Goodbye ATI (AMD is killing the brand name)

[chaksq]

http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/30/amd-kills-ati-brand-you-can-look-forward-to-blood-stained-radeo/

You heard right, AMD is getting rid of the ATI brand name. If I'm reading these reports right all the ATI products apparently are going be sold under the AMD brand name. The existing product line names should be retained though, ie: Radeon, FirePro, Eyefinity.

Supposedly this is to help prevent confusion as AMD pushes hybrid CPU/GPU chips, I believe they are calling such chips Fusion APU.

[Luthien]

Hmm, not sure what I think of that, but I love the visual at the top of the article.

[NightrainSrt4]

Haha, that is funny. There was just a big conversation on another forum on why AMD has even kept the ATi name around for this long, and then boom, down goes ATi.

[Oneslowz28]

How do I not know about this already? I am on every mailing list in the industry. Some times I feel like no one cares about me :(

[x88x]

Aww. :( And of course I'm sure there will be plenty of those same consumers that they're trying desperately not to confuse with the fusion chips who will be horribly confused by ATI suddenly disappearing and AMD suddenly selling graphics cards. I mean, since when does AMD have anything to do graphics cards? And isn't ATI a big brand that's been around for years? How can that happen? It must be "the economy". :rolleyes:

[farlo]

i was kinda wondering when it was gonna happen, amd has owned them a few years now.

[slaveofconvention]

It doesn't really mean a whole lot if you think about it. It's only usually enthusiasts or those with a decent level of technical know-how who go for hardware based on the chip manufacturer, and lets face it, if you know enough to want to choose ATI then you almost certainly know that AMD own ATI... I really don't see the point, to be honest. Maybe they want to cut down on domain registration costs. Keeping that ATI.com registered year after year - that's a MAJOR expense ya know :p

[x88x]

Nah, they'll probably hang onto URLs and stuff for several years at least, just keep them redirecting like they have the last few years.

[knowledgegranted]

Who cares about the name? I'm still buying the same raw performance I was before.

[Kayin]

Sorry CJ, been too sick to let you know.

I'm not on every mailing list by far, but I know who to talk to sometimes.

[PauL]

They will always be ATI in my heart

[TheGreatSatan]

Haha, that is funny. There was just a big conversation on another forum on why AMD has even kept the ATi name around for this long, and then boom, down goes ATi.

Exactly. About time.

[mDust]

Some times I feel like no one cares about me :(

After completely ignoring this...
:D
...I'm not too upset about a name change as long as they don't go changing the name scheme on me again, or make changes to the product lineup.

I do think that AMD should switch to red jerseys though! Their plans to avoid confusion will fail miserably if we have two green teams...

[x88x]

I do think that AMD should switch to red jerseys though! Their plans to avoid confusion will fail miserably if we have two green teams...

I know! They can switch to blue! :whistler:

[Trace]

Haha I love it! Then nobody will get confused! Or how about black?

[diluzio91]

lol... well that will just be confuzzling... Stick with their phenom colors! PURPLE FTW!!!

[chaksq]

lol... well that will just be confuzzling... Stick with their phenom colors! PURPLE FTW!!!

I agree entirely.

[Oneslowz28]

I have an interview with an AMD employee about this issue scheduled. I will be posting the full thing as soon as its complete.

[SXRguyinMA]

nice :D

[interceptor1985]

As long as its still AMD I don't care what they call it as long as the quality is still there.

[FuzzyPlushroom]

So, The Inquirer won't be calling it DAAMIT anymore? It's a shame just because of that.

Ehh, it's still ATI, just with the wrong colour logo.

[interceptor1985]

A lil spray paint and a sticker will fix that;)

[Konrad]

Well, I think the idea of plastering the AMD brand all over GPU APU cards is a bit of a mixed bag. It does show confidence that the AMD brand is as marketable as ATI.

On the upside,
Everyone knows that graphics cards are an important component in any capable PC, second only to the processor and motherboard. Even mainstream (ie, uninterested/uninformed) consumers are aware of this fact, largely due to the requirements and performance of 3D cards in Vista/7.
Having another bright red AMD sticker on the case helps to assert the AMD brand just a little bit more, while removing a non-AMD "competitor" brand helps simplify purchase decisions. Users (mainstream and power users alike) will eventually equate AMD processors and AMD graphics together - "pure AMD" systems will automatically seem like the smartest choice when compared to unnatural and perhaps inferior mixed AMD/nVidia systems.

On the downside,
I can't see Intel allowing Intel+AMD branded machines to remain unchallenged, it's just not in their best interest to advertise AMD components in Intel platforms. So they'll either accelerate Intel in-house graphics development enough to reach parity with AMD or they'll exclusively embrace any non-AMD alternative (such as nVidia) that they can get. They might even muscle nVidia to abandon AMD compatibility or maybe they'll just buy nVidia out - they certainly can't afford to let AMD (or Microsoft) buy it out first.

So I see a terrible polarization of AMD+AMD and Intel+nVidia machinery in the future. I hope this doesn't lead to diverging compatibily standards (and form factors) and fewer compatible hardware paths for system builders. Let alone separately evolved software paths. I hate to imagine having a Windows OS, apps and games which will work properly on Intel- or AMD- but not both.

I'm not sure whether AMD will continue to produce chipsets and GPUs APUs for 3rd-party brands. I suspect the bulk of their current revenue comes from 3rd-parties, since the majority of cards using ATI chips carry other brands. nVidia clearly dominates ATI in licensing mobo-integrated graphics, though I can see AMD pushing for equality, particularly if they affiliate with a major chipset brand like VIA ... they're already well positioned to start their own chipsets, just half a step away from entering the mobo and BIOS markets, it's surprising they didn't do it years ago, and more surprising every time a new generation of AMD processors incorporates more functions that were traditionally parts of the chipset.