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The reason AMD went fabless had nothing to do with edge. It was a move to prevent bankruptcy. Intel fell behind because of its process woes and managerial issue
by totalZero 5y ago
The reason AMD went fabless had nothing to do with edge. It was a move to prevent bankruptcy. Intel fell behind because of its process woes and managerial issues. They weren't outworked, they played themselves.
- mjevans 5y agoOnly half the story. AMD also needed to do that due to antitrust shenanigans that harmed AMD. In my recollection of history, this was litigated in court and (I think?) eventually settled before a verdict. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Micro_Devices#Litigation_with_Intel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Micro_Devices#Litigat... "n 2005, following an investigation, the Japan Federal Trade Commission found Intel guilty of a number of violations. On June 27, 2005, AMD won an antitrust suit against Intel in Japan, and on the same day, AMD filed a broad antitrust complaint against Intel in the U.S. Federal District Court in Delaware. The complaint alleges systematic use of secret rebates, special discounts, threats, and other means used by Intel to lock AMD processors out of the global market. Since the start of this action, the court has issued subpoenas to major computer manufacturers including Acer, Dell, Lenovo, HP and Toshiba. In November 2009, Intel agreed to pay AMD $1.25bn and renew a five-year patent cross-licensing agreement as part of a deal to settle all outstanding legal disputes between them." Unfortunately by that point the damage had been done. Fabs are an extremely expensive, normally lower margin, business. Risk averse companies probably can't get into that game. Even with Apple they appear to have focused on something of a partnership with TSMC rather than their own fab.