Sorry for the lack of posts - worklife and funlife has been busy. Frankly, not really much new to report on the processor front. The Larrabee watch continues - still no sign of real silicon.

The AMD "asset smart" split was announced and it didn't help the stock much. A lot has been written about it, although the present economic crisis has overshadowed it. I see it as mixed news. The infusion of more capital should help AMD compete with Intel - more money for the fabs will build the capacity AMD can't afford to fund itself. But you still have a foundry completely dependent on AMD for its revenue and AMD is almost completely dependent on the foundry company for its silicon. It will take at least 2 years for the foundry company to build up a reasonable portfolio of processes that will attract other customers (it needs bulk silicon). Most importantly, the foundry company will have to learn a new mindset as a foundry, not just a captive fab. IBM made that transition, but it is still not a flexible and cost effective as TSMC.