AMD 2004 Annual Report Download - page 7

Table of Contents
Effective June 30, 2003, we established Spansion LLC, our Flash memory majority-owned subsidiary in which we hold a 60 percent interest and Fujitsu
Limited holds the remaining 40 percent. Spansion is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, and its manufacturing, research and assembly operations are in the
United States and Asia. As part of the formation of Spansion, we and Fujitsu contributed to Spansion our respective interests in Fujitsu AMD Semiconductor
Limited, our former manufacturing joint venture, which we refer to as the Manufacturing Joint Venture in this report. We also contributed our Flash memory
inventory, our manufacturing facility in Austin, Texas (Fab 25), our memory research and development facility in Sunnyvale, California (the SDC) and our Flash
memory assembly and test facilities in Thailand, Malaysia and Suzhou, China. Fujitsu contributed its Flash memory division, including related inventory, cash
and its Flash memory assembly and test facility in Malaysia. Spansion is managed by a ten-member board of managers of which we are currently entitled to
appoint six managers and Fujitsu is entitled to appoint four managers.
For a description of certain financing arrangements for Spansion, see “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of
Operations,” beginning on page 20, below.
We post on the Investor Relations page of our Web site,www.amd.com, a link to our filings with the SEC, our Principles of Corporate Governance, our
Code of Ethics for our Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Corporate Controller and other senior finance executives, our “Worldwide Standards of
Business Conduct,” which applies to our directors and all our employees, and the charters of our Audit, Compensation, Finance and Nominating and Corporate
Governance committees. Our filings with the SEC are posted as soon as reasonably practical after they are filed electronically with the SEC. You can also obtain
copies of these documents by writing to us at: Corporate Secretary, AMD, One AMD Place, M/S 68, Sunnyvale, California 94088, or emailing us at:
[email protected]. All these documents and filings are available free of charge.
For financial information about geographic areas and for segment information with respect to sales and operating results, refer to the information set forth
in Note 9 of our consolidated financial statements, beginning on page 104, below.
For a discussion of the risk factors related to our business operations, please see the sections entitled, “Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking
Statements,” above, and the “Risk Factors” and “Financial Condition” sections set forth in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and
Results of Operations,” beginning on page 20, below.
Our Industry
Semiconductors are critical components used in a variety of electronic products and systems. An IC is a semiconductor device that consists of many
interconnected transistors on a single chip. Since the invention of the transistor in 1948, improvements in IC process and design technologies have led to the
development of smaller, more complex and more reliable ICs at a lower cost per function. In order to satisfy the demand for faster, smaller and lower-cost ICs,
semiconductor manufacturers have continually developed improvements in manufacturing and process technology. For example, ICs are increasingly being
manufactured using smaller geometries. In addition, the size of silicon wafers from which ICs are produced has increased, with some semiconductor
manufacturers migrating from 200-millimeter wafers to 300-millimeter wafers. Use of smaller process geometries can result in products that are higher
performing, use less power and cost less to manufacture on a per unit basis. Use of larger wafers can contribute further to a decrease in manufacturing costs per
unit and increase capacity by yielding more chips per wafer.
The availability of low-cost semiconductors, together with increased customer demand for sophisticated electronic systems, has led to the proliferation of
semiconductors. Today, virtually all electronic products use
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Source: ADVANCED MICRO DEVIC, 10-K, March 01, 2005