Comments on: AMD VP: My ideal netbook doesn’t exist yet

By: thomas merritt

thomas merritt — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 06:32:07 +0000

Agreed.
I was just going to call Moorhead a dickhead since his job as Vice President in Charge of Lying means that he is the sap that is thrown to the wolves but I decided to laud your fine work instead.
The less we mention the sleazoids who work in marketing, the cleaner we will all feel.

By: thomas merritt

thomas merritt — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 01:32:07 +0000

By: thomas merritt

thomas merritt — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 22:32:07 +0000

By: carlomejia

carlomejia — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 10:30:44 +0000

and with that vision of the perfect netbook, how is AMD going to help it happens?

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 20:22:06 +0000

Thanks very much. It's sadly true that AMD is not best poised to handle the curveball of Atom, but it's not like they didn't have time to attempt something – Atom wasn't the best of secrets.

In the end AMD will always be a reactionary chip maker, and that's why they're second fiddle. They need to ensure that they see what way the wind is blowing before they commit financial resources to it. Especially now that Notebooks are outselling desktops. This is a bad time for them to have such a poor mobility range (ATi aside).

By: carlomejia

carlomejia — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 19:39:04 +0000

Thats was eloquent enough, very sharp Chris.

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:28:03 +0000

From AMDs point of view they have two options - 1) Design and market a netbook processor in a few months to try and gain ground in what is proving to be the biggest growth market (impossible for them to manage). 2) Spread so much crap and nonsense about Netbooks and hope that somebody believes it (slightly more possible than number 1).

To design a new chip takes a long time. The original Banias alone took about 2 years to produce, and that wasn't even a ground up design. To create a competitor to Atom that isn't just an underclocker A64 will take substantially longer for AMD with their reduced R&D spending.

So they stick their fingers in their ears and pretend that the netbook segment will go away if they shout loud enough.

This would be all well and good if they had decent competing products for full sized notebooks, but in that respect they not only get chummed, they get chummed and they get less profit on their processors. This means that as the notebook segment expands, AMD needs to focus on creating a decent notebook processor before they create a decent netbook processor.

This lack of profit underpins another issue for AMD. Let's assume they get a competitor to Atom out there. What do they charge for it? Fate dictates it'll either be slower than Atom or it'll churn out more heat. So either way they're stuck with lower margins, and for processors like this with low margins in the first place that's a big issue. Intel gets away with using gigantic wafers, so they can produce several hundred more processors per wafer than AMD. This is important when you're dealing with such a small die as a Netbook processor, you want as many per wafer as you can get.

So AMD is stuck. They've got no real choices other than to keep pretending this segment will go away. Maybe it will, maybe it will change into something new over time. Either way, Intel will rule the roost for a long time now and when your main competitor is the only game in town all you can do is spew a load of idiocy and rhetoric.

By: richard mullens

richard mullens — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:07:39 +0000

Surely, it is the people still reading this blog who are those for whom “My ideal netbook doesn't exist yet”.

I want to run “Eagle” on a netbook – but the stated minimum resolution is 1024×768. Linux is supported. Designing PCBs is time consuming – so a good battery life is needed.

Once I find what I want I guess I'll visit here less frequently.

By: bolomkxxviii

bolomkxxviii — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:35:51 +0000

This is why AMD is in trouble. They really don't have a clue.

By: Scott

Scott — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:09:42 +0000

So basically he wants a Sony TT… 11″ 1366 x 768, 2.8lbs, 0.93″ thick…. oh and starts at just $2100

(you add GPS w/ a express card…)