9.14.2007

AMD’s Orwellian Product Launch

The controlling of the media, the use of strange words to confuse people, the manipulation of results to cast themselves in a better light and the propaganda about the cause they are fighting and how it is supposed to be for the good of all. No, I’m not talking about an authoritarian regime. I’m talking about a public corporation that is in a terrible crisis and that trying to manipulate reality seems to be its last resort. AMD’s spin and propaganda machine is running at a level that even a fully secured dictator would learn a thing or two. But journalists are taking note and are starting speak out. Well, at least those that were brave enough not to sign a Non-disclosure Agreement (NDA) in the first place.

The latest story, one which is related to AMD's NDA scandal comes from the INQ as the chip company once again tries to force journalist to sign away their integrity. Mike has a point in asking the real purpose of the NDA when in fact no secret is ever disclosed. The terms of the NDA including the one the Thai journalist “walked out” on seem to suggest that the underlying purpose is really to sanitise and control the stories. AMD’s desperate need for such tactics only magnifies the obvious fact that AMD has plenty to hide.

…Hiding not so pleasant details like Barcelona's performance and how it was indeed a paper launch with delayed and very limited samples sent out for benchmarking. The latest charge from AMD’s arch-nemesis George Ou, is the omission of Intel’s best scores while never disclosing the reason why the scores were lower (auto-parallelization=off). To be lying and cheating while comparing to the slower of Intel's offering is just reaching deeper levels of sleaze for AMD.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

"To be lying and cheating while comparing to the slower of Intel's offering is just reaching deeper levels of sleaze for AMD."

Desperate times call for desperate measures - when you build up all this hype about a product and then realize there won't be anything behind the curtain for another 3-6 months, you are left with dissuade, dissimulate, dissemble and disguise. Now you know what the D in AMD stands for.

And if that fails try the old bait and switch - look at these 2.5 and 3.0GHz benchmarks and simulations - but please buy our, um hum, "energy efficient" 2.0GHz product.

Anonymous said...

Another AMD VP leaves the fold


Link to Press Release

Former AMD Vice President Joins Jackson Walker

Austin — Sue Snyder, former Vice President of International Policy and Relations and Executive Legal Counsel for AMD, is a new partner in the Business Transactions section of Jackson Walker in Austin.

C. Wade Cooper, managing partner of the firm's Austin office, stated "Sue was the 'go to' lawyer for AMD on many of their most challenging projects—both within the U.S. and abroad—and very few lawyers in Austin have her depth of experience in the technology and international arenas. We think her addition puts Jackson Walker in a pre-eminent position to assist companies in this area with international and technology legal issues."

Snyder said, "I am very honored to join one of the most progressive, outstanding firms that has a vision for addressing the needs of companies now expanding globally. With Texas being the largest exporting state and technology products being the largest part of our exports, international matters are becoming crucial to many. It is with pleasure that I will be able to serve many different types of industries in this endeavor."

Snyder is well known in the legal community of the technology industry in the U.S. and abroad. Her areas of expertise include corporate, environmental and international law, including government relations. Her responsibilities for AMD over the last ten years involved a wide range of projects and legal issues both domestically and worldwide, such as dealing with China on regulatory and permitting issues, establishing a public/private partnership for semiconductor manufacturing in India, dealing with import/export and antitrust issues in Europe, negotiating incentives for the construction of AMD's $3.0 billion facility in New York and working with governments in China, India, Brazil, Russia, Europe, Singapore, Taiwan, Korea, Japan and others.


Asset Lite, alright: human assets that is! LOL

Thomas McCoy must be wondering WTF and who's next.

Anonymous said...

That story from the INQ is embarrassing. Not only does it add to the impression that AMD is suddenly very concerned with controlling media coverage, it gives the press the chance to tweak AMD's nose about its sudden desire to make an "important announcement" during the week of IDF.

It's typical gamesmanship to try and poke your competitor in the ribs like that, but with the stories going around about NDAs, it winds up looking tacky. AMD's biggest rival is Intel, but AMD's worst enemy is... AMD.

Anonymous said...

Hey DOC and GURU, it seems they can run these quads on three wheels. Gives a new meaning to recycling the trash. Now perhaps they can get better than the miserable 30% yields we figured.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=42369

SPARKS

Anonymous said...

Tri Core is ridiculous. Why? Unless it is bad yield (which the INQ seems to suggest is NOT the reason AMD is doing this), why intentionally downgrade the performance of the chip?

We are talking servers, right? An area that can actually use MULTIPLE CORES, right? If you have a need for a tri-core server, than quad would be better no? (Or is there some magic SW that only works at 3 cores max?)

Having multiple SKU's?!? Try doing more clockspeeds! You know 1, 2, 4 cores is just not enough options...

I can see the AMD marketing team right now - Hey INtel can't do three cores, let's do it and call this superior technology? Oh and can you also paint the chips green? So we are going to take a part that cost the same amount as a quad core to make, fuse it and sell it for less money...BRILLIANT! Is there that little demand for quad core AMD chips?

Again if this is a yield thing it makes sense, but if it is fusing working cores, simply stupid...

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