ATBNetworks

AMD was hit by a rough one-two punch today. First Hector Ruiz stepped down as CEO. This news was a long time coming and may even be welcomed by many as Hector didn’t fair very well on top at Motorola. As if that wasn’t bad enough, AMD reported a $1.2 billion Q2 loss. With the announcement they are reportedly exiting the handheld and digital television business. I had not even known that they were in this business to begin with, but I am sure it was mostly what ATI had been involved with before AMD bought them. However, things for AMD aren’t that terrible. The new Puma mobile platform performs great and with the recent change in trend in the video card industry which saw nVidia lose ground in performance and dealing with flawed chips things should be looking up for AMD. With less industries to focus on, AMD should be able to get back to its bread and butter and work on Barcelona. Even if you aren’t an AMD fan, you still want them to remain strong to push Intel to keep up its innovating. Without them, we would not have seen what we have out of Intel.