AMD buying ATI

[wngman]

If you haven't heard about this yet check it out here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060724/ap_on_hi_te/amd_acquisition_8
Interesting things are afoot...

[PrntRhd]

Yeah, this could get real interesting.
What's going to happen to the relationship with NVidia chipsets for one.
What will happen to the Intel relationship with ATI graphics cards is another.

[reddragon]

I think it will keep the big boys on thare feet and things will just get better .
it is helthy to have someone to fite in the same feld

[azzey]

Wow... that's actually quite a big deal! Thanks wngman.

[pop pop]

I don't know...diversification sometimes means dilution. I'm remaining on the sideline for this one.

[Laguna]

At this stage I am thinking this should be a good thing seen as ATI are my favourite Video Card Vendor and AMD are my favourite CPU Vendor so it's all good for me.Although I do think it's a bit early for celebrations.
All we can do is wait and see I suppose.

My only fear is that if AMD went and made it so that AMD MOBO's can only have an ATI card running in it.Although AMD don't seem to be like that.
They would make less money that way anyway and seen as they are seen as second to Intel(I don't know why either :D ) thats not what they want.

[jlreich]

This is an interesting development. Where does this leave Intel? NVidia and Intel's relationship has been shaky at best, and now they don't have ATI to be friends with?

I am with Pop pop, I don't know if this is a good thing or not. :confused:

[saphalline]

I suspect AMD enveloped ATI for one reason only: integration. Intel has long held AMD at bay by being the only CPU manufacturer that can design their own chipsets and produce their own mobo's. With the acquisition of ATI, AMD may be able to do this as well. At least in-house designs of AMD-based chipsets, although mobo FAB'ing may become a reality if AMD can sign up a suitable FAB'ing partner (perhaps from one of ATI's vid card partners).

In any case, I also suspect that AMD will let the main graphics division continue unabated. There's no denying that the vid card arena needs ATI to compete with NVidia. And I'm sure AMD does not want to alienate NVidia as a valuable CPU-to-market partner. AMD is no fool! They understand that balance must be maintained.

It is exciting when you think about the other avenues, though. AMD having access to ATI's mobile division? This could have a large impact on the types of processors contained in small devices. ATI has been gaining large market shares over the past 2 years in producing 3D chips for cell phones and pocket PC's. If AMD is able to get their hands on that, we could see some impressive systems-on-a-chip for the small mobile market. All AMD would need to do is create a low-power programmable CPU core (borderline x86 perhaps) and tie it directly into an I/O bus controller and an ATI graphics core! Something like that would be brilliant since both AMD and ATI now have extensive experience with on-die memory controllers, and ATI now has some experience in creating entire chipsets.

In the end, though, I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens. We're not likely to notice any impact for several months anyway.