Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is an American multinational semiconductor company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It develops central processing units (CPUs), graphics processing units (GPUs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), system-on-chips (SoCs), and high-performance computer components. AMD serves a wide range of business and consumer markets, including personal computers (PCs), gaming, data centers, and embedded systems.
AMD's main products include microprocessors, embedded processors, and graphics processors for servers, workstations, PCs, and embedded system applications, as well as chipsets for motherboards. The company has also expanded into new markets, such as data centers, gaming, and high-performance computing. AMD's processors are used in a wide range of computing devices, including PCs, servers, laptops, and gaming consoles. Initially manufacturing its own processors, the company outsourced its manufacturing after GlobalFoundries was spun off in 2009. Through its Xilinx acquisition in 2022, AMD offers field-programmable gate array (FPGA) products.
AMD was founded in 1969 by Jerry Sanders and a group of his fellow Fairchild Semiconductor colleagues. The company's early products were primarily memory chips and other computer components. In 1975, AMD entered the microprocessor market, competing with Intel, its main rival in the industry, by reverse-engineering Intel's 8080. This led to the initial cross-license agreement allowing AMD to build legal clones of Intel processors, including the x86 family of processors from 1981. The two companies fought a seven-year legal battle after Intel refused to share the blueprint of their i386 with AMD, ending in the latter's favor in 1994 but requiring AMD to develop their own x86 microprocessors in-house. In the early 2000s, AMD experienced significant growth and success, partly due to its strong position in the PC market and its Athlon and Opteron processors. The company faced challenges in the late 2000s and early 2010s, as it struggled to compete with Intel.
In the late 2010s, AMD regained market share by pursuing a penetration pricing strategy for its Ryzen processors, offering a competitive performance and lower costs than Intel microprocessors. In 2022, AMD surpassed Intel by market capitalization for the first time.
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