AMD Will Continue To 'Reinvent' The Tech Industry, Ruiz Pledges

Advanced Micro Devices will continue to "reinvent" the technology industry over the next few years as its new processor technologies enable differentiation and open new markets, Hector Ruiz, chairman and chief executive, said at the company's Technology Day conference on Thursday.

Ruiz said AMD began an effort to reinvent in the industry in 2003 when it introduced its AMD64 architecture with Opteron, the first 64-bit x86-based microprocessor.

"If you look back to those days, you will remember that it was questionable in many people's minds whether [64-bit] x86 was the way to go," Ruiz said. "At least it was questioned by our competition. We decided to move ahead, and today it is well accepted that x86 64 is truly the technology for the next few years."

AMD's move to bring the first 64-bit x86 processors and first dual-core x86 processors to the market has helped the company improve its market position. Over the past two years, AMD has enjoyed its best market acceptance in its long history of battling Intel in the x86 market. In the first quarter of 2006, AMD has seen its overall x86 market share grow to 22%, according to Mercury Research, and to nearly 26% of the x86 server market, according to Gartner.

Ruiz said AMD has also led the industry in what has now become a widespread effort to bring computing technology to emerging economies in places like China, India, and Africa.

"There was no approach being proposed a couple of years ago by anyone to address the needs of this market," Ruiz said. "We recognized that in the emerging market, we were going to have somewhere between 500 million and a billion new customers in the next few years."

Ruiz said AMD's 50x15 program--an effort to bring Internet connectivity to half of the world's population by 2015--has now been accepted as a model for addressing emerging countries' computing needs. In the past few months Intel has announced its World Ahead program aimed at bringing low-priced PCs to emerging markets, and Microsoft recently announced collaborative deals with Intel and AMD to create tailored platforms for the market.

Other efforts to address this market are also under way by companies such as VIA Technologies and the One Laptop Per Child initiative.

"Our 50x15 effort has spawned a number of things around the world that are truly a reinvention of what was needed to address the needs of this market," Ruiz said.

Ruiz said its product and technology road map through 2008, to be outlined on Thursday, will include new manufacturing capabilities, a continued push on multicore processor technologies, and an opening up of its technology for greater coupling with third-party technology.

"We will harness the power of invention, collaboration, and innovation with our customers, partners, and our ecosystem that can bring and unleash a completely new wave of innovation in this industry," he said.