Is AMD now a sinking ship? AMD corporate Phil Rogers leaves AMD and joins Nvidia.

scrimshaw on 03/11/2015 - 23:10
Last edited 03/11/2015 - 23:13

Phil Rogers, having had enough of AMD after 21 years has departed AMD and joined their biggest rival: Nvidia.

Looks like the Intel and Nvidia partnership is going to get tighter and the eventual decline of AMD is looming.

Time to sell the shares?

AMD has lost another high-ranking staffer, this time bidding farewell to Corporate Fellow and Heterogeneous Systems Architecture (HSA) expert Phil Rogers.

The financially-troubled AMD has been suffering something of a brain-drain of late, culminating in CPU design giant Jim Keller leaving the company for the second time in September - even before Zen, the new microarchitecture on which he had been working, hits shop shelves. Now, HARDOCP was the first to report that Corporate Fellow Phil Rogers has left the company as well - and, worse still, he's heading over to GPU rival Nvidia to act as its chief software architect.

Computing

Comments

tonyjzx on 03/11/2015 - 23:37

apparent non-competes or even timed non-competes dont exist in the US
UncommonName on 04/11/2015 - 02:46

We need more competition, AMD should bounce back (never liked their tech though).
iridiumstem on 04/11/2015 - 02:58

+1

There are companies that would be interested in buying AMD out, I doubt AMD will die out (i.e. MS, Samsung, Apple, Dell, Qualcomm and Intel etc and many Chinese companies (well at least GlobalFoundries have been constantly wanted by China). It may get bought out by a non-US company if US government allows that kind of action (CPU and foundry I think is considered as tactical assets, I think?).

I hope AMD don't die out (though I think it is inevitable that AMD will be acquired by other firms, hopefully it's not Intel or Nvidia), Nvidia and Intel as is have so much monopolistic power, it'd be better to see AMD bouncing back up than to see AMD collapsing.

http://www.techeye.net/chips/why-does-everyone-want-to-buy-a… (This one is so outdated though, 2013)
http://www.techtimes.com/articles/84168/20150914/amd-shares-… (Sept, 2015)
http://wccftech.com/amd-allegedly-merge-samsung/ (April, 2015)
- scrimshaw on 04/11/2015 - 06:15
  
  I thought AMD no longer has a stake in the foundry? Think they had to give up most of it to save the company.
  
  I don't think any company is going to want to buy out AMD and rescue it — they'll only buy it just to grab the dirt cheap IP's and then sell off the rest. If Samsung were to buy them for example, they'll only do so because they want the SOC's.
  - iridiumstem on 04/11/2015 - 06:33
    
    Huh, I must've missed that news about AMD giving up its stake in GlobalFoundries (I probably was in the bootcamp during that time, if it was March 2012).
    
    I think AMD still is an attractive option for few companies, the rumours on Samsung, Microsoft and Intel is actually still fresh (Q2, this year).
    Not sure how it would end up if Samsung acquires it. They would probably do so for mainly their SoC (looking at the rumour about Jim Keller going to Samsung after quitting AMD and how Samsung is trying to go for a custom architecture).
    
    That said, yeah, I don't think CPU and GPU market is an attractive market for many companies (AMD isn't exactly doing well in the market and the market for PC is declining as well), what you said probably would happen.
KaTst3R on 04/11/2015 - 03:15

There was a rumor that Apple could be the savior of AMD. Mainly because at some point, Apple does not wanna buy third party chips anymore (especially from their biggest rival Sammy) and that is where AMD can come in.

If this M&A deal happens, all those people who left AMD for the competition will be beating themselves for losing the opportunity to be working in the worlds biggest company (by market cap).

Im not a big fan of AMD, I have always thought that they never seem to get the products "right". But it looks like things could be turning around for them with Zen and HBM tech. Not surprised if they are an attractive target for acquisition given that they are trading at or near its all time low.
- whooah1979 on 04/11/2015 - 06:33
  
  -4
  
  it's about time someone put amd to bed for good. they were leaders once upon a time, but not any more. their cpu and gpu cheap, runs to hot and uses to much power. intel and nvidia is the way to go.
  - scrimshaw on 04/11/2015 - 06:40
    
    +4
    
    It's a lose-lose situation if AMD were to go bankrupt. If that is the case, consumers will have only Intel products and will have to pay more for their Pc's because they have a monopoly.
    
    AMD has already split their CPU and graphics division into two — they've got a GPU focused Radeon Technologies Group which I think will do fine on it's own. The biggest problem is the CPU division which just sold off 85% of their testing and development facilities (including 1700 employee contracts) for a half billion US to a chinese company.
    
    AMD is selling most of its assembly and testing operations in China and Malaysia in a bid to save cash after poor results.
    
    The chipmaker said it will sell 85 percent of its assembly, test, mark and pack operations in Suzhou, China and Penang, Malaysia to China’s NFME for $320 million.
    
    The company also said it would create a joint venture with NFME as part of the deal, to which it will contribute 1,700 employees. It said it did not plan to cut any more jobs.
  - cypher67 on 04/11/2015 - 10:30
    
    Microsoft bailed out Apple back in the day, it wasn't a charity move, it was essential for their business to continue to succeed (although I'm sure there is large sums of regret now). If you are better than your only competition, people can justify a premium price. If you have no competition, the market becomes a monopoly, customers get the sh1ts because they are paying a premium without getting a choice. You tend to get sloppy, no one is pushing your business to be better and you have no one to copy ideas from. Someone new with the means could then take you on & ultimately roll you. The world needs AMD, at least in the short term.
    - [Deactivated] on 08/11/2015 - 22:06
      
      From what I heard they bought out Apple because if there was only the main major computer vendor they would have to abide by monopoly laws.
    - cypher67 on 08/11/2015 - 22:30
      
      @voolish:
      Correct, another factor I missed, and it wasn't bought out, it was bailed out, huge difference.
DarkOz on 04/11/2015 - 09:21

I thought AMD is a submarine…
mr626 on 04/11/2015 - 10:30

+1

As others have mentioned, I really hope that AMD stays around. Otherwise we'll start to see Intel and Nvidia taking advantage of the lack of competition- prices will likely increase, and there's less reason to innovate.
- tonyjzx on 04/11/2015 - 14:40
  
  We already see this. Nvidia have made GPU prices about $500 for midrange? $800 for high end?
  
  Intel has pretty much priced up due to non competition from AMD. $200 for an i5 midrange. $350 for an i7.
  
  Its only going to get worse as AMD is pretty much non competitive for cpu or gpu.
  
  And I have only bought AMD for gpu for close onto 10 yrs.
  - mr626 on 04/11/2015 - 14:45
    
    I'd agree on the CPUs- AMD doesn't compete in the top end any more (and I don't think they try to).
    
    GPUs is debatable though. AMD is fairly competitive at every price point really. Sure Nvidia are the more popular brand overall (based on things like Steam surveys), but team red is still alive and well.
    - tonyjzx on 04/11/2015 - 14:56
      
      You're more optimistic than me and trust me, i wish things were better for AMD.
      
      As far as I can see, AMD is a rebadging company. Their Fury line isnt competitive over upper middle Nvidia.
rambao9 on 04/11/2015 - 12:31

Didn't fujitsu just buy 85% of amd shares? They should have plenty of cash from that. Enough R&D $ for Zen I believe.
- scrimshaw on 04/11/2015 - 13:52
  
  Bought by NFME, Nantong Fujitsu Micro Electronics. It's a Chinese company.
  
  http://finance.yahoo.com/news/amd-jv-nantong-fujitsu-shows-1…
  - rambao9 on 04/11/2015 - 15:37
    
    Yeah! So AMD's not gonna sink, or I sure hope not. It'd be horrible if Intel becomes a monopoly. It's becoming horrible already since AMD have completely fallen off. These 3% IPC increases per generation are slowly killing me inside.
ProspectiveDarkness on 08/11/2015 - 22:37

Jim Keller leaving the company for the second time in September - even before Zen, the new microarchitecture on which he had been working

The designer doesn't need to stay around until the product hits the shelves, his job was most likely done. This guy has a history of doing this. This specific example isn't really evidence of a 'brain drain.'

Is AMD now a sinking ship? AMD corporate Phil Rogers leaves AMD and joins Nvidia.

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