AMD's Crossing of the Chasm

By SemiWiki

November 24, 2011

When AMD announced its cutbacks recently many people were left wondering why they were so deep given the strong financial performance in Q3 and the guidance for an up Q4. It couldn’t have been related to the Thailand floods that could have been at most a one-quarter squeeze expected in Q1. Now it is apparent from reports that AMD’s cutbacks were based on the cancelling of its 28nm APUs at Global Foundries and the time required to move to TSMC. The change will significantly delay new APU (CPU+graphics) offerings to address the low cost and “ultrabook” markets. Many companies, especially startups, choose a path that leads to Crossing a Chasm in order to be successful. Since Dirk Meyer’s exit at the beginning of the year, market forces and trends for 2012 are requiring that AMD enter a startup mentality mode and thus have to Cross a Chasm not of its own volition.

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