14 DAY TRIAL // Yesterday's report about how AMD had decided to stop competing with Intel predictably stirred a lot of question and speculations, but at least some fears may be assuaged.
To offer context, AMD said it wasn't going to try and compete with Intel anymore and, instead, turn to the low-power chip market.
This was mostly interpreted as mobile device platforms and, perhaps, the cloud.
Essentially, the short reported statement was enough to suggest Advanced Micro Devices may be considering anything from lessened emphasis on CPUs to total backout from the x86 chip industry.
Thus, many questions and fears were raised, so words on the company's part were bound to show up soon.
Sure enough, even if the Sunnyvale corporation didn't make some big announcement, it told The Verge that it remains committed to x86.
“AMD is a leader in x86 microprocessor design, and we remain committed to the x86 market. Our strategy is to accelerate our growth by taking advantage of our design capabilities to deliver a breadth of products that best align with broader industry shifts toward low power, emerging markets and the cloud,” the statement says.
This doesn't actually dispute most of the speculations though, only the ones about AMD pulling an HP.
It is still all too easy to assume AMD will leave the PC processor market to Intel and see what it can do in other areas.
Nonetheless, this is as far as rumors can go, since nothing will be made truly clear until AMD holds its next strategy update, in February, 2012.
The failure of Bulldozer to actually impress continues to be the main culprit behind this assumed turn of events.
Still, even if one product slid off the slippery slope, AMD continues to have a solid following, even if Intel leads in terms of sales amount, hence the veritable uproar.