We reported on AMD's inability to supply its channel customers with the requisite Athlon 64 X2 parts and some laid the blame squarely at the tie-up with Dell, claiming the multi-national's demands dictated that the smaller customer, the likes of Evesham and MESH, long-time partners of AMD, were cast aside in favour of the greenbacks from Dell's voluminous bank account.
Richard Baker reiterated the line we've heard from AMD before, that is, that specific SKU unavailability from its Dresden fab was a direct result of 'packaging issues' and nothing else. We've scoured our favourite etailers this morning and found most X2 SKUs in stock, so we imagine these packaging issues are now behind AMD. Funny, though, they happened at the same time as Dell put in a large order... We're informed there were and are no shortages for its server Opteron part, which in truth was not unexpected - HEXUS cannot emphasise enough that since Intel were clearly on target to reclaim the heart (and wallets) of PC enthusiasts and, with its Core 2 Duo family, finally launch an AMD Athlon 64 FX killer, AMD's focus has been the corporate desktop and server market.
Pressed on the issues regarding AMD's 4x4, 65nm, quad-core and AMD's R600 retort to G80, all we could pry out of Richard was the well-known and oft overused expression that's a favourite for senior executives everywhere - 'everything is on schedule and will be executed as per our roadmap'. Did we expect any different? Nope.
What we can gather after a moment's reflection is that, really, AMD has had a good year in 2006. Demand has never been higher, sales are up and its Opteron CPU continues to thrive in the profitable server space. Intel has launched an onslaught this year, but AMD's earned the respect of the industry with technology leadership for the last few years. It's all about peaks and valleys; perhaps native quad-core and the beginnings of Fusion will see the AMD/ATI partnership thrive in 2007.
It's the view of HEXUS that consumers benefit from choice and, with that in mind, we believe consumers will benefit if AMD is able to recover the confidence of its sub-Tier 1 customers.
Let's hear your thoughts here in the HEXUS community.
I reckon AMD paid the studios to ensure Daniel Craig got the Bond part. Richard's a much better fit for the suave, dashing British hero. Even if the rumours are true and his 'six-pack' is less well defined than Mr. Craig's...
Note the expression of AMD's equally suave, though more casually attired Mr. David Everitt... got an alternative caption suggestion? Let us know here in the HEXUS.community.
