Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

is an American multinational semiconductor company

based in Sunnyvale, California, United States, that develops computer processors
and related technologies for business and consumer markets. While initially it
manufactured its own processors, the company became fabless after GlobalFoundrie
s was spun off in 2009. AMD's main products include microprocessors, motherboard
chipsets, embedded processors and graphics processors for servers, workstations
and personal computers, and embedded systems applications.
AMD is the second-largest global supplier of microprocessors based on the x86 ar
chitecture and also one of the largest suppliers of graphics processing units. I
t also owns 8.6% of Spansion, a supplier of non-volatile flash memory.
AMD is the only significant rival to Intel in the central processor (CPU) market
for (x86 based) personal computers. Since acquiring ATI in 2006, AMD and its co
mpetitor Nvidia have dominated the discrete graphics processor unit (GPU) market
.
Contents
Corporate history
AMD campus in Markham, Ontario, Canada, formerly ATI headquarters
AMD's LEED-certified Lone Star campus in Austin, Texas
Advanced Micro Devices was founded on May 1, 1969, by a group of former executiv
es from Fairchild Semiconductor, including Jerry Sanders III, Ed Turney, John Ca
rey, Sven Simonsen, Jack Gifford and three members from Gifford's team, Frank Bo
tte, Jim Giles, and Larry Stenger. The company began as a producer of logic chip
s, then entered the RAM chip business in 1975. That same year, it introduced a r
everse-engineered clone of the Intel 8080 microprocessor. During this period, AM
D also designed and produced a series of bit-slice processor elements (Am2900, A
m29116, Am293xx) which were used in various minicomputer designs.
During this time, AMD attempted to embrace the perceived shift towards RISC with
their own AMD Am29000 (29k) processor, and also attempted to diversify into gra
phics and audio devices as well as EPROM memory. It had some success in the mid-
1980s with the AMD7910 and AMD7911 "World Chip" FSK modem, one of the first mult
i-standard devices that covered both Bell and CCITT tones at up to 1200 baud hal
f duplex or 300/300 full duplex. The 29k survived as an embedded processor and A
MD spinoff Spansion continues to make flash memory. AMD decided to switch gears
and concentrate solely on Intel-compatible microprocessors and flash memory, pla
cing them in direct competition with Intel for x86-compatible processors and the
ir flash memory secondary markets.
AMD announced the acquisition of ATI Technologies on July 24, 2006. AMD paid US$
4.3 billion in cash and 58 million shares of its stock, for a total of US$5.4 bi
llion. The transaction completed on October 25, 2006. Since 2010, all of the com
pany's graphics processing products have been marketed under the AMD brand name.
It was reported in December 2006 that AMD, along with its main rival in the grap
hics industry Nvidia, received subpoenas from the Justice Department regarding p
ossible antitrust violations in the graphics card industry, including the act of
fixing prices.
In October 2008, AMD announced plans to spin off manufacturing operations in the
form of a multibillion-dollar joint venture with Advanced Technology Investment
Co., an investment company formed by the government of Abu Dhabi. The new ventu
re is called GlobalFoundries Inc.. This partnership will allow AMD to focus sole
ly on chip design. The spin off was accompanied by the loss of approximately 100
0 jobs, or about 10% of AMD's global workforce.
In August 2011, AMD announced that former Lenovo executive Rory Read would be jo
ining the company as CEO, following Dirk Meyer.
AMD announced in November 2011 plans to lay off more than 10% (1400) of its empl
oyees from across all divisions worldwide. This action was to have completed by
Q1 2012 with most exits before Christmas 2011.[13] AMD announced in October 2012
plans to release an additional 15% of its workforce with an unspecified effecti
ve date to reduce costs in the face of declining sales revenue.
AMD acquired the low-power server manufacturer SeaMicro in early 2012 as part of
a strategy to regain lost market share in the server chip market.