Advanced Micro Devices’ place in the annals of the semiconductor industry is now more or less fixed. The battle for dominance in the microprocessor market has been won and lost. The crown belongs to Intel—if this were medieval times, heads would already be rolling at 1 AMD Place in Sunnyvale, Calif.
AMD’s future isn’t clouded in any great mystery. The company is burdened with debt, is losing market share and appears destined to become an even smaller player in its core MPU market. Recent strategic moves at AMD are not making a dent in Intel’s leadership: The acquisition of graphics IC vendor ATI Technologies hasn’t lived up to expectations and becoming a fabless IC vendor isn’t a game changer either.
