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Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (abbreviated '''AMD'''; ) is an American manufacturer of Semiconductors based in Sunnyvale , California . The company was founded in 1969 by a group of former executives from Fairchild Semiconductor , including Jerry Sanders, III , Ed Turney , John Carey, Sven Simonsen, Jack Gifford and three members from Gifford's team, Frank Botte, Jim Giles and Larry Stenger. The current chairman and CEO is Dr. Héctor Ruiz and the current president and chief operating officer is Dirk Meyer . AMD is the world's second-largest supplier of X86 based Processors and the world's third largest supplier of graphics cards and GPUs, after taking control over ATI in 2006. AMD also owns a 21% share of Spansion , a supplier of Non-volatile Flash Memory . In 2006 the company ranked eighth among Semiconductor Manufacturers . GENERAL HISTORY AMD started as a producer of logic chips in 1969, then entered the RAM chip business in 1975. That same year, it introduced a Reverse-engineered clone of the Intel 8080 Microprocessor . During this period, AMD also designed and produced a series of Bit-slice processor elements ( Am2900 , Am29116, Am293xx) which were used in various minicomputer designs. During this time, AMD attempted to embrace the perceived shift towards RISC with their own AMD 29K Processor , and they attempted to diversify into graphics and audio devices as well as EPROM memory. It had some success in the mid-80s with the AMD7910 and AMD7911 "World Chip" FSK modem, one of the first multistandard devices that covered both Bell and CCITT tones at up to 1200 baud half duplex or 300/300 full duplex. While the AMD 29K survived as an Embedded Processor and AMD spinoff Spansion continues to make industry leading Flash Memory , AMD was not as successful with its other endeavors. AMD decided to switch gears and concentrate solely on Intel-compatible microprocessors and flash memory. This put them in direct competition with Intel for x86 compatible processors and their flash memory secondary markets. Litigation with Intel AMD has a long history of litigation with former partner and x86 creator Intel .123
Merger with ATI AMD announced a merger with ATI Technologies on July 24 , 2006 . AMD had paid $4.2 billion in cash along with 57 million shares of its stock, for a total of a US$5.4 billion. The merger had completed on October 25 , 2006 4 and ATI is now part of AMD. It has been reported that in December 2006 AMD received a subpoena from the Justice Department regarding possible Antitrust violations relating to the merger. AMD X86 PROCESSORS Discontinued 8086, Am286, Am386, Am486, Am5x86 See Also: Am286 Am386 Am486 Am5x86 In February 1982, AMD signed a contract with Intel , becoming a licensed second-source manufacturer of 8086 and 8088 processors. IBM wanted to use the Intel 8088 in its IBM PC , but IBM's policy at the time was to require at least two sources for its chips. AMD later produced the Am286 under the same arrangement, but Intel canceled the agreement in 1986 and refused to convey technical details of the I386 part. AMD challenged Intel's decision to cancel the agreement and won in arbitration, but Intel disputed this decision. A long legal dispute followed, ending in 1994 when the Supreme Court Of California sided with AMD. Subsequent legal disputes centered on whether AMD had legal rights to use derivatives of Intel's Microcode . In the face of uncertainty, AMD was forced to develop " Clean Room " versions of Intel code. In 1991, AMD released the Am386 , its clone of the Intel 386 processor. It took less than a year for the company to sell a million units. Later, the Am486 was used by a number of large OEMs , including Compaq , and proved popular. Another Am486-based product, the Am5x86 , continued AMD's success as a low-price alternative. However, as product cycles shortened in the PC industry, the process of reverse engineering Intel's products became an ever less viable strategy for AMD. K5, K6, Athlon (K7) See Also: AMD K5 AMD K6 Athlon AMD's first completely in-house x86 processor was the K5 which was launched in 1996. 5 The "K" was a reference to " Kryptonite ", which from comic book lore, was the only substance that could harm Superman, with a clear reference to Intel, which dominated in the market at the time, as "Superman" .6 In 1996, AMD purchased NexGen specifically for the rights to their Nx series of x86-compatible processors. AMD gave the NexGen design team their own building, left them alone, and gave them time and money to rework the Nx686. The result was the K6 processor, introduced in 1997. The K7 was AMD's seventh generation x86 processor, making its debut on June 23 , 1999 , under the Brand name Athlon. Current and future Athlon 64 (K8) See Also: Athlon 64 The K8 is a major revision of the K7 architecture, with the most notable features being the addition of a . Retrieved on 2007-07-29 . =Dual-core Athlon 64 X2 See Also: Athlon 64 X2 AMD released the first . Retrieved on 2007-07-29 . In early May, AMD had abandoned the string "64" in its dual-core desktop product branding, becoming Athlon X2, while upcoming updates involves some of the improvements to the microarchitecture, and a shift of target market from mainstream desktop systems to value dual-core desktop systems, to avoid conflict of target customers between another dual-core product based on the K10 microarchitecture, the Phenom X2 . K10 See Also: AMD K10 The latest microprocessor architecture, also known as " AMD K10 " is AMD's new microarchitecture. The " AMD K10 " microarchitecture is the immediate successor to the AMD K8 Microarchitecture , and is expected due middle of 2007. K10 processors will come in dual and Quad-core versions with all cores on one single die. See Also: AMD Phenom ''Bulldozer'' and ''Bobcat'' See Also: Bulldozer (processor) l1=Bulldozer Bobcat (processor) l2=Bobcat After the K10 architecture, AMD will move to a modular design methodology named "''M-SPACE''", where two new processor cores, codenamed "'' Bulldozer ''" and "'' Bobcat ''" will be released in the 2009 timeframe. While very little preliminary information exists even in AMD's Technology Analyst Day 2007, both cores are to be built from the ground up. The ''Bulldozer'' core focused on 10 Watts to 100 Watts products, with optimizations for performance-per-watt ratios and HPC applications and includes newly announced SSE5 instructions, while the ''Bobcat'' core will focus on 1 Watt to 10 Watts products, given that the core is a simplified X86 core to reduce power draw. Both of the cores will be able to corporate with full DirectX compatible GPU core(s) under the '' Fusion '' label, or as standalone products as a general purpose CPU. AMD Fusion See Also: AMD Fusion After the merger between AMD and ATI, an initiative codenamed '' Fusion '' was announced that merges a CPU and GPU on one chip, including a minimum 16 lane PCI Express link to accommodate external PCI Express peripherals, thereby eliminating the requirement of a Northbridge chip completely from the motherboard. It is expected to be released in 2009, one of the fruits of Fusion is the codenamed ''Falcon'' family, implementing the codenamed '' Bulldozer '' core, aimed for a 10-100 W products, and further products will incorporate codenamed '' Bobcat '' core, focusing on sub-10 W markets, targeting UMPC products and small handheld devices which currently use ARM processors. Processors from this project, will also be deployed in notebooks, with quad-core processors planned for release in 2009. OTHER PLATFORMS AND TECHNOLOGIES AMD Live! See Also: AMD Live! AMD LIVE! is a platform marketing initiative focusing the consumer electronics segment, with a recently announced Active TV initiative for streaming Internet videos from web video services such as YouTube , into AMD Live! PC as well as connected digital TVs, together with a scheme for an ecosystem of certified peripherals for the ease of customers to identify peripherals for AMD Live! systems for digital home experience, called "AMD Live! Ready". Official Press Release (AMD Live! Ready and Active TV initiative) AMD Quad FX platform See Also: AMD Quad FX platform The AMD Quad FX platform, being an extreme enthusiast platform, allows two processors connect through processors and the next-generation RD790 chipset, codenamed "''FASN8''". Commercial platform Virtualization AMD's virtualization extension to the 64-bit x86 architecture is named ''AMD Virtualization'', also known by the abbreviation ''AMD-V'', and is sometimes referred to by the code name " Pacifica ". AMD processors using Socket AM2 , Socket S1 , and Socket F include AMD Virtualization support. AMD Virtualization is also supported by release two (8200, 2200 and 1200 series) of the Opteron processors. AMD also endorsed the development of I/O Virtualization technology, currently the "AMD I/O Virtualization Technology" (also known as IOMMU ) specification published using HyperTransport architecture by AMD had updated to version 1.2,78 which the first finalized (version 1.0) specification was published prior to Intel's . Commercial initiatives
Desktop platforms Starting in 2007, AMD, following Intel, began using Codename s for its desktop platforms. The platforms, unlike Intel's approach, will refresh every year, putting focus on platform specialization. The platform includes components as AMD processors, chipsets, ATI graphics and other features, but continued to the open platform approach, and welcome components from other vendors such as VIA, SiS, and NVIDIA, as well as wireless product vendors. AMD will also release a system controls utility in the future, providing easy system monitoring, allowing adjustments to voltages and clocks, as well as overall platform management, including CPU, chipset and graphics. The features are expected to be similar to the control panel in NVIDIA ForceWare series drivers. Embedded systems Alchemy processors See Also: Alchemy (processor) In February 2002, AMD acquired Alchemy Semiconductor and continued its line of processor in MIPS Architecture processors, targets the hand-held and Portable Media Player markets. On 13 June , 2006 , AMD officially announced that the Alchemy processor line was transferred to Raza Microelectronics Inc.11 Geode processors See Also: Geode (processor)#AMD Geode l1=Geode (processor) In August 2003, AMD also purchased the Geode business which was originally the Cyrix MediaGX from National Semiconductor to augment its existing line of embedded x86 processor products. During the second quarter of 2004, it launched new low-power Geode NX processors based on the K7 Thoroughbred architecture with speeds of fanless processors 667 MHz and 1 GHz, and 1.4 GHz processor with fan, of TDP 25 W . Flash technology See Also: Spansion While less visible to the general public than its CPU business, AMD is also a global leader in Flash Memory . In 1993, AMD established a 50-50 partnership with Fujitsu called FASL, and merged into a new company called FASL LLC in 2003. The joint venture firm went public under ticker symbol SPSN in December 2005, with AMD shares drop to 37%. AMD no longer directly participates in the Flash memory devices market now as AMD entered into a non-competition agreement, as of December 21 , 2005 , with Fujitsu and Spansion, pursuant to which it agreed not to directly or indirectly engage in a business that manufactures or supplies standalone semiconductor devices (including single chip, multiple chip or system devices) containing only Flash memory.12 Mobile platforms See Also: AMD mobile platform AMD started a platform in 2003 aimed at mobile computing, but with fewer advertisements and promotional schemes, very little was known about the platform. The platform used Mobile Athlon 64 or Mobile Sempron processors. As part of the "Better by design" initiative, the open mobile platform, announced February 2007 with announcement of general availability in May 2007, comes together with 65 Nm fabrication process Turion 64 X2 , and is consists of three major components, as AMD processor, graphics from either NVIDIA or ATI Technologies which also includes integrated graphics ( IGP ), and wireless connectivity solutions from Atheros , Broadcom , Marvell , Qualcomm or Realtek . Upcoming platforms were being discussed with '' Puma '' platform and '' Griffin '' processor to be released in 2008. AMD planned quad-core processors with 3D graphics capcabilities ('' Fusion '') to be launched in 2009 with the '' Eagle '' platform. Other initiatives
Software
Technologies from ATI After the takeover of ATI , AMD restructured some of the product lineups from both companies. Some products were being rebranded under the AMD brand, including the Imageon for Mobile Phone s and Handheld devices, the Xilleon for Consumer Electronics (digital TV sets), ATI chipsets (to AMD chipsets) for AMD processors platform and AMD Stream Processor from previously FireStream . Some others retained the use of ATI branding, including the Radeon line of graphics, and chipsets for Intel processors. PRODUCTION AND FABRICATION AMD produces their own processors in wholly owned semiconductor Fabrication Plants , called "FABs". AMD uses a "FAB x" Naming Convention for their production facilities, where "x" is the number of years that have passed between the founding of AMD and the date the FAB opened. At their Fabrication facilities, AMD utilizes a system called Automated Precision Manufacturing](APM). APM is a collection of manufacturing technologies AMD has developed over their history (many of which AMD holds patents for), which are designed to enhance the microprocessor production process, primarily in terms of Yield . Much of APM is related to removing the "human equation" from the manufacturing process by isolating in-process Wafers in containers that are only exposed to clean room facilities. AMD claims that the technologies that combine to make APM are unique to the industry and make it the foremost semiconductor manufacturer in the world - a fact which is lent some credence by their current agreement with Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing based in Singapore. India's first Fab City, a silicon chip manufacturing facility, being setup with an investment of $3 billion by the AMD-SemIndia consortium. AMD currently has a production agreement with foundry Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing which allows Chartered access to AMD Automated Precision Manufacturing (APM) process technology, in exchange for which Chartered will act as extra production capacity for AMD. AMD, through the acquisition of ATI, also has manufacturing agreements with TSMC to produce ATI's lines of graphics and chipset processors. It is currently unclear how much of ATI's manufacturing needs will be moved to AMD's own fabs and how much will remain outsourced to other foundry companies, but AMD has announced plans for future processors to be outsourced to TSMC , while coincidently TSMC had announced it had received orders to fabricate x86 processors. Current production facilities '' in Dresden , Germany is the major wafer production site]] AMD's main microprocessor manufacturing and design facilities are located in , pp.4. Retrieved on 2007-07-29 . AMD has planned expansions in their production capacity. In addition to the completion of Fab 36 in Dresden, AMD is planning to upgrade Fab 30 (adjacent to Fab 36) in Dresden from 200 mm 90 nm process . Retrieved on 2007-07-29 . Furthermore, AMD announced plans to open a new $3.2 billion facility at the Luther Park Technology Campus in Stillwater, New York. This new Fab 4x will likely produce 300 mm . Retrieved on 2007-07-29 . In June 2006, . Retrieved on 2007-07-29 . AMD maintains major design facilities in Fort Collins, CO , Sunnyvale, CA , Austin, TX , Boxborough, MA , and Bangalore, India . PARTNERSHIPS AMD utilizes strategic industry partnerships to further its business interests as well as to tackle Intel's dominance and resources. Notably NVIDIA 's NForce2 chipset generated substantial revenues for NVIDIA as a popular enthusiast part. A partnership between AMD and Alpha Processor Inc. developed HyperTransport , a point-to-point interconnect standard which was turned over to an industry standards body for finalization. It is now used in modern AMD processor compatible motherboards. AMD also formed a strategic partnership with IBM, under which AMD gained , Compaq , ASUS , Alienware , Acer , Evesham Technology , Dell and several others to facilitate processor distribution and sales. On May 18 2006 , Dell announced that it would roll out new servers based on AMD's Opteron chips by years end, thus ending an exclusive relationship with Intel. Dell also began offering AMD Athlon X2 chips in their desktop line-up in September 2006. AMD is also a sponsor of the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro F1 Team since 2002 and the Discovery Channel Team since 2004 . EVENTS AND PUBLICATIONS Although AMD has frequently stated the inability of providing information about upcoming products and plans, AMD holds Technology Analyst Days (which often shorten as simply "Analyst Day") annually or semi-annually to reveal and explain key future technologies, as well as official Technology Roadmap s. Technologies announced in the 2006 analyst days include the several commercial initiatives including Torrenza , and Fusion . Besides Analyst Days, AMD also had held several events for different products, including upcoming enthusiast products, and mobile products for partners and selected participants from time to time. AMD also publishes Printed Media . Publications includes the discontinued AMDEdge and AMD Accelerate. The AMD Accelerate magazine, published through Ziff Davis Media , puts focus on SME and business applications while AMD Edge focused on overall technologies from AMD. AMD also has electronic Newsletter s to promote server Opteron processors and related business solutions. SEE ALSO =Companies =People =Products
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