AMD is getting strong critique from market analysts in the semiconductor industry for the company’s inability to deliver competitive products on the x86 market. They say that ARM-based circuits are sneaking up on AMD and could make AMD irrelevant in the future.
AMD is getting hard critique from market analysts now that its Bulldozer architecture has been released after numerous delays. The analysts question AMD’s inability to deliver high performance x86 solutions, and says that the company could become irrelevant with ARM starting to find a position in PCs.
AMD’s latest processor architecture Bulldozer is part of the FX series that turned out to be a disappointment to many. The latest x86 processors that was supposed to bring back the company to the higher price and performance segment, turned out to have a hard time even outperforming the flagship of the Phenom II series. Even more so when Sandy Bridge came into the picture as it did not impress in consumer applications, and there is talk Bulldozer will not do well against Intel in server applications.
“It’s difficult to recommend aggressively shorting AMD with the stock already at $5, but we maintain our view that AMD is being structurally squeezed by poor competitive positioning and longstanding operational struggles,” he writes. “AMD is on the verge of sinking into irrelevancy as ARM-based competitors gain share in low-end computing and Intel extends its advantages in performance and manufacturing.”
AMD is going for the strategy x86 everywhere, where it wants to get x86 into everything from handheld devices to servers. Many times it has been suggested that AMD would use ARM-based circuits instead, but it says ARM can’t deliver the same level of performance as x86 circuits. Analysts are afraid that AMD will miss the possibility to get into smartphones and tablets, since it doesn’t have a real processor for the latter and no plans to get into smartphones.
Bulldozer and AMD’s previous delays have caused people to questions abilities.
Windows 8 will make it possible for ARM to get into PCs, which will make the space betwen Intel and ARM very narrow for AMD. The analysts add that AMD is one of the two players on the graphics card market, and in theory could cooperate with ARM to get its architecture into HPC applications. For this to be a good strategy and if AMD against all oods would abondon its x86 everywhere strategy, it needs to deliver on time.
“It’s difficult to remember the last product AMD launched on time, and it is now evident that, even aside from manufacturing challenges with partner GlobalFoundries, AMD’s technology roadmap is severely lagging,” he writes. “Third-party reviews indicate that the performance of new products based on the Bulldozer architecture is disappointing – this means that AMD will likely remain a bystander in the ongoing data center build cycle (which has accrued significant benefit to Intel), and will now also miss a window to compete in consumer PCs.”
Source: Forbes
