AMD Adopts Optimistic Stance After Tough Q2

Despite the positive outlook – the company’s revenue forecast for the current quarter is about 22 percent over the second quarter, or about $1.42 billion (£932m) – Read and other executives had to address the previous three months, which saw shipments and average selling prices of its core chips business decline and revenues fall by about 20 percent.

The $1.16 billion (£761m) in overall revenues represented an 18 year decline over the same quarter last year, and the $74 million (£48.6m) loss compares with the $37 million (£24.3m) in profits the company gained in the same period in 2012.

Read and other executives said they expect the new APUs for PCs, ultrathins and tablets – codenamed “Kabini,” “Temash” and “Richland” – will boost adoption of AMD products by OEMs, due in large part to improvements in performance, graphics capabilities and power efficiency.

Responding to a question regarding AMD’s market position with Kabini and Temash over Intel’s upcoming low-power “Bay Trail” Atom systems-on-a-chip (SoCs) for tablets and other form factors, Lisa Su, senior vice president and general manager of AMD’s Global Business Unit, said it was good to have a head start.

“If you look at our Temash and Kabini offerings, I think we are very pleased with overall performance both on the processing side and the graphics side and the adoption through the OEMs,” Su said. “We do have the time to market advantage and that proves good when you look at on the systems that will be on the shelf both starting this quarter and into the summer. And as we go forward, we think we are well positioned versus Bay Trail as well.”

She also said there was room in the data centre for both chips based both on the x86 architecture and ARM’s designs, and that AMD’s ability to offer both will be an advantage starting next year.

“We view ARM and x86 as two important eco-systems that are out there in the industry,” Su said. “So x86 will always continue to be very important in both the PC and the server market, but we see ARM being important with the new markets, especially new operating systems as well as some of the high-volume data centre applications. So, yes, there will be a market for both ARM and x86, and I think that’s one of the unique things that we can bring over the next few years to the marketplace.”

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