AMD, and why the $100 PC is inevitable

Q&A

We set out to have a long-term strategy to become very relevant in that space, so that over a period of time, the enterprise would see two very strong players, as opposed to two years ago, when there was only one.

What did that involve?
Part of that revolves around having a very strong technology road map and a very strong product road map — which we believe we have. I think the introduction of dual core is one of the steps that continue to demonstrate to [business customers] that this is a long-term commitment we're making to the segment and that this is a very high priority.

Look at the benchmarks and the data coming out of our customers. The dual-core product indicates we have actually widened the gap in terms of leadership. I feel this will continue. Our plans are to continue to out-innovate, in a customer-centric way, the technology and products in the server segment. That, combined with our strong partnering with customers, which I believe is getting stronger and stronger, will lead us to [become] a very relevant player in the enterprise [market].

When do you think AMD chips will make it into the mainstream servers, desktops and notebooks that huge corporations buy?
The server part of it is happening as we speak. We're already in a fairly significant part of Sun's, HP's and IBM's business, as well as Fujitsu-Siemens, Lenovo and others outside of the United States.

We expect to start seeing, for example, dual-core desktops before the end of the year being fairly active in the marketplace. There, though, I have to tell you that we have to make sure that the consumer understands the value. For a number of consumers, it'll take some time before the software and all the things that will make dual core really great will actually play out.

We're surprised we haven't heard more about big companies, such as banks, adopting Opteron. Do they just not talk about it?
There's a little bit... of cautiousness on the part of banks. If a bank were to talk about the fact that they committed to use AMD technology, that could be interpreted — especially if it's an investment banker — that they were actually endorsing AMD stock, which can be confusing.

I think we're the preferred technology on Wall Street. Frankly, if you talk to any of the Wall Street firms, they'll tell you that they like what we do, and seven out of the top 10 are using it. But you're right. They don't talk about it.

What about the communications space?
If by communications you mean the traditional communications things... the answer is no in the near future. We will have communications technology in our chipsets, especially around wireless and broadband capability. But we're not doing anything that would put us in the same competitive space as people like Qualcomm or TI.