AMD cutting 500 jobs

Tangentially related to desktops, I know, but it’s always unfortunate to see a big player hit a rough patch.  Reuters announced that 500 people were cut from jobs today at AMD; the processor manufacturer refused to comment on which jobs had been cut.  Plans for the job cutting have been around for several months, certainly before the most recent round of troubling economic benchmarks had been set.

AMD has been hitting on some hard times in the processor arena lately as Intel’s recent architectures have been dominating the market.  While the Opterons are still viewed as very desirable in the server arena, it’s expected that Intel’s upcoming Nehalem-based platforms will compete very effectively there as well.  While AMD has been trimming the fat lately, between job cuts and spinning off its chip fabrication arm, it still has a ways to go before it becomes lean enough to be the alternative to Intel that the market needs. 

Further reading:

Reuters