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The company announced a project code-named Fusion that will aim to deliver a PC processor with an integrated graphics processor core by 2008 or 2009, as outlined earlier this year by AMD Chief Technology Officer Phil Hester. Before that becomes a reality, AMD will use ATI's expertise in chipset design to offer its customers the combination of a PC processor and a chipset, which has been Intel's strategy for several years.
One of the reasons behind the deal was AMD's desire to offer a more complete product to its PC customers. The chip maker is rubbing elbows with the big PC companies these days, nurturing an extensive portfolio at Hewlett-Packard and a growing presence inside Dell. Companies that ship millions of PCs like to have the option of purchasing a processor and a chipset, which connects the processor to the rest of the system, all in one transaction, Hester told CNET News.com in September.
AMD had relied on third-party companies like Nvidia and ATI for chipsets that worked with AMD processors, but it will now design and build those products itself with the acquisition of ATI's chipset technology. It's not clear whether the combined company will continue to make chipsets for Intel's products, which would make for an interesting exercise in diplomacy between the two chipmaking rivals.
But AMD also believes that graphics processors will become an even more vital part of a PC in future years, as more sophisticated games and multimedia applications are developed. It can now offer PC companies chipsets with built-in graphics as well as chipsets that accommodate ATI's more-powerful discrete graphics chips. Intel has become the largest supplier of PC graphics technology by shipping chipsets with basic integrated graphics technology good enough for mainstream PC users, eroding some of the market once held by Nvidia and ATI's separate graphics processors.
AMD took on more debt in order to complete the deal. It borrowed $2.5 billion in cash from Morgan Stanley Senior Lending in order to make the $4.3 billion cash payment to ATI's shareholders. It completed the deal by issuing 58 million shares of AMD stock to ATI shareholders, bringing the total value of the transaction to $5.4 billion.
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PC processor
Never have had problems return using Intel/Nvidia chips for the past several years.
If you don't know how to install and/or debug drivers then again take it to someone that does.
All of us that have had positive experiences with AMD and ATI feel for you and if you ever find yourself with a technical problem that is over your head (ie; installing a heat sink/fan, ensuring case temperature not to high) please feel free to post so that someone can help you.
If you don't know how to install and/or debug drivers then again take it to someone that does.
All of us that have had positive experiences with AMD and ATI feel for you and if you ever find yourself with a technical problem that is over your head (ie; installing a heat sink/fan, ensuring case temperature not to high) please feel free to post so that someone can help you.
PS - Luck has nothing to do with it.
I myself have been using AMD products since the AMD K6 and have not seen a problem. These processors included the K6-266 (Socket 7), Athlon 750 (Slot A), Athlon 1.33GHz and 1.4GHz (Socket A), and Athlon64 3200+ (Socket 754).
By the way - you do realize that many Pentium 4 CPUs have been known to run very hot, right?
I can't say I've ever used an AMD processor before, and since my Mac uses an Intel Core 2 Duo, I don't think I will anytime soon.
They will also FINALLY give AMD some good reference platforms for Standardized Business Systems (where the system image can't change due to hardware changes for a life of 6 to 12 months).
I look for good things to come of this relationship especially in the laptop and mobile devices area for both of them.
Good fortune to both companies.
As far as ATI goes, I won't be moving to an ATI unless they end up producing something amazing, but from what I have seen nVidia pump out it seems highly doubtful that I will ever buy a ATI.
So back to my original question, So what? Does it really matter that the two merged and I honestly don't understand peoples loyalties to either company, why sell your soul to corporation when you should be keeping it to yourself, would you buy a lesser product at the same price or slightly less just because another company you dislike has a better product at the same price or a little more? Disliking them is no reason to not buy a better product for the same money. Its like not liking windows and still buying windows, just because you don't like it doesn't mean you don't buy it.
So stop the 'choose a side' crap already, it makes reading these news reports a pain in the ass because half the comments are people glorifying one or another company as the end all of products, in 20 years we will probably not even remember some of these companies and be laughing about how vintage all this stuff is anyways.