DigitMemo.com

AMD reached its lowest share price for more than four years last week and, as a result, its market value dropped to around US$5 billion – that’s $400 million less than it paid for ATI in July 2006.

Intel, AMD’s major competitor in the CPU business, has been on a roll for the past 18 months and is now worth around US$162 billion, which makes the chip giant more than 32 times the size of AMD in monetary terms.

Even worse for AMD is that its partner-cum-archrival, Nvidia, has a market cap of around $19 billion, which makes it almost four times as valuable as the struggling platform company.

Click for more on AMD now worth less than it paid for ATi »

Much of AMD’s bad luck over the last three months revolves around a nasty bug it just can’t shake

Erratum, to those in the hardware or software industry, is a nice way of saying “we missed a test case” during development and design.

Yesterday, The Tech Report confirmed AMD’s iteration of Intel’s F00F bug.  The bug, which has been documented since at least early November, can cause a deadlock during recursive or nested cache writes. 

How does the TLB erratum occur?  All AMD quad-core processors utilize a shared L3 cache.  In instances where the software uses nested memory pages, this processor will experience a race condition. 

Click for more on Understanding AMD’s "TLB" Processor Bug »

However, good news inside

SADLY FOR AMD, the Phenom launch was dumbed down by a nasty bug that stopped AMD from launching a 2.4 GHz variant (9700).

At the same time, problems with the OS freezing were solved by a BIOS fix inside the motherboards that actually reduces performance between five to 10 per cent, since that BIOS update did nothing but ordered a processor to avoid that ill-fated corrupted cache data.

The problem with L3 cache caused performance reduction on all clock speeds and yes, Phenoms 2.2 and 2.3 GHz are affected as well, but it was really noticable at 2.4 GHz. BIOS run-around caused a 2.4 GHz part producing performance of 100-200 MHz slower parts. Of course, standard disclaimer in some rare-found, practically laboratory-only instances applies here.

Click for more on All Phenoms feature infamous L3 cache errata »

AMD is expected to launch the successor to its ATI Radeon HD 2600 in January, and now the two new parts’ speed details have emerged.

Graphics card maker sources cited by DigiTimes point two versions of the ‘RV635′ GPU one an XT model, the other a Pro. The former will be clocked at 800MHz, the latter at 600MHz. The chips support DirectX 10.1 - due to be released with Windows Vista Service Pack 1 early next year.

Click for more on AMD preps DirectX 10.1 ‘Radeon HD 3600′ GPU pair »

Starting from $239, works on old AM2 motherboards

Besides the recent launch of new Radeon GPUs, AMD is also preparing for a Monday launch of its new platform created around the new Phenom processors and the 700 series chipsets. While we are hearing nice things about the flagship 790FX chipset that will also be launched next week, the expectations are all about the processors, especially because it will give current AM2 socket motherboard owners the possibility of swapping and upgrading to the new generation of CPUs without having to change additional components.

According to sources close to AMD distribution channels we got word that volume pricing for these processors would look like this next Monday:

Phenom X4 9700 / 2400MHz / 4MB Cache / 2000MHz HT / 125W - $279
Phenom X4 9600 / 2300MHz / 4MB Cache / 1800MHz HT / 95W - $269
Phenom X4 9500 / 2200MHz / 4MB Cache / 1800MHz HT / 95W - $239

Click for more on AMD Phenom X4 processor pricing update »

Still on barriers over 65nm conversion

Amid stiff barriers from 90nm and 65nm conversion, sources at Taiwan motherboard makers do not expect AMD to roll out the highest frequency 2.6GHz version of its new quad-core Phenom CPU family before 2008.

The sources noted that AMD will only introduce two Phenom CPU at the November 19 launch, the 2.2GHz 9500 and 2.3GHz 9600 models. A 2.4GHz 9700 model is expected to launch during December, but a 2.6GHz one will not be introduced until 2008, they noted.

Click for more on AMD: No 2.6GHz Phenom by 2008 »

AMD Says It Is on Track with 45nm Process Technology

Advanced Micro Devices said in its most recent call with financial analysts that despite of relatively slow ramp of its quad-core microprocessors the chipmaker does not expect any issues to occur with the ramp up of its 45nm production technology.

“We’re looking forward to ramping 45nm product production in the first half of next year,” said Dirk Meyer, president and chief operating officer of AMD.

Click for more on AMD: Start New Process Technology Ramp in Q1 2008 »

AMD posted a better-than-expected quarterly loss on Thursday as its gross margins improved.

AMD, which competes with market leader Intel, said its third-quarter net loss was $396 million, or 71 cents per share, compared to a net profit of $136 million, or 27 cents per share, in the year-ago period.

Revenue rose 23 percent to $1.63 billion, beating the average analyst forecast of $1.52 billion according to Reuters Estimates.

Click for more on AMD posts quarterly net loss as costs rise »

Intel said strong demand for its microprocessors is giving the company a better-than-expected outlook, the quarterly profit rises 43%

The news indicated that the world’s top maker of microchips was gaining market share from smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices and also boded well for personal computer sales in the fourth quarter, analysts said.

“The overall message is one of strong demand,” Intel Chief Financial Officer Andy Bryant said in a telephone interview, adding the quarter’s revenue rose 16 percent sequentially, which was the highest growth rate in 10 years.

Click for more on Intel’s engines raking in $10.1 billion in Q3 »

AMD reveals the model names and operating frequencies of its quad-core Phenom desktop processors

AMD plans to debut its initial quad-core Phenom processors in late November: the Phenom 9600 and 9500. The 9600 will come clocked at 2.4GHz and the 9500 will have a slightly lower operating frequency of 2.2GHz.

Both Socket AM2+ processors feature a 512KB of L2 cache for each core and a shared 2MB pool of L3 cache. In addition, both processors will operate on a 3.6GHz HyperTransport bus and will have an 89 Watt Thermal Design Power envelope. 

Click for more on AMD Sheds Additional Phenom Details »