CEO Forum - Q3/2003

3. AMD has recently introduced their Opteron processor for the server market. Do you foresee AMD as a long term player in the server market, a segment that Intel has traditionally dominated?

CEO #1: AMD has a great chance in the entry level / dual server board, and we believe AMD will gain more share in this segment.

CEO #2: We are happy to see there is another well-known core logic designer to join this market. It seems that Opteron will provide an advanced architecture for entry-level server solutions. But Intel has dominated so much in this field; for catching up on integration ability, AMD has a long way to go.

CEO #3:

1.Major players in the iA server market are IBM, HP, and Dell. It will take time for AMD to design-in.
2. In fields, Corporate concerns are reliability, stability and service - total cost of ownership. AMD hasn't gained the position in commercial space.

CEO #4: I do not think AMD will be a long term player in the server market. However, they will give a short-term influence to the market.

CEO #5: It is hard to change brand/quality image in the server business. AMD has a long way to go.

CEO #6: We consider AMD to be one of contenders in server segment just like what it is in the Desktop PC market, taking a certain market share gain. But the key player in server segment will be Intel, still.

CEO #7: X86-64 makes sense.

CEO #8: The server market is a difficult one to jump into and has different demands on CPU makers. AMD has made a good start with Opteron but not a strong one in terms of sales. They have many issues to still work out, and their limited tech support is certainly an issue that needs to be addressed if they are to be taken seriously by the server market. AMD will not be a dominate player in this market at least over the next few years, but have a good chance at occupying a niche segment.

CEO #9: It's still quite a tough challenge for AMD.

It should be noted that at the time of the survey, IBM had not announced their server line that utilized AMD's Opteron processor. The majority of the CEOs are confident that AMD is going to be a long term player in the server market. But all of them pretty much agree that AMD has yet to prove their abilities to the market and still has a long way to go.

The server market is consistently seeing a shift to cost, particularly as the struggling economy demands it. However, no large corporation is going to be willing to trade stability or longevity for cost. Downtime at VISA, even for a short duration, can create losses in the millions and or billions, all because of an unreliable server. In order for AMD to be successful on a large scale in this market, it must be able deliver everything Intel can (performance, longevity, stability, etc…) and still be able to focus on their price point. For commercial servers, reliability will be an ongoing key factor that AMD will need to prove.