WARNING: I’m a very outspoken AMD fanboy – the following article may be terribly biased.

Right now, AMD’s in deep shit – neck-deep in shit, to be more precise. It’s posting losses for god knows how many quarters (I’ve a- forgotten & b- don’t care). It can’t keep up with Intel, cause it doesn’t have enough manufacturing prowess and capital to fund research and development and manufacturing at the same time.

As I said it’s in deep shit.

Anyway, they’ve pulled of a move now…AMD is not split into 2 parts – one which designs chips and one which makes them. The design department will still be called AMD, and the temporary name for the manufacturing department is The Foundry Company. I would like to imagine that a couple of chimps thought up that…

Anyway, the Foundry Company, like most new ventures is going to be funded mostly by a couple of rich Arabs with deep pockets, from oil, mostly. And I thought oil an chips don’t mix. Even a part of the original AMD is going to be funded by a couple of more Arabs. That’s what most of them do, set up holding/venture/funding companies, and sit on most boards, knowing nothing whatsoever of anything that’s going on.

I’m hoping this plan works. Separate funding for the Foundry Company (barf) will let it complete it’s Dresden plant and maybe go on to 45nm architecture pretty soon. They need it, if AMD is to remain in the reckoning as a CPU manufacturer.