News AMD announces manufacturing spin off

[Tim S]

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/10...ing-spin-off/1

During a conference call this afternoon, AMD confirmed the rumours that have been circulating about its plans to spin off its foundry business into a separate company.

[leviathan18]

smart move, now they will have the capacity to supply the demand, and probably now they will have the money to design a decent cpu

[DougEdey]

The Foundry Company sounds cool, I reckon they should keep it!

[n3mo]

Good for AMD. Off-sourcing chip production and some money injections here and there might give them a much needed kick towards competing with Intel... which can only be good for everyone.

[devdevil85]

Originally Posted by n3mo

Good for AMD. Off-sourcing chip production and some money injections here and there might give them a much needed kick towards competing with Intel... which can only be good for everyone.

I agree completely. I'll be in the market soon for a new PC, let's hope AMD can produce something better than Intel because I hate Intel.

[Tim S]

It is a smart, but calculated move IMO. Hopefully with AMD's stake in the new company, they'll still technically be co-developing new manufacturing processes, because I would hate to see AMD no longer be competitive due to the fact their manufacturing processes aren't directly aligned with their CPU designs.

The only way we're going to know what will happen is to sit and wait... it could bring AMD right back into the game, or it could take them out of it completely in the CPU business. The GPU business isn't so much of an issue because both ATI and Nvidia have run fabless for years (and will continue to do so).

[Jojii]

At least for the AMD CPU buisness they have the knowledge from the GPU guys on how to do project management with a fabless model. Hopefully they will allow them to concentrate on setting design goals of where they want to take thier chips and not worry if they can manufacture it. I think this will alllow for some innovation instead of design constraints due to fab tech.

[1ad7]

Very good news, although its not the ideal situation if amd can work it right it could save the ship. Although hector still being around kinda scares me, 3rd chance? come on

[p3n]

Looks like Orange County Choppers new digs!

[Xir]

Originally Posted by Jojii

and not worry if they can manufacture it.

That's exactly the problem, what good is a good design if they cannot manufacture it?
The dresden fabs have been producing the bleeding edge of what they can do. Beeing technologically ahead of any foundry.
...now if some cost cutting occurs (as a financial investor almost certainly will) they may not be able to produce their designs.

AMD's own Fabs are (technologically speaking) at least a year ahead of the usual foundries. (Though a bit behind Intel)

Xir

[Kúsař]

Originally Posted by Tim S

It is a smart, but calculated move IMO. Hopefully with AMD's stake in the new company, they'll still technically be co-developing new manufacturing processes, because I would hate to see AMD no longer be competitive due to the fact their manufacturing processes aren't directly aligned with their CPU designs.

"The Foundry Company will join the IBM joint development alliance for both silicon-on-insulator (SOI) and bulk silicon through the 22nm generation. The alliance consists of a group of leading semiconductor companies collaborating on next generation silicon technologies."
(source: http://www.amd.com/gb-uk/Corporate/V...128482,00.html)

And I hope their research in litography will prove useful in next few years

[Amon]

This is going to be interesting for Deneb.