Can't speak to whether there are backroom deals, but from a development perspective, we do this because AMD relies on it's partners to help qualify their produc

Can't speak to whether there are backroom deals, but from a development perspective, we do this because AMD relies on it's partners to help qualify their products for production. We get early samples and work with AMD to sort out any bugs (and even ship with some bugs that are mitigated) in order to achieve faster time to market. Once AMD feels the product is stable enough for general availability, they then open up sales to the general public.