CSO John Byrne claims AMD is leading in exclusive KitGuru interview

1. Setting the scene2. AMD is actually leading3. How successful has the APU been?4. AMD's 3 Stage Plan5. Future Finances6. Ambidextrous Computing7. Gaming and DX8. ...and finally, workstations9. View All Pages

“We’re going to be making history”, said Byrne.

“It’s an exciting time, particularly with the latest announcement from AMD defining our ambidextrous strategy and enabling our customers to harness the best attributes and performance of both the ARM and x86 ecosystems, as well as true Graphics leadership”, he told us.

“We are the only ones – I repeat the only company – that can do this”, he said firmly.

This point is well made after AMD's recent major announcement from about its 64-bit ARM architecture licence for the development of custom cores for high growth markets – as well as a forward-looking glimpse into AMD’s development plans to deliver ambidextrous computing and graphics performance.

Given that AMD is the only company with this particular set of ducks available to line up, it's certainly unique.

If you missed the announcement or you're not certain about the benefits that AMD's new agreements bring, then here's a quick summery:-

• Business is all about the TAM – which is the Total Addressable Market
  The more customers you can reach, with a product they might want, the higher your sales potential will be
• The traditional markets that AMD was focused on in the past have stagnant or shrinking TAMs
• In stark contrast, some experts are predicting that the TAM for ARM could be bigger than x86 by 2018
• If you had a company positioned to make both x86 and ARM products available, then the TAM is likely to pass $80Bn at some point in 2014

Speaking at the start of May, this is how AMD CEO Rory Read explained the advantage.

“Before today, AMD was the only company in the world to deliver high performance and low-power x86 with leadership graphics. AMD now takes a bold step forward and has become the only company that can provide high-performance 64-bit ARM and x86 CPU cores paired with world-class graphics. Our innovative ambidextrous design capability, combined with our portfolio of IP and expertise with high-performance SoCs, means that AMD is set to deliver ambidextrous solutions that enable our customers to change the world in more efficient and powerful ways”.

The idea of having the same pin-out for x86 and ARM certainly opens up a lot of possibilities.

One of which is a platform that Intel won't go near.

That sounds a lot like ‘leading'.

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