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History of AMD: 2000

“To win in the marketplace, a company must translate its innovative concepts and better ideas into real products that offer a compelling advantage to its customers.”
— AMD Founder Jerry Sanders

January: AMD announces Hector Ruiz as new president and COO
March: First commercially available systems based on the IGHz AMD Athlon™ processor
June: Mobile AMD-K6®-2+ processors feature AMD PowerNow!™ technology
October: AMD announces AMD-760™ chipset, featuring Double Data Rate (DDR) memory

Industry Perspective

The new millennium was born in a cloud of technology frenzy, as soaring demand for Internet-ready and wireless communications devices kept our customers churning at a breakneck pace.

By the middle of the year, the technology boom moderated somewhat and the US economy began to rein in, spreading cautionary ripples to the rest of the global marketplace. To most observers, this appeared to be simply the effect of maturation following the “dot com” explosion.

Then, late in the year, many of our customers in the personal computing market were blindsided by a dramatic slowdown. Explanations were plentiful, but one certainly key factor was the PC industry’s evolution from expansion and first-time purchases to replacement and enhancement with peripherals.

Driven by signs of a new sobriety in the high-tech fields, manufacturers and solution providers began seeking new ways to gain an edge on the competition.

The year 2000 was a time of change throughout the world. At AMD, we were embarking upon a multi-year Renaissance, a time of prolific innovation and evolution, which would ultimately position us to better serve more customers, in more markets, with more compelling solutions than ever before.

The first of these big changes occurred on January 25, when AMD announced Dr. Hector de Jesus Ruiz as our new President and COO. Dr. Ruiz had previously served as president of Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector, where he successfully drove profitability as well as key process-technology transitions. He was also widely credited with transforming the division into a market- and customer-focused organization. These strengths were to prove invaluable for AMD with Dr. Ruiz at the helm.

Throughout 2000, the AMD Athlon™ processor family continued to serve our customers well and win acclaim. In March, AMD helped our customers launch the first commercially available systems capable of executing one billion clock cycles per second — the PC Industry's equivalent of breaking the sound barrier. Built on 1GHz AMD Athlon processors, these systems offered then unheard-of performance for the most processor-intensive applications.

In June, we introduced the first versions of Mobile AMD-K6®-2+ family of processors featuring the pioneering AMD PowerNow!™ technology. This AMD innovation allowed our customers to deliver cooler, quieter running notebook systems with extended system battery life — and gain an impressive competitive advantage.

In October, we were proud to announce the AMD-760™ chipset, the first commercially available PC platform to support Double Data Rate (DDR) memory technology. Compared with the then-standard Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM), DDR memory increased peak data throughput to the processor by up to 100% at comparable costs. This enabled our customers to boost performance tremendously without sacrificing their bottom line.

The year 2000 also brought changes in the Flash memory market. In June, we introduced highly advanced Flash memory products — the 32-megabit Am29BDS323 and the 64-megabit Am29BDS643 — which enabled our customers to create next-generation cellular-phone applications featuring Internet connectivity, PDA functionality, video streaming, and even MP3 capability. Also in June, AMD and Fujitsu broke ground on our third Spansion “megafab.”

In August, AMD introduced another new Flash memory product, the 1.8-volt, 32-megabit Am29DS323. This high-performance, low power-consuming device allows AMD customers to differentiate their portable system and cellular phone products with high-demand features such as global positioning and electronic organizers.

As the year 2000 came to a close, concerns over the US economic slowdown were counterbalanced by multiple record highs in worldwide semiconductor and Flash memory sales. The determination and resourcefulness of our customers enabled AMD to reach record sales, record operating income, record net income, and record earnings per share.

In hindsight, much of 2000 was “the calm before the storm” — which would come barreling down on our customers in 2001. Luckily, the changes already underway at AMD were placing us in a position of strength and agility to better help our customers handle the tough years to come.