From InfoWorld: PC enthusiasts prefer either AMD or Intel chips -- there's often no middle ground. But AMD believes its upcoming Zen chips will have crossover appeal for even the Intel faithful.
AMD is betting its future on the upcoming Zen chips, which are based on a new architecture built from scratch. Zen wipes out inefficiencies that hurt older chips, which performed poorly and damaged AMD's reputation as an innovative chip maker.
There are still AMD enthusiasts, though many have moved on to Intel, whose chips are considered to be more advanced. But AMD is now catching up with Intel on processor technology and manufacturing process, said Mark Papermaster, CTO at AMD, speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and, Telecom Conference last week.
At its peak in the early 2000s, AMD was considered a serious threat to Intel. A shining example is the Athlon 64, the first 64-bit chip for PCs. It caused Intel to scramble to release its first 64-bit chip shortly after.
But a series of missteps hampered AMD's progress. AMD's chip development stumbled starting with Phenom in 2007, and got worse with Fusion, the first chip to integrate a CPU and GPU. An AMD chip architecture called Bulldozer and its subsequent derivatives were criticized for poor performance.
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