News AMD finishes 2017 in profit

I would have thought the fourth qtr would have been better for consoles and the semi-customer chips that go in them, isn't that the Christmas period when thousands of little johnnies and janes wake up to a shiny new console under the tree?

Or is the fourth financial qtr a different period than the normal fourth qtr?

Either way it's good to see things turning around for AMD at last.

 

Remember that console margins shrink over the lifetime of the console (component cost is pre-set per the contract and reduces over time). Mid-cycle process scale reductions usually occurred to prop margins up - the PS2 for example, when through 3 process scales and multiple consolidations from discrete parts to an SoC - but that's been a rare option recently, and the mid-life shrink for PS4 and XB1 were both released over a year ago.
Console chips are a viciously high-volume-low-margin trade, so gains from increased sales can be wiped out by reduction in unit price.

 

They didn't refer to lifetime or mid-cycle, they said 'seasonally lower' sales of parts from its enterprise, embedded, and semi-custom silicon division - the latter responsible for the chips that power Microsoft and Sony's respective games consoles.

 

I think that stock buildup for the end of year sales is probably accounted for in the 3rd quarter results, whereas the Jan to March period is reflected in the 4th quarter results.

 

Cryptocurrency mining or sales of Zen?
Hopefully with the server and laptop parts coming and Zen+ they will see sustained performance and then hopefully can funnel a bit of that money into their graphics section.