AMD

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, with significant operations in Austin, Texas. AMD is a hardware and fabless company that designs and develops central processing units (CPUs), graphics processing units (GPUs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), system-on-chip (SoC), and high-performance computer solutions. AMD serves a wide range of business and consumer markets, including gaming, data centers, artificial intelligence (AI), and embedded systems.

AMD's main products include microprocessors, motherboard chipsets, embedded processors, and graphics processors for servers, workstations, personal computers, and embedded system applications. The company has also expanded into new markets, such as the data center, gaming, and high-performance computing markets. AMD's processors are used in a wide range of computing devices, including personal computers, servers, laptops, and gaming consoles. While it initially manufactured its own processors, the company later outsourced its manufacturing, after GlobalFoundries was spun off in 2009. Through its Xilinx acquisition in 2022, AMD offers field-programmable gate array (FPGA) products.

AMD was founded in 1969 by Jerry Sanders and a group of other technology professionals. The company's early products were primarily memory chips and other components for computers. In 1975, AMD entered the microprocessor market, competing with Intel, its primary rival in the industry. In the early 2000s, it experienced significant growth and success, thanks in part to its strong position in the PC market and the success of its Athlon and Opteron processors. However, the company faced challenges in the late 2000s and early 2010s, as it struggled to keep up with Intel in the race to produce faster and more powerful processors.

In the late 2010s, AMD regained market share by pursuing a penetration pricing strategy and building on the success of its Ryzen processors, which were considerably more competitive with Intel microprocessors in terms of performance whilst offering attractive pricing. In 2022, AMD surpassed Intel by market capitalization for the first time.

Advanced Micro Devices was formally incorporated by Jerry Sanders, along with seven of his colleagues from Fairchild Semiconductor, on May 1, 1969. Sanders, an electrical engineer who was the director of marketing at Fairchild, had, like many Fairchild executives, grown frustrated with the increasing lack of support, opportunity, and flexibility within the company. He later decided to leave to start his own semiconductor company, following the footsteps of Robert Noyce (developer of the first silicon integrated circuit at Fairchild in 1959) and Gordon Moore, who together founded the semiconductor company Intel in July 1968.

In September 1969, AMD moved from its temporary location in Santa Clara to its new $500,000 15,000sqft headquarters at 901 Thompson Place, Sunnyvale, which housed the entire company, including the 8-mask, 7µm feature size, 2-inch diameter wafer production. To immediately secure a customer base, AMD initially became a second source supplier of microchips designed by Fairchild (the 5V TTL "9300" logic series) and National Semiconductor. AMD first focused on producing logic chips. The company guaranteed quality control to United States Military Standard, an advantage in the early computer industry since unreliability in microchips was a distinct problem that customers – including computer manufacturers, the telecommunications industry, and instrument manufacturers – wanted to avoid.

In November 1969, the company manufactured its first product: the Am9300, a 4-bit MSI shift register, which began selling in 1970. Also in 1970, AMD produced its first proprietary product, the Am2501 logic counter, which was highly successful. Its bestselling product in 1971 was the Am2505, the fastest multiplier available.

In 1971, AMD entered the RAM chip market, beginning with the Am3101, a 64-bit bipolar RAM. That year AMD also greatly increased the sales volume of its linear integrated circuits, and by year-end the company's total annual sales reached US$4.6 million.