AMD Purchases ATI
July 24th, 2006 by CrusaderThe big news of the morning: Microprocessor manufacturer AMD has announced the acquisition of graphics chipset manufacturer ATI (the AMD press release calls it a “merger” and a “partnership”, but the wire reports unambiguously describe it as a buyout) for $5.4 billion:
On July 24, 2006, AMD and ATI announced a plan to join forces, in a transaction that will combine AMD’s technology leadership in microprocessors with ATI’s strengths in graphics, chipsets and consumer electronics. The result is a processing powerhouse: a new competitor, better equipped to drive growth, innovation and choice for its customers in commercial and mobile computing segments and in rapidly-growing consumer electronics segments. The transaction, valued at US $5.4 billion, is expected to close in Q4 2006 subject to approval by ATI shareholders, court approval, regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.
What this means with regard to future product offerings from the combined company remains to be seen. Discuss!
July 24th, 2006 at 10:05 am
I’ll care either way when drivers are released for the latest version of Xorg.
July 24th, 2006 at 10:20 am
I guess this is really bad news for all my fellow gamers that use AMD CPU’s but NVIDIA Gfx Cards. :(
July 24th, 2006 at 1:09 pm
AMD is about to enter a CPU battle with Intel, they will cut costs wherever, possibly driver delevopement for Linux.
a) Linux is dropped, hardware specs closed
b) AMD will be as open as they are with their CPU, open specs and drop Linux driver (save $).
c) Life goes on an always only now AMD can withstand a CPU war as long as GPUs sell.
d) other
This could also mean no more laptops with Intel+ATI, and NVIDIA is not known for it’s low power usage. So (AMD Ath64x2 + ATI laptop) better battery life than (Intel Core 2 Duo + NVIDIA)?
So now it is:
AMD vs Intel + NVIDIA
Unlike some wars, this will not increase the price of gas though and will be good for consumers.
If AMD locks out NVIDIA (unlikely) and doesn’t improve drivers, I will buy my first Intel in 11 years when I buy a new computer.
July 24th, 2006 at 1:46 pm
[i]“I guess this is really bad news for all my fellow gamers that use AMD CPU’s but NVIDIA Gfx Cards. :(“[/i]
I really don’t get why…
July 24th, 2006 at 2:44 pm
I doubt AMD will make their products ATI only, what to expect is budget range mainboards with integrated ATI gpu’s on a budget AMD. Also if AMD decides to take ATI to the linux markt as they do with the CPU’s it’s gonna be great.
July 24th, 2006 at 6:14 pm
All servers come with ATI chipsets for video. AMD is putting Intel’s nuts in a vice with this move. They know Intel is down, but not close to out. This is just another wedge in the door before they try to plant an axe in Intel’s head.
This won’t affect desktops. But the server world- holy monkey. I can only guess the screws that’ll get turned.
July 24th, 2006 at 10:43 pm
ATI/AMD will not open the specs, and they will not drop linux driver development because of the firegl linux workstations. There might be more development or less development but it won’t stop. I doubt ATI spent all that much on linux driver development anyway.
ATI is probably planning on competing with centrino or moving into physics processing or moving into distributed central processing over graphics processors. They may have plans for the consumer products market like cell phones. There is really no telling.
July 25th, 2006 at 4:46 am
About binary drivers, how hard is it to make ‘emerge nvidia-kernel’ ?? And that is only on kernel updates, which doesn’t happen every day…
July 25th, 2006 at 3:36 pm
I can’t wait to see what the children will look like.
Let’s see… Apple/Intel/nVidia vs Via/S3 vs ATI/AMD …
What about Sun Sparc/Solaris, Gensi PPC/MorphOS, or even Matrox? Matrox dropped off the mkfsck drive image, so…
July 26th, 2006 at 7:10 am
I agree that if ATI and AMD were merging tomorrow someone might care but this is far from a done deal. Stockholders must approve it, the US government has to approve it and the Canadians get to look it over too.
To all the doomsdayers out there: AMD is not going to stop Linux drivers in any way shape or form. They have no reason to. In fact given that they are the underdog (and the fact that they’re attempting to buy another underdog) they need all the markets they can lay their hands on, niche or otherwise.
August 3rd, 2006 at 5:02 am
August 3rd, 2006 at 2:27 pm
August 3rd, 2006 at 2:28 pm
August 3rd, 2006 at 2:28 pm
November 11th, 2006 at 6:38 am
Hi all
January 10th, 2007 at 8:54 pm
please, send this links to your friends. and you will be happy in 5 days
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