - in 1999, the 1.2G Athlon had about a 40% advantage in real performance against the Intel 1G parts (I still have one of those systems). Meyer was also the driving force behind the 64 bit extensions which led to Opteron. It looked to me like AMD top management was taking those hard-won technology advantages and throwing them in the fire - acting like a kid who gets his first job and then runs up 10 years worth of credit card debt in 6 months. Intel got distracted by their jihad to make IA64 the 64 bit replacement for X86, and to hold the 32 bit lead with NetBurst, which is IMO the only reason that Athlon and Opteron had an opportunity. But AMD can't count on Intel screwing up very often. So here's my question... is a there real change in direction and management philosophy, signaled by the split off of the fabs and the management changes? Does anyone know if the new team is going to be focused on finding and exploiting the areas of the market where AMD's strengths can build a solid business, and stop tilting at the Intel windmill? All of the discussions about processor performance really don't have much to do with investment value - except as an indication of execution capability. Is there any change in AMD marketing or sales strategy? Can they continue to identify areas where for whatever reason, Intel has left an opening, and show agility in exploiting those opportunities? The answer to those questions might make the difference between a short term (9-12 month) play, versus holding AMD as a core part of my portfolio. In the interest of disclosure, I also hold a position in INTC, which has been part of my holdings since the early 90s.