With AMD Riding Waves of Volatility

Apr 30 2007 @ 12:29AM by jimmy

Thanks to John Chludzinski for this link to the New York Times talking about AMD stock. A.M.D. finds it hard to beat its nemesis because it keeps beating itself, analysts and fund managers who follow the chip industry say. The company is known for accomplishing the critical aspects of semiconductor production flawlessly ? but seldom all at the same time.

?A.M.D. is a company that has really struggled to execute on all cylinders,? said Telis D. Bertsekas, manager of the MFS Technology fund. ?Historically, it would have windows of technology leadership, then it would flub the manufacturing and distribution. Customers could never really trust them.?

In the latest episode of the rise and fall of A.M.D., the company seemed on the verge of slashing into Intel?s leadership late in 2004, when it developed a microprocessor that produced less heat than others available at the time, a feature that made it ideal for use in industrial servers.