Mad Mike Magee’s Musings

AT THE INQSTER we covered the antitrust trial against Intel by AMD in some depth. Now we have seen the latest deposition which is smeared with black blocks - called redaction - a sort of masking tape of the juiciest bits in the case.

Some gems remain in the acres of text covered in masking tape. On page 29 of the filing, the plaintiff’s joint preliminary case, “redacted”, we learn that AMD offered HP a million Opterons free but HP only would take 160,000.

After a mass of masking tape, we seem to find that AMD thought in some way HP was “irrational”. An unredacted bit said: “No rational computer manufacturer would leave 840,000 free, state-of-the-art microprocessors on the table unless it had been foreclosed from using them by exclusionary conduct. And that is precisely what happened.”

Was HP rational? Is HP rational? The jury isn’t out on that claim. There are pages more but we’ll have to wait until we launch the Examiner to, er examine this fascinating document further.

Moist snuff? Ah yeah, that is one of the precedents that AMD quotes. Presumably some manufacturer of moister snuff than snuff was being exclusionary to the less moist snuff manufacturer.

The case continues. And continues.

IT’S THE CLASH OF two PR  titans. No sooner had AMD invited a heap of hacks to go visit Dresden, than Intel has invited a heap of hacks to go visit Munich.

The AMD trip is on the 15th of May, while the Intel trip is, apparently on the 14th of May. I will be in Bangalore (Bengaluru) so can go on neither, even if I’d been invited to either. German hacks can probably do both, given the speed of the ICE trains in the country.

The fact the two trips collide is, of course, entirely coincidental. You’d think, in a way, that Chipzilla and Chimpzilla were collaborating. But that would, of course, fly in the face of conventional wisdom. They have to love each other, let’s face it.

The interesting thing is which hacks decide on Tweedledum dum dum, and which on TweedleAMD. Are hacks on the side of the underdog again?  ♣

DESPITE BEING a bit cash short, AMD does not stint on journos, especially  now its back is up against the wall. Some hacks of our acquaintance have been “dissed” by AMD recently.

This bog understands it will ship loads of EMEA (European, Middle East and Africa) hacks to Dresden to explain its “asset light” strategem. Hopefully, first class.

By then, we will be in Bangalore, in India, so Dresden will be a long way away. But it is time that the world+dog is given to understand what cash strapped AMD is on about. A big press freebie to Dresden is hardly an explanation of anything, is it? ♦

THE CHIEF TECHNOLOGY officer of AMD has thrown in the towel.

Phil Hester quit the job but it’s nothing to do with the round of job cuts at AMD, said representatives of the firm. Yeah, right.

Individual AMD “business” units will have their own CTOs now, a representative said. And Hester helped set that up.

The man worked at Big Blue for 23 years. He is a witty and highly intelligent man. Perhaps the current rather oppressive climate at AMD persuaded him to go, rather than to stay.  He likes a beer. Hester can also do what he likes. Being associated with what’s perceived as a failing company by tabloid rags probably doesn’t help.

Let us also never forget he worked for Newisys, a suspiciously “New Age” kind of company. Hester displaced Fred Weber.   ♥

I SEE Fudo at Fudzilla  is egging up the AMD story the INQster ran the other week about massive layoffs at the chip firm. While Charlie reckoned five per cent of the staff were about to go, Fudo reckons 10 per cent are for the chip-chop.

A five per cent layoff was described by the INQ as “massive”, so a 10 per cent layoff would then be “ginormous”.  We’ve never really had an adequate definition from Hector Ruiz, AMD’s CEO, what “asset lite” means, have we?

Generally speaking, when times are tough, the marketing people are first to be “pruned”. The sales people are last to go.  AMD’s hired a new marketing geezer to replace Henri “I got flamboyant ties” Richard, and it’s certainly fair to say that over the last 18 months or so, Chimpzilla hasn’t shown much flamboyance at all.

In the olde daze, a rash of logos was enough to stir up the world and its little doggie, but these days something more is required from AMD, we think. AMD has lashed out at some hacks, which was never what it did in the past, in the days when we used to paint hard boiled eggs and roll them down some distant hill every Easter Monday.

Fudzilla can be found to the right of this story, as too is the INQster.  ♦

LEGIONS OF FANS of products made by Saint Steve Jobs of Cuptertino are still stung into action if anyone disses Apple products, the New York Times reports.

The article quotes a hack who writes for Salon called Fahrad Manjoo. Manjoo is obviously undeterred by Apple fanbois pelting him with the internet equivalent of rotten apples.

He said Apple fanbois don’t care about honest opinion. They are driven by “religious zeal” for their own true love. “They don’t want a review. They want a hagiography.” There used to be a legion of AMD fanbois but their ranks have thinned. We’re not sure we’ve ever come across an Intel fanbois who actually doesn’t work for Intel. ♥