Char Ell Posted July 24, 2006 Share Posted July 24, 2006 AMD just announced that it will acquire Ontario, Canada-based ATI Technologies. CNET News article Advanced Micro Devices plans to acquire graphics chipmaker ATI Technologies for $5.4 billion in cash and stock, the company said Monday. Under terms of the deal, AMD will acquire all of the outstanding common shares of ATI for $4.2 billion in cash and 57 million shares of AMD common stock, based on the number of shares of ATI common stock outstanding on July 21. ATI, which is headquartered in Markham, Ontario, said it has agreed to a termination fee of $162 million. The deal is subject to the approval of ATI shareholders and regulators in the United States and Canada. In addition to making graphics chips, ATI also supplies chipsets--the cluster of secondary chips and interfaces that surround a computer's processor--for AMD and Intel products. Perhaps this will help ATIAMD better compete against Intel now that AMD will also have graphics and chipsets in its portfolio. I wonder though what, if anything, NVIDIA will do in response. Seems to me like NVIDIA will be at a competitive disadvantage now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jae Onasi Posted July 26, 2006 Share Posted July 26, 2006 I'm wondering if Intel will want to make some kind of cooperative agreement with NVIDIA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Char Ell Posted July 26, 2006 Author Share Posted July 26, 2006 Thank you, Jae Onasi! I chalked up the lack of response on this thread to LF's performance issues the past couple of days. Now that at least one person has shown a passing interest... From a TG Daily article - AMD: We won't be another Intel So, what does that exactly mean for the partners of AMD? Especially Nvidia comes to mind, which today ships more than 90% of the chipsets for AMD computers and potentially could have been viewed as a better fit for AMD. In the end, AMD says, it will depend on Nvidia what the relationship will look like and AMD itself of course has little interest to change the way it is treated by Nvidia. However, AMD suddenly has become one of Nvidia's most important competitors and that may have an impact on how Nvidia will position itself in the future.I am quite fascinated by developments like this in the world of tech. I don't know what Nvidia will do. Stands to reason they'll do something but what other option besides merging with Intel is available? And from what I've read Intel doesn't appear to be in an acquiring mode. On the contrary, Intel has recently sold its communications division to Marvell Communications and is busy with a management reorganization (1,000 Intel managers to be furloughed). The one thing I like hearing AMD say is that they plan on being a lot more open with their platforms than Intel. We'll see how well that ideology holds up down the road but I think open platforms allow for more innovation. P.S. For anybody who heard the report that Intel had pulled ATI's bus license; it's not true. <link> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ztalker Posted July 26, 2006 Share Posted July 26, 2006 I think i just wetted my pants... Now that the AMD 64-bit processor is out, this deal with ATI will rock! Now ATI can create videocards that are especially good on the (stronger) AMD processors. The Ultimate gaming deal! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChAiNz.2da Posted July 26, 2006 Share Posted July 26, 2006 I'll be more enthusiastic when ATI (or AMD) can make drivers that work. Half our posts in the Workbench are Catalyst driver related... Nothing against ATI users, it's just that every ATI I've attempted to use borked on me.. so I switched to VooDoo/nVidia... no problems ever since... Still, I'm an AMD fan-boy.. so if any company could make make a decent ATI card, then I'd put my faith in AMD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoffe Posted July 26, 2006 Share Posted July 26, 2006 I wonder though what, if anything, NVIDIA will do in response. Seems to me like NVIDIA will be at a competitive disadvantage now. A worst-case scenario could be the opposite. With ATI assimilated by another company whose priorities lies elsewhere than locking horns with nVidia to get the best&fastest graphics cards on the market (if, for example, AMDs main reason for acquiring ATI is to better compete with Intel's integrated motherboard graphics cards). This would essentially hand nVidia the whole graphics card market since their main competitor left the race. This could in turn stall development and innovation, since experience seems to indicate that when a company has no real competition in a market they grow complacent and won't put at much effort in coming up with new ideas. Will be interesting to see how this will turn out in the end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Char Ell Posted July 26, 2006 Author Share Posted July 26, 2006 ^^^ Hmmm... Yes, that is a bad scenario. If that were to happen then I wouldn't think much of AMD's management. Like ChAiNz I use NVIDIA cards but that doesn't mean I don't want ATI slacking in its competition with NVIDIA. On the contrary I think both ATI and NVIDIA users have greatly benefitted from the heated rivalry between these two companies as they push to improve their products so they can claim the video card performance crown. I agree that it's going to be interesting to see what changes occur with CPU's, graphics controllers, and chipsets in the next few years. One thing that looks poised to occur as a result of this merger is the integration of the graphics controller with the CPU. AMD has already put the memory controller on the processor. I really don't know how the graphics controller would occur. Maybe with the advent of multi-core CPU's they could add a core for graphics, something like 2 or 4 cores for CPU with an additional graphics core for a total of 3 or 5 processors in the overall processor package? I'm into hardware but have no expertise on h/w design so maybe I'm way off base with this idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stingerhs Posted July 26, 2006 Share Posted July 26, 2006 Nothing against ATI users, it's just that every ATI I've attempted to use borked on me.. so I switched to VooDoo/nVidia... no problems ever since...actually, i'd just say that you always got the short end of the stick with ATI cards. i have yet to use an ATI card that had any sort of major issues either driver related or otherwise. personally, i'm of the opinion that the Catalyst Driver issues with the Kotor titles isn't completely ATI's fault. still, i did make the switch to Nvidia a while back, but that had everything to do with ATI deciding to not make an AGP compatible card with the X1900 or X1800 line of Radeons. as for the merger, i wouldn't count on seeing an Athlon FX-60 being plugged into the next ATI card since the chip is designed to be a CPU and not a GPU. if anything, you probably won't see an actual AMD-designed GPU on an ATI graphics board for a long time to come. still, this news can't be anything but positive for both companies. i'm looking forward to seeing what happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Source Posted July 27, 2006 Share Posted July 27, 2006 Correct me if I am wrong: Doesn't AMD's CPUs out run Intel's CPUs? If AMD buys ATI, that would be a pretty cool deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Char Ell Posted July 28, 2006 Author Share Posted July 28, 2006 If AMD buys ATI, that would be a pretty cool deal. It's no longer an if. It's a done deal. AMD and ATI are saying we can expect to see results of their joint development on products sometime during 2008. Should be very interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Posted July 28, 2006 Share Posted July 28, 2006 I also heard that intel won't be making chipsets for ATI anymore, so sounds like you either have to be AMD/ATI or Intel/nvidia... No problem for me, I use intel and nvidia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jae Onasi Posted July 28, 2006 Share Posted July 28, 2006 And if we're AMD/nVidia fans, we're screwed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth333 Posted July 28, 2006 Share Posted July 28, 2006 I also heard that intel won't be making chipsets for ATI anymore, so sounds like you either have to be AMD/ATI or Intel/nvidia... No problem for me, I use intel and nvidia. Well, this is not what ATI's general manager, Phil Eisler, is saying: « There is no truth to the rumor that Intel has pulled ATI's chipset license. We continue to ship Intel chipsets under license ». Sorry, my sources are in French: http://www.presence-pc.com/actualite/d/amd-ati-8/ (it's an interesting article for those who can read it) I'll be more enthusiastic when ATI (or AMD) can make drivers that work. Half our posts in the Workbench are Catalyst driver related... Nothing against ATI users, it's just that every ATI I've attempted to use borked on me.. so I switched to VooDoo/nVidia... no problems ever since... I have to agree with stingerhs here. You must have been unlucky. As for posts in the workbench forum, many are user related and quite often the cards are low end and don't support all the features of the games. Perhaps some ATi past drivers were problematic in the past but this is no longer the case. I use Ati cards since a while and never had any bad experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Char Ell Posted July 29, 2006 Author Share Posted July 29, 2006 I also heard that intel won't be making chipsets for ATI anymore, so sounds like you either have to be AMD/ATI or Intel/nvidia... No problem for me, I use intel and nvidia. Yeah, I heard that too but that didn't sound right. So after checking around some more I found out that wasn't true and tried to head this rumor off at the pass. P.S. For anybody who heard the report that Intel had pulled ATI's bus license; it's not true. <link> Guess I should have used the word chipset instead of bus, eh? But hey it's the thought that counts, right? Well, this is not what ATI's general manager, Phil Eisler, is saying: « There is no truth to the rumor that Intel has pulled ATI's chipset license. We continue to ship Intel chipsets under license ». Darth333 FTW! It does seem reasonable to expect Intel to not renew ATI's license to make Intel chipsets once that license expires. I don't know when that will occur but I'm sure we'll hear about it when it does. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EnderWiggin Posted July 30, 2006 Share Posted July 30, 2006 And if we're AMD/nVidia fans, we're screwed. Don't I know it. _EW_ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lukeiamyourdad Posted July 30, 2006 Share Posted July 30, 2006 It does seem reasonable to expect Intel to not renew ATI's license to make Intel chipsets once that license expires. I don't know when that will occur but I'm sure we'll hear about it when it does. I don't think so. True that there's rivalry between Intel and AMD, but there's still money to be made with the people who prefer an Intel/ATi cross. Unless there was an alliance between Intel and nVidia (which is in the realm of possibilities though unlikely), there's no reason for either company to stop dealing with the new entity. The only way I can see this is when AMD makes sure you can only use their ATi graphic cards with their own processors and block out nVidia, which is rather unlikely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Char Ell Posted July 31, 2006 Author Share Posted July 31, 2006 ^^^ I'm surprised that you think Intel would let its chief competitor continue to make its chipsets. This essentially would give AMD access via ATI to inside information at Intel and I don't think Intel will want to do that any longer than it contractually has to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Det. Bart Lasiter Posted July 31, 2006 Share Posted July 31, 2006 As long as I can match up the top-performing GPUs with the top-performing CPU, I don't see this as a major issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lukeiamyourdad Posted July 31, 2006 Share Posted July 31, 2006 ^^^ I'm surprised that you think Intel would let its chief competitor continue to make its chipsets. This essentially would give AMD access via ATI to inside information at Intel and I don't think Intel will want to do that any longer than it contractually has to. I didn't think about it that way. It is true that it will give them some inside information. That would mean nVidia becomes a clear winner in this game(assuming they can), able to play both parties while ATi is condemned to one partner only. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PsiKnife Posted July 31, 2006 Share Posted July 31, 2006 Correct me if I am wrong: Doesn't AMD's CPUs out run Intel's CPUs? If AMD buys ATI, that would be a pretty cool deal. Just like the Nvidia Vs ATI wars, so goes the AMD Vs Intel wars. One year Intel is up on the benchmark tests, and the next AMD is. It's neverending tug-o-war with these guys. After AMD was ostracized for so long, they finally got their ish together in the past few years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Char Ell Posted August 1, 2006 Author Share Posted August 1, 2006 I didn't think about it that way. It is true that it will give them some inside information. That would mean nVidia becomes a clear winner in this game(assuming they can), able to play both parties while ATi is condemned to one partner only. As far as chipsets go: - ATI designs and makes chipsets for both AMD and Intel processors <link> - NVIDIA designs and makes chipsets for both AMD and Intel processors <link> - As far as I know AMD was never in the business of making chipsets until it acquired ATI. - Intel designs and makes chipsets for its own processors <link> BUT Intel struck a deal with ATI for ATI to manufacture some types of Intel chipsets. This is the chipset license some people incorrectly speculated was cancelled. Basically Intel gives ATI its chipset design schematics, ATI makes the chipsets, and Intel sells them under its own brand. This is the part of ATI's business that analysts generally expect AMD/ATI to lose. I would expect the ATI division of AMD to continue to develop and produce its own chipsets for both AMD and Intel processors as ATI has in the past. I also anticipate NVIDIA will do the same. The question is (and I honestly don't think it's of great significance) when the license agreement between ATI and Intel expires or is mutually terminated will Intel take production of the chipsets ATI was making in-house, strike a deal with NVIDIA to manufacture the chipsets or something else altogether? Just like the Nvidia Vs ATI wars, so goes the AMD Vs Intel wars. One year Intel is up on the benchmark tests, and the next AMD is. It's neverending tug-o-war with these guys. After AMD was ostracized for so long, they finally got their ish together in the past few years.I agree. AMD has had the clear edge in its CPU designs for the past 2-3 years. With the introduction of Core 2 Duo however the pendulum has apparently swung back to Intel's side. I expect AMD will again take the lead in another couple of years, maybe when they intro their 4x4 processor since it already sounds like AMD's 4-core processor design is more efficient than Intel's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiestainabox Posted August 1, 2006 Share Posted August 1, 2006 Damn, another Canadian company bought out, what will happen next to us? Jim Carey became an American citizen! Great, now Shaina Twain's going to move to the US....Oh wait, that's a good thing... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lukeiamyourdad Posted August 1, 2006 Share Posted August 1, 2006 Great, now Shaina Twain's going to move to the US....Oh wait, that's a good thing... You do realized that she moved to Switzerland quite a while ago right? Back on topic please... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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