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This is a testament to the vision, strategy and execution by Lisa Su - probably the world's best female CEO and one of the best CEOs in general. The seeds for

by 0xy 4y ago

This is a testament to the vision, strategy and execution by Lisa Su - probably the world's best female CEO and one of the best CEOs in general. The seeds for this success were planted nearly a decade ago, and Intel mocked them relentlessly at the time for going down this path. It also goes to show that you need an engineer in charge to be successful in the semi business. A pencil-pushing finance guy will torpedo your company long term in exchange for short term number juicing.

rayiner 4y ago
When she took the helm in 2014 Intel’s market cap was 86 times higher than AMD’s. Her execution has been amazing at a time when Intel has made mistake after mistake.
ldrndll 4y ago
Do you mind elaborating on what seeds you’re referring to. Or just some pointers on what to search for or something. I’m ignorant to the history here but would like to learn more.
- brutus1213 4y ago
  I'm not a HW person but as I understand it, the latest chips AMD produces seem to have something in common with NVIDIA GPUs .. they have these blocks that they can essentially copy and paste. In NVIDIA parlance, these are SMs. I think what the OP is referring to may be the interconnect and this sort of simple architecture. You get the power from scaling the blocks (not from a more complex individual block). My previous gen Ryzen is slower on an individual core basis than the comparable Intel part but I went for it because of the core count. What is interesting is that as TSMC improves their process and they both move to a smaller node, it makes it possible to fit more blocks on an area of silicon and it gets better (power-wise?) Would be interesting to hear from an EE if my thinking is on the spot or if I am in error.
- trinovantes 4y ago
  I think they're referring to how AMD threw everything out and started from scratch on their Zen CPU architecture in 2012 (when their stock was near rock bottom)
  - 0xy 4y ago
    This and the decision to go fabless (Intel mocked them relentlessly for it).
    - saxonww 4y ago
      Which is pretty funny because Intel probably knew it was a smart move; AMD probably wanted to do this earlier. They spun GlobalFoundries out in 2009, but only after a settlement with Intel allowing them to do so. Part of their patent cross-licensing agreement with Intel was (allegedly) that they had to produce chips in-house. Intel pretty much deserves to see themselves in the position they're in now. Microsoft made more headlines over the years with their anti-competitive behavior, but Intel was just as bad.
- genericone 4y ago
  Different company, but Lam Research had a finance CEO, he had to 'resign' because he liked leading women on with career advancement promises more than running a critical infrastructure company. Now there's an ex-engineer/project-manager in the CEO position. So, according to the board members of these companies, finance heads are out, engineering-heads are in. Let's hope it works and lets hope it sticks for good.
akra 4y ago
I would say this applies to any business these days that uses technology, not just a tech business. Advertising, banking, etc. Funding models, bean counters, finance vs strategic, all go to making the business harder to deliver product quicker long term. I've been in these organisations, and it fails due to sheer bureaucracy and the numbers always needing to stack up. The sad thing is transformation/turn around of businesses never stacks up finance wise. Its hard since the current business is a "sunk cost", and transformation is seen as a big expense with no additional value. i.e. it just puts you where you are. Its also usually requires understanding a business in full and untangling it which is expensive and usually requires significant changes and/or uplift. Most of the time they will ask - Why not just do what we've always done? Why not just use the old thing that works? etc etc. Its the reason startup's can sometimes disrupt and take over large leaders in the field with much less capital. They have less to lose, and can just do the right thing for now. In some ways AMD had less to lose.

by 0xy 4y ago

rayiner 4y ago

When she took the helm in 2014 Intel’s market cap was 86 times higher than AMD’s. Her execution has been amazing at a time when Intel has made mistake after mistake.

ldrndll 4y ago

Do you mind elaborating on what seeds you’re referring to. Or just some pointers on what to search for or something. I’m ignorant to the history here but would like to learn more.

brutus1213 4y ago
I'm not a HW person but as I understand it, the latest chips AMD produces seem to have something in common with NVIDIA GPUs .. they have these blocks that they can essentially copy and paste. In NVIDIA parlance, these are SMs. I think what the OP is referring to may be the interconnect and this sort of simple architecture. You get the power from scaling the blocks (not from a more complex individual block). My previous gen Ryzen is slower on an individual core basis than the comparable Intel part but I went for it because of the core count. What is interesting is that as TSMC improves their process and they both move to a smaller node, it makes it possible to fit more blocks on an area of silicon and it gets better (power-wise?) Would be interesting to hear from an EE if my thinking is on the spot or if I am in error.
trinovantes 4y ago
I think they're referring to how AMD threw everything out and started from scratch on their Zen CPU architecture in 2012 (when their stock was near rock bottom)
- 0xy 4y ago
  This and the decision to go fabless (Intel mocked them relentlessly for it).
  - saxonww 4y ago
    Which is pretty funny because Intel probably knew it was a smart move; AMD probably wanted to do this earlier. They spun GlobalFoundries out in 2009, but only after a settlement with Intel allowing them to do so. Part of their patent cross-licensing agreement with Intel was (allegedly) that they had to produce chips in-house. Intel pretty much deserves to see themselves in the position they're in now. Microsoft made more headlines over the years with their anti-competitive behavior, but Intel was just as bad.
genericone 4y ago
Different company, but Lam Research had a finance CEO, he had to 'resign' because he liked leading women on with career advancement promises more than running a critical infrastructure company. Now there's an ex-engineer/project-manager in the CEO position. So, according to the board members of these companies, finance heads are out, engineering-heads are in. Let's hope it works and lets hope it sticks for good.

akra 4y ago

I would say this applies to any business these days that uses technology, not just a tech business. Advertising, banking, etc. Funding models, bean counters, finance vs strategic, all go to making the business harder to deliver product quicker long term. I've been in these organisations, and it fails due to sheer bureaucracy and the numbers always needing to stack up. The sad thing is transformation/turn around of businesses never stacks up finance wise. Its hard since the current business is a "sunk cost", and transformation is seen as a big expense with no additional value. i.e. it just puts you where you are. Its also usually requires understanding a business in full and untangling it which is expensive and usually requires significant changes and/or uplift. Most of the time they will ask - Why not just do what we've always done? Why not just use the old thing that works? etc etc. Its the reason startup's can sometimes disrupt and take over large leaders in the field with much less capital. They have less to lose, and can just do the right thing for now. In some ways AMD had less to lose.