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Theckyam
Smart movemove,AMD. At least the company has a strong vision if not direction - ...
KB3001
This could turn out to be a very smart move by AMD.
AMD to buy microserver startup SeaMicro
Dylan McGrath
2/29/2012 4:47 PM EST
SAN FRANCISCO—Advanced Micro Devices Inc. will acquire microserver startup SeaMicro Inc. in a deal worth $334 million, under the terms of a definitive agreement between the two companies announced Wednesday (Feb. 29).
AMD (Sunnyvale, Calif.) said the deal would accelerate its strategy to deliver server technology to OEM customers serving cloud-center data centers.
SeaMicro, a startup founded in 2007, formerly built only servers with Intel Corp.'s Atom processors. Last month the company announced a new server based on Intel's Xeon processor.
Lisa Su, AMD's senior vice president and general manager of global business units, said the combination of SeaMicro's technology and AMD's silicon would give AMD a unique ability to address the server market in years to come. "SeaMicro's server technology together with AMD's processor technology is a very strong combination," Su said.
AMD said it plans to offer the first SeaMicro servers based on its Opteron processors in the second half of this year. Su said AMD would continue to support the Intel-based servers and their customers. "But we really look to accelerate the use of AMD silicon, and we'll see those products by the end of the year," Su said.
Su said the SeaMicro technology augments AMD's current server technology, which the company plans to continue supporting. "It's very complimentary," Su said.
"The fabric we've designed and the system we've built is today capable of handling any x86 processor, any ARM processor or any other processor for that matter," said Andrew Feldman," SeaMicro's CEO. Feldman will become general manager of AMD's newly created Data Center Server Solutions business.
Mark Papermaster, AMD's senior vice president and chief technology officer, said that AMD was intent on getting more involved in server computing and looked at several possible acquisitions in addition to considering AMD's own internal development capabilities. "When we sat down with SeaMicro, it was clear almost immediately that were was complete alignment between the technology they had and what we wanted to do at AMD," he said.
According to AMD, current servers using SeaMicro technology typically use one quarter the power and take one sixth the space of traditional servers with the same compute performance, yet deliver up to 12 times the bandwidth per core. Cloud data centers are projected to be the fastest growing segment of the server market through 2015, according to International Date Corp.
AMD said about $281 million of the $334 million purchase price would be paid in cash. AMD said it would not change its financial guidance for the year as a result of the acquisition.
"By acquiring SeaMicro, we are accelerating AMD’s transformation into an agile, disruptive innovator capable of staking a data center leadership position," said Rory Read, AMD's president and CEO, in a statement.
AMD (Sunnyvale, Calif.) said the deal would accelerate its strategy to deliver server technology to OEM customers serving cloud-center data centers.
SeaMicro, a startup founded in 2007, formerly built only servers with Intel Corp.'s Atom processors. Last month the company announced a new server based on Intel's Xeon processor.
Lisa Su, AMD's senior vice president and general manager of global business units, said the combination of SeaMicro's technology and AMD's silicon would give AMD a unique ability to address the server market in years to come. "SeaMicro's server technology together with AMD's processor technology is a very strong combination," Su said.
AMD said it plans to offer the first SeaMicro servers based on its Opteron processors in the second half of this year. Su said AMD would continue to support the Intel-based servers and their customers. "But we really look to accelerate the use of AMD silicon, and we'll see those products by the end of the year," Su said.
Su said the SeaMicro technology augments AMD's current server technology, which the company plans to continue supporting. "It's very complimentary," Su said.
"The fabric we've designed and the system we've built is today capable of handling any x86 processor, any ARM processor or any other processor for that matter," said Andrew Feldman," SeaMicro's CEO. Feldman will become general manager of AMD's newly created Data Center Server Solutions business.
Mark Papermaster, AMD's senior vice president and chief technology officer, said that AMD was intent on getting more involved in server computing and looked at several possible acquisitions in addition to considering AMD's own internal development capabilities. "When we sat down with SeaMicro, it was clear almost immediately that were was complete alignment between the technology they had and what we wanted to do at AMD," he said.
According to AMD, current servers using SeaMicro technology typically use one quarter the power and take one sixth the space of traditional servers with the same compute performance, yet deliver up to 12 times the bandwidth per core. Cloud data centers are projected to be the fastest growing segment of the server market through 2015, according to International Date Corp.
AMD said about $281 million of the $334 million purchase price would be paid in cash. AMD said it would not change its financial guidance for the year as a result of the acquisition.
"By acquiring SeaMicro, we are accelerating AMD’s transformation into an agile, disruptive innovator capable of staking a data center leadership position," said Rory Read, AMD's president and CEO, in a statement.
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Dave.Dykstra
2/29/2012 5:56 PM EST
Certainly an interesting way in which to increase product sales. That's got to cause some serious issues for sales people who get their checks from one company but are selling product containing chips from their primary competitor.
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eewiz
2/29/2012 10:16 PM EST
Awesome job Seamicro. 334m$ in around 4 years! Shows that great opportunities are still out there to do a successful startup in semi space. You just needs to find em. :)
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goafrit
3/1/2012 9:25 AM EST
Congrats to Seamicro. For AMD, hope they can get a direction soon. This is taking too long to define itself.
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MikeSmith2011
3/1/2012 12:06 PM EST
Good exit for Seamicro. I don't believe they stood a chance as an independent system company. For AMD, being able to integrate the seamicro fabric into their low power parts will give it an edge over Intel in the "Cloud Datacenter" space.
With Intel buying the Infiniband unit of Qlogic it appears that both these CPU vendors are looking at integrating a fabrics into their designs. Changes are afoot! It will interesting to see how this plays out.
This also validates what the ARM server guys like Calxeda/AppliedMicro are trying to do - the future innovations are outside of the CPU now.
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yalanand
3/3/2012 8:09 AM EST
Its interesting to know that AMD would continue to support the Intel-based servers and their customers. Curious to know why Intel didn't make a bid to acquire SeaMicro ?
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t.alex
3/3/2012 8:06 PM EST
What does microserver mean? Lowerpower?
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elctrnx_lyf
3/4/2012 12:24 PM EST
I do have this question but I'm assuming at this point is that building a big server using multiple low power processors could be a micro server. Anyway I'm happy for AMD about this acquisition.
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MikeSmith2011
3/5/2012 1:36 AM EST
Microserver refers to the form-factor. Traditional servers have had 1-2 processors in a 1u pizza box rack. Micro-servers try to pack many more - yes lower power processors into the same space.
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KB3001
3/7/2012 10:04 AM EST
This could turn out to be a very smart move by AMD.
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Theckyam
12/10/2012 12:06 PM EST
Smart movemove,AMD. At least the company has a strong vision if not direction - appreciate it.
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