It's been a busy day for AMD, according to what we've been hearing on the wires.

The company is rumoured to be laying off five per cent of its workforce, amid speculation that demand and financial results for 2008 will probably not be as strong as hoped-for.

The new man charged with presenting the perfect external image is Nigel Dessau. Our Nigel, born and raised in Nottingham, has plied his marketing spin-doctor skills in high-profile companies, including IBM and, more recently, Sun Microsystems.

Nigel, the new AMD chief marketing officer, has been given the task of orchestrating global marketing strategies. How about starting telling us what AMD's upcoming shining Phenom update, Deneb, is going to do against Intel's Nehalem, which appears to be the real star of 2008, Nige?

On a more optimistic note, the DisplayPort-toting ATI Radeon 3000-series, FireMV 2260, and 780G chipset have received official certification, because VESA (Video Electronics Standard Organisation) has given it the green light. How wonderfully wonderful.