The Intel Developer Forum of autumn 2006, have started with San Francisco event last week, and arrived very interesting news, like quad-core or 80-core chip, the world’s first programmable microprocessor with teraflop performance capabilities.
Intel is driving the chip industry for years, even from the beginning we can say, but nowadays they are in a hot fight. AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) created a faster, cheaper, smarter and more efficient chip, while Intel insisted the market had no interest in such a 64-bit product, only to admit months later x86-64-bit chips were the future of the industry.
Despite price cuts and new products from the competition, Advanced Micro Devices was able to gain market share against Intel in the second quarter of 2006.
We talked those general issues with Mr.Pierre Brunswick, The Sales and Marketing Vice President, in Russia-CIS, REE & Turkey region who were here in Istanbul for Formula 1 for supperting Ferrari team which they are sponsored by AMD.
AMD is rising lately in the market. Why is that happened or how?
Mr.Pierre Brunswick : We believe that customer-centric innovation has been the key factor in our success and it is the key to the next computing revolution. This revolution is based on the remarkable price / performance characteristics of AMD64 technology, whether it is reinventing the performance-per-watt envelope in the datacenter, creating a new digital entertainment experience in the home, or empowering a new generation of Internet users worldwide. We are committed to deliver a vision grounded in the collective wisdom of our customers, partners and rapidly evolving leadership team.
What AMD is offering and what are differences with the rivals?
Mr.Pierre Brunswick : We provide real solutions for real customer problems that exist in the real world today. It’s a philosophy we refer to as “customer-centric innovation,” and it represents the guiding principle behind everything we do.
We operate with the highest standards of honesty and responsibility—as individuals and as a corporation—to be a role model worldwide through our business practices, community involvement and environmental stewardship (Thanks to our revolutionary Cooln’n’quiet™ technology – which modulates power consumption according to actual CPU usage – our processors reached outstanding consumption and power efficiency).
We deliver on our promises to our customers, stakeholders and to each other by taking risks, seeking proactive solutions and assuming ownership of the results.
We believe that fair and open competition places the freedom of choice in the hands of customers, allowing the widest population to have access to the best possible technology. Through an open standards approach, AMD offers customers the ability to build differentiated solutions that meet commercial and consumer end-user needs.
Intel and AMD has a fight in Europe and USA. What is happening?
Mr.Pierre Brunswick : As you know, AMD filed before the EU Commission a complaint against Intel, for its unfair and exclusionary practices. We believe that what happened with Media Markt and Saturnis just another example of it and about how the consumers were eventually cheated: according to some news published on the German Financial Times, ” target=”_blank”>Media Markt has with Intel an agreement to exclude all products with “AMD Inside” from the stores of the Media Markt and Saturn Group.
On the contrary, we believe in fair and open competition, we believe that only competition will advantage PC builders, consumers and end users because they will be in the position to buy the best products at the best price, rewarding quality and innovation.
We know how our competitor will defend itself they will say there is no consumer harm. They will say they are just engaging in good economics. Don’t believe it. Consumers, systembuilders, governmental agencies responsible for tenders, were harmed and they are harmed every day because since a long time they have been paying more than they need to pay; because they are foreclosed from the best innovation that competition has to offer; because they are deprived of the most fundamental right of a free market, the right to choose.
AMD is leading the industry in innovation and we cannot and we will not accept our competitor determining the innovation of the market, and the cost of such innovation. There is no question about our ability to compete and to lead innovation. That’s all we want; a chance to compete on the merits of our products, proposing for the first time to the market our revolutionary solutions in the architecture and power consumption. We are doing this because AMD is a strong and determined company but with the power of our innovation leadership comes also a huge responsibility. We have the responsibility to free the industry, the consumers and the entire IT market from the yoke of a monopolist, and make sure that everyone has access to a computer at the best reasonable.
Could you tell us AMD’s position in your region (Russia-CIS, REE & Turkey) by county and as total?
Mr.Pierre Brunswick : AMD is continuously increasing its local presence in high-growth markets like Russia-CIS, REE, Turkey: this region is among the most important markets for AMD. W observed that all these markets – like Turkey – were more open to competition and we decided that we had to get closer to these markets. We knew that we had to become much more active in Russia and Turkey, where “being a partner in such markets” meant aligning not just with customers but also the government and the people. We have increasing sales and market share in Turkey and this commended us to open an AMD office in Turkey before the year end. In the next months we will be visiting Turkey to and our partners will meet with AMD’s top management.
What are you thinking about Turkish public tenders?
Mr.Pierre Brunswick : Since we have first met Turkish government officers about the tenders, our main point was that when government agencies issue vendor solicitations or other tenders that prevent competition, they are unable to compare product costs and performance. At best, government agencies risk making purchases without being sure that they are buying the best product for their needs at the best price. At worst, they risk using taxpayer monies to buy inferior products at inflated prices.
We believe that Turkey as a candidate country for European Union should be acting parallel to EU Procurement laws and the recommendations of the EU Commission, which stipulates specific rules for the tendering of computer hardware. These rules demand that the “requirements for microprocessors must exclude any reference to brands (e.g., Intel, AMD), manufacturer-specific processor architectures, trademarks, technology-types or other potentially discriminatory descriptors,” specifically they must “exclude any reference to minimum processor clock-rates (e.g. 3,2 GhZ) ” as well as a minimum Front Side Bus speed or minimum cache memory size as “such specifications do not directly relate to performance.”
AMD published a research last year about “competition in public tenders in USA” Could you tell us the highlights of that research?
Mr.Pierre Brunswick : According to the research, the inclusion of brand-name specifications in federal computer hardware procurement lead to harmful consequences that needlessly cost U.S. taxpayers up to $563 million, study by R. Preston McAfee, J. Stanley Johnson Professor of Business, Economics and Management at the California Institute of Technology. The study, Improving Federal Procurement: the Benefits of Vendor-Neutral Contract Specifications, was commissioned by AMD
Also the U.S. Office of Management and Budget released a memorandum to all chief acquisition officers, chief information officers and senior procurement officers in the government requesting that they use objective benchmarks and performance measures for contract specifications, and adhere to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) requirements restricting the use of brand names.
AMD is committed to working with governments around the world to combat unfair and often times illegal practices in order to improve competition, promote product innovation, and save tax payers money.
Do you have any plan for local PC makers?
Mr.Pierre Brunswick : Since the very first day AMD started its operation in Turkey, our focus has been on local PC makers. We have long term strategies and cooperation with our local customers to develop our joint business. Moreover every year with the road shows, seminars and channel conferences we organize we get the chance to meet one on one with the significant number of our customers. AMD is also supporting various activities of local organizations like TBD – Informatics Associations of Turkey and Tubider – Turkish IT Association.
What will be trends of chip industry in near and far future, according to latest predictions?
Mr.Pierre Brunswick : The microprocessor industry has entered a “new stage of transition” and a “world of differentiation.” The microprocessor market has moved away from benchmarks and is now in a phase of “innovation”, “choice” and “open and fair competition”.The AMD and ATI merger will bring together two of the key components, two of the key technologies, the CPU and the GPU, and we’re going to be able to continue to move forward in terms of innovation to balance out, for the best interests of our end users and customers, these two key technologies. Also we are working on a new processor core, which will debut as a native quad-core.
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