AMD 1993 Annual Report Download - page 6

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PART I
ITEM 1. BUSINESS
GENERAL
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. was incorporated under the laws of the state
of Delaware on May 1, 1969. The mailing address of its executive offices is One
AMD Place, P.O. Box 3453, Sunnyvale, California 94088-3453, and its telephone
number is [phone]. Unless otherwise indicated, the terms "Advanced Micro
Devices," the "Corporation" and "AMD" in this report refer to Advanced Micro
Devices, Inc. and its subsidiaries.
The Corporation designs, develops, manufactures and markets complex
monolithic integrated circuits for use by manufacturers of a broad range of
electronic equipment and systems.
PRODUCTS
The Corporation's products are primarily standard or catalog items or are
made from designs based on such items, as opposed to custom circuits designed
for a single customer. While a substantial portion of AMD's products are still
standard or catalog items, many of the recently developed devices are designed
for specific applications such as telecommunications, personal computers,
engineering workstations, optical disk memory or local area networks. As a
service to major customers, the Corporation modifies portions of these
application-specific devices to meet specific customer needs. The resulting
"semi-standard" devices are produced in significant volumes for particular
customers.
The Corporation began as an alternate-source manufacturer of integrated
circuits originally developed by other suppliers and has gradually shifted its
emphasis to proprietary products (i.e. products resulting from the
Corporation's design or technology innovations). Over the past five years, the
Corporation has made a significant research and development investment which
has contributed toward its leadership in manufacturing and process technology
within the integrated circuit industry. The Corporation has focused its future
product development activities on the three areas of its business: X86 and
other microprocessors and related peripheral chips for personal computers,
applications solutions products, and programmable logic and non-volatile memory
devices. Personal computer (PC) products include microprocessors and related
peripheral chips used in computers. Applications solutions products are
products which are either proprietary to AMD or have a limited supplier base,
are targeted at specialized markets, and typically require substantial
applications interface between AMD and its customers. AMD's applications
solutions products are focused on networks, voice/data communications (WORLD
NETWORK(Registered Trademark)), and on computer peripherals, computer
interfaces and mass storage. Those programmable logic devices (PLDs) and memory
devices that are high-volume commodity products are typically produced by more
than one manufacturer, subject to intense competition, and broadly applicable
across a wide customer base. Since a substantial portion of the Corporation's
products are utilized in personal computers and related peripherals, the
Corporation's future growth is closely tied to the performance of the PC
industry.
Integrated circuits have generally been manufactured with either bipolar or
metal-oxide semiconductor (MOS) process technologies. Historically, bipolar was
the technology of choice where the highest speed or analog precision was needed,
and MOS offered higher levels of integration and lower power consumption than
bipolar. Advances in complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology
are yielding bipolar performance with the density and power advantages of MOS
technology. Consequently, the Corporation is focusing process development on
advanced CMOS technology to support its designated product areas. By the end of
1993, over two-thirds of the Corporation's total sales were derived from CMOS
products.
Microprocessors
X86 Microprocessors. A microprocessor is the central processing unit (CPU)
of a computer. A CPU microprocessor processes system data and controls
input/output, peripheral and memory devices. A CPU microprocessor may also be
used in connection with other microprocessors such as microcontrollers which are
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Source: ADVANCED MICRO DEVIC, 10-K, March 07, 1994