AMD's Lisa Su Joins Bloomberg 50

Bloomberg named AMD CEO Lisa Su one of its "Bloomberg 50" today. While that sounds like a list of the people most likely to be modified clones of Michael Bloomberg, it's actually supposed to honor "the people who defined 2019" across a variety of vital sectors, "from finance to fashion and technology to trade."

Su was included among the Bloomberg 50 for exactly the reason you'd expect: finding a way to beat Intel at its own game. Bloomberg said her "steady hand has made AMD a credible alternative for big customers that have long relied on" Intel. And, of course, she did so despite being at a severe market share disadvantage.

Bloomberg also recognized Su for stewarding AMD's release of 7nm processors shortly after Intel started to struggle with its 10nm offerings. (A shortcoming that Intel promised to rectify in October, when it said that it hoped to "recapture process leadership" from its competition.) Itty-bitty chips make for grand accomplishments.

We'd add some other noteworthy achievements to Su's entry. AMD's also given manufacturers a solid alternative while Intel's struggled to keep up with demand, become increasingly popular with enthusiasts and continued to close the performance gap between its offerings and those of its competitors.

Can all of those accomplishments be attributed solely to Lisa Su? Probably not. But they've happened under her leadership, and it's heartening to see relatively mainstream outlets like Bloomberg (we wouldn't call a publication meant to be accessed via a terminal that costs $24,000 per year "mainstream") recognize them.

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3 Comments Comment from the forums

JayNor

I guess you can give AMD credit for getting out of the fab business.

Every once in a while process scientists come up with a novel invention like Optane. Did AMD keep around any people like that?

I wonder if AMD can even respond adequately to Intel's Foveros 3D and EMIB inventions without having their own fab. I saw an article here with Norrod talking about a 3D program, but you have to wonder how much AMD can control what TSMC works on, and with what kind of urgency or priority.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-3d-memory-stacking-dram,38838.html
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Blitz Hacker

JayNor said:
I guess you can give AMD credit for getting out of the fab business.

Every once in a while process scientists come up with a novel invention like Optane. Did AMD keep around any people like that?

I wonder if AMD can even respond adequately to Intel's Foveros 3D and EMIB inventions without having their own fab. I saw an article here with Norrod talking about a 3D program, but you have to wonder how much AMD can control what TSMC works on, and with what kind of urgency or priority.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-3d-memory-stacking-dram,38838.html
Seems to be working, and yes being at the mercy of another company that you can't control might present future issues with the supply chains.. but ironically intel has been the one with supply chain issues (maybe they tried to keep 100% inhouse for additional profit?) Either way Intel still is having supply shortages on 14nm, I mean maybe the new AMD craze will drop demand so it won't be an issue any longer. but generally not the way you want to fix supply problems. Also there's a good chance that HEDT/Enterprise markets may very well switch to AMD (aswell as prefab PC builds (ie Dell) because their bottom line is being killed by intel's lack of supply) Either way it's good to see some competition so we can get on with better tech and stop the eye watering price gouging that Intel has been doing for the better part of a decade now. Just waiting for intel to hit AMD back .. hope this goes on for awhile.. We need a competitive market for the consumers, not a 'replacement intel'
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bit_user

JayNor said:
I guess you can give AMD credit for getting out of the fab business.
That was long before she took charge, though.

JayNor said:
Every once in a while process scientists come up with a novel invention like Optane.
Luckily, Micron shares rights to that tech and could partner with AMD to ensure they're not locked out of the 3D XPoint DIMM market.

JayNor said:
I wonder if AMD can even respond adequately to Intel's Foveros 3D and EMIB inventions without having their own fab.
AFAIK, AMD was first to market with HBM, in their Fury GPUs. Their EPYC CPUs also leapfrogged Intel, in moving to multi-die. So, these two examples tell me that AMD can still innovate at the package level.

JayNor said:
I saw an article here with Norrod talking about a 3D program, but you have to wonder how much AMD can control what TSMC works on, and with what kind of urgency or priority.
I'm sure TSMC understands the need to stay competitive, here. There are potential mobile applications of that tech, and lots of AI, HPC, and other server chips that will want to use it.
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