![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Monday , July 24, 2006
- Author:
- Kyle Bennett
- Editor:
- Steve Lynch
- Google +1
AMD & ATI - Some Questions Answered
Peanut butter & chocolate? Or oil & water? No matter what your thoughts are on AMD's acquisition of ATI, we have some information from AMD and ATI that will answer some of your questions about the merger.
Introduction
The original rumor that started with Forbes in May has proven to be dead on. In case you missed it earlier today, AMD acquired ATI for a price of $5.4 billion. We are already hearing enthusiasts beat the deal up as a travesty, while others are wondering how this is really going to impact ATI’s product line. For the most part we would suggest that you will not really see any immediate changes from either company most likely until next year and even then, most of those changes will not be seen on the surface but will rather be symptoms of internal restructuring outside of new AMD Live platforms.
PC Channel Concerns
HardOCP does have the answer to some of the questions that gaming and hardware enthusiasts alike are wanting answered. Don’t think for a second that ATI is “going away” or will now be in a lesser position to compete in the discrete graphics arena.
Here are some quotes from AMD/ATI that were supplied to us from a close source.
AMD + ATI will continue to be very committed to the GFX (VGA) & Motherboard channel. The Goal of the company is to be the #1 WW supplier of GFX solutions as well the #2 WW chipset supplier.
AMD + ATI will continue to invest heavily in GPU development and strive to maintain our product leadership.
We will continue to invest heavily in the chipset business for both AMD and Intel based CPU’s AMD + ATI will be very committed to the channel and the ecosystem partners/customers.
The company will continue to leverage the ATI & Radeon brand in the channel for the GFX and chipset products.
We will continue to be committed to our mutual channel customers. We will offer our customers a stronger line-up of solutions that will allow them to win in the market place.
We will continue to deliver leading edge solutions on all platforms: AMD + ATI will continue to supply, support and refresh per the current roadmap − Same contract terms, delivery as today − Contacts for business and support relationships remain.
The no-nonsense manner of these statements should answer most of your initial questions about what AMD intends to do with ATI. Obviously the licensing agreements with Intel and impending competition with NVIDIA will spawn many an editorial once the picture begins to clear.
Answers to Rumormongering - (Updated 072606)
Here are some quotes directly from ATI that address some of the rumors we have recently been hearing.
ATI's Intel License
There is no truth to the rumor that Intel has pulled ATI's chipset license. We continue to ship Intel chipsets under license.
AMD's commitment to GPUs
The merger with AMD reinforces ATI's position as the world's best GPU supplier. AMD is absolutely committed to maintaining and extending that leadership. The merger gives access to AMD technologies and resources - for example, custom memory design - which will raise performance and reduce costs, further increasing ATI's competitiveness. Also, AMD has been extraordinarily effective in the channel, and access to their know-how, experience, and network, will be a powerful plus for ATI.
Intel platforms
AMD acquired ATI so it could be the world's number one graphics processor supplier. AMD is absolutely committed to supporting graphics on Intel platforms. Hector Ruiz, AMD's CEO, made this completely clear on the conference call that announced the merger. He stated that AMD wanted to increase choice in the market, and that included ATI graphics on an Intel platform.
On the gift to Nvidia
Nvidia has seen the writing on the wall, and doesn't like what it's saying. The PC market is a tough place to be without any friends. ATI now has all the resources of AMD behind it, and will be producing faster, more compact GPUs and reaching the channel more effectively than ever before. Nvidia's words are bravado, designed to confuse the market while the company tries to find a way to compete now that it's standing alone.
AMD Vision Presentation
Below you will find a slide presentation of just how AMD/ATI are presenting their company and the solutions that it will offer in the future based on its new strengths.
Conclusion
I think today would certainly not be the day to jump to conclusions, but there are some things that do look obvious to us. This merger is probably one of the best things to ever happen to ATI. ATI’s overall corporate culture needs some new direction and motivation. It has too long been a company “run by the engineers,” and some of that rhetoric does ring true even though it has become cliché. ATI’s execution over the last two years has almost been laughable. ATI constantly has great technology and vision but so many times it does not end up making it to the shelves inside the proper market cycle. I think ATI will become much more of a force in the graphics market with AMD’s visionary management in place.
AMD on the other hand has left its future in the hands of companies like VIA and NVIDIA hoping that their motherboard chipset development would lead the way for their K7 and K8 cores. For the most part AMD has been “lucky” with its chipset choices and partnerships, but even so AMD needs to be in control of its own AMD processor-based motherboard chipset development. Obviously ATI’s latest motherboard chipset technologies have started to grow in reliability and performance and will be a great basis for AMD to build on in order to gain better control of their core products. Certainly Intel’s Viiv is no longer alone as AMD/ATI will likely have a better overall solution, but that is yet to be seen.
We think that next year will hold many more answers for us, but we have to think that the AMD/ATI merger will surely benefit end users by providing more competition and innovation in the PC marketplace. And for those of you worrying about ATI video cards going the way of the dinosaur, you have no worries and will likely see better products in the future.
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Discussion
A thread dedicated to this discussion is located in our AMD forum.