AMD

Advanced Micro Devices Inc., the world's No. 2 maker of computer microprocessors, reduced its CEO's pay package 14 percent last year. The company cut executives' pay in response to falling sales.

CEO Dirk Meyer received a package for the 2009 fiscal year that AMD valued at $4.5 million. That's according to Associated Press calculations based on a regulatory filing late Friday. For 2008, his pay package was valued at $5.3 million.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. posted its first quarterly profit in three years because it got $1.25 billion in a legal settlement with its archrival.

The world's No. 2 maker of computer microprocessors said Thursday it would have lost money were it not for the payment it received from Intel Corp. to squash a long-running antitrust battle.

AMD also appeared to benefit from a lift in the overall computer market. Revenue was up 42 percent over last year, and unit sales of microprocessors and graphics chips grew, even though prices fell.

In a move to bring high-definition gaming to the masses, Advanced Micro Devices has introduced the ATI Radeon HD 5670 graphics card to support Microsoft DirectX 11 gaming and computing. The new card also offers a new innovation called ATI Eyefinity technology.

Priced at less than $100, the HD 5670 promises superior HD gaming experiences for the latest DirectX 11 titles. The card relies on ATI Stream technology to enhance performance in video playback and productivity applications and, AMD said, helps enable the full Windows 7 experience.

Intel couldn't afford to let it drag on. The world's largest chipmaker announced on Nov. 12 that it would pay $1.25 billion to resolve allegations by Advanced Micro Devices that its larger rival competes unfairly in the market for computer chips.

Advanced Micro Devices gave analysts a briefing on its computing platform road map through 2011 Wednesday, with company executives saying they intend to differentiate the company's chips from rival offerings by enabling a complete computing experience featuring stunning graphics and video. The executives also said AMD remains on schedule to deliver a new family of Fusion processors in 2011 that promise to dramatically lower power consumption in server and mobile-device applications.

Intel pagará a su competidor AMD 840 millones de dólares por retirar las querellas juidicales en todos los países y además le permitirá utilizar las patentes en litigio en los próximos cinco años, según publica hoy The New York Times.

A high-ranking executive of chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices privately shared a lot of potentially market-moving information at crucial moments in the company's recent history, according to court documents.

The executive is former AMD CEO Hector Ruiz, according to a person familiar with the matter. As detailed in filings, Ruiz's disclosures offer an up-close glimpse of the information-sharing at the heart of a scandal that has rocked Galleon Management, a hedge fund controlled by billionaire trader Raj Rajaratnam.

Chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. is "thoroughly reviewing" published reports fingering former chairman and CEO Hector Ruiz as the AMD executive who gave confidential company information to a defendant in the Galleon Group insider trading case.

"We are not aware of any allegation of criminal misconduct on the part of any current or former AMD employees, nor have any current or former AMD employees been charged with a crime," AMD said in a statement Tuesday. A spokesman for the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company declined to comment further.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. lost money in the third quarter but said Thursday that sales were stronger than expected, adding to mounting evidence that consumer spending is fueling a turnaround in the personal computer market.

AMD sells about 20 percent of the world's computer microprocessors, which are the brains inside PCs. Although AMD was hurt by weak consumer and business spending on computers in the first half of the year, the chipmaker said shipments rose from the previous quarter thanks to strong demand for processors used in laptop computers.

If you've ever felt that buying a computer based only on tech specs was like buying a car based only on what's under the hood, a new Advanced Micro Devices approach to computers containing its chips could be for you. On Thursday, the chipmaker announced a new branding effort called Vision Technology, which will emphasize the whole computer system, and especially the "superior visual experience."