Dell

Dell, Inc.

is a multinational technology corporation that develops, manufactures, sells, and supports personal computers and other computer-related products. Based in Round Rock, Texas, Dell employs more than 82,700 people worldwide.[2]

Dell grew during the 1980s and 1990s to become (for a time) the largest seller of PCs and servers. As of 2008[update] it held the second spot in computer-sales within the industry behind the Hewlett-Packard Company. The company currently sells personal computers, servers, data storage devices, network switches, software, and computer peripherals. Dell also sells HDTVs that are manufactured by other brands.

In 2006, Fortune magazine ranked Dell as the 25th-largest company in the Fortune 500 list, 8th on its annual "Top 20" list of the most-admired companies in the United States.[3] In 2007 Dell ranked 34th and 8th respectively on the equivalent lists for the year. A 2006 publication identified Dell as one of 38 high-performance companies in the S&P 500 which had consistently out-performed the market over the previous 15 years.[4]

History
Background and origins

While a student at the University of Texas at Austin in 1984, Michael Dell founded the company as PC's Limited with capital of $1000.[5] Operating from Michael Dell's off-campus dorm-room at Dobie Center [1], the startup aimed to sell IBM PC-compatible computers built from stock components. Michael Dell started trading in the belief that by selling personal computer-systems directly to customers, PC's Limited could better understand customers' needs and provide the most effective computing solutions to meet those needs.[citation needed] Michael Dell dropped out of school in order to focus full-time on his fledgling business, after getting about $300,000 in expansion-capital from his family.

In 1985, the company produced the first computer of its own design — the "Turbo PC", sold for US$795[6] — which contained an Intel 8088-compatible processor running at a speed of 8 MHz. PC's Limited advertised the systems in national computer-magazines for sale directly to consumers, and custom-assembled each ordered unit according to a selection of options. This offered buyers prices lower than those of retail brands, but with greater convenience than assembling the components themselves. Although not the first company to use this model, PC's Limited became one of the first to succeed with it. The company grossed more than $73 million in its first year of trading.

The company changed its name to "Dell Computer Corporation" in 1988. In 1989, Dell Computer set up its first on-site-service programs in order to compensate for the lack of local retailers prepared to act as service centers. Also in 1987, the company set up its first operations in the Ireland; eleven more international operations followed within the next four years. In June 1988, Dell's market capitalization grew by $30 million to $80 million from its June 22 initial public offering of 3.5 million shares at $8.50 a share[7]. In 1990, Dell Computer Corporation tried selling its products indirectly through warehouse clubs and computer superstores, but met with little success, and the company re-focused on its more successful direct-to-consumer sales model. In 1992, Fortune magazine included Dell Computer Corporation in its list of the world's 500 largest companies.

In 1996, Dell began selling computers via its web site.

In 1999, Dell overtook Compaq to become the largest seller of personal computers in the United States of America with $25 billion in revenue reported in January 2000.

In 2002, Dell attempted to expand by tapping into the multimedia and home-entertainment markets with the introduction of televisions, handhelds, and digital audio players. Dell has also produced Dell-brand printers for home and small-office use.

In 2003, at the annual company meeting, the stockholders approved changing the company name to "Dell Inc." to recognize the company's expansion beyond computers.

In 2004, the company announced that it would build a new assembly-plant near Winston-Salem, North Carolina; the city and county provided Dell with $37.2 million in incentive packages; the state provided approximately $250 million in incentives and tax breaks. In July, Michael Dell stepped aside as Chief Executive Officer while retaining his position as Chairman of the Board. Kevin Rollins, who had held a number of executive posts at Dell, became the new CEO.

In 2005, the share of sales coming from international markets increased, as revealed in the company's press releases for the first two quarters of its fiscal 2005 year. In February 2005 Dell appeared in first place in a ranking of the "Most Admired Companies" published by Fortune magazine. In November 2005 BusinessWeek magazine published an article titled "It's Bad to Worse at Dell" about shortfalls in projected earnings and sales, with a worse-than-predicted third-quarter financial performance — a bad omen for a company that had routinely underestimated its earnings. Dell acknowledged that faulty capacitors on the motherboards of the Optiplex GX270 and GX280 had already cost the company $300 million. The CEO, Kevin Rollins, attributed the bad performance partially to Dell's focus on low-end PCs.

In 2006, Dell purchased the computer hardware manufacturer Alienware. Dell Inc.'s plan anticipated Alienware continuing to operate independently under its existing management. Alienware expected to benefit from Dell's efficient manufacturing system.[8]

On January 31, 2007, Kevin B. Rollins, CEO of the company since 2004, resigned as both CEO and as a director, and Michael Dell resumed his former role as CEO. Investors and many shareholders had called for Rollins' resignation because of poor company performance. At the same time, the company announced that, for the fourth time in five quarters, earnings would fail to reach consensus analyst-estimates.

In February 2007 Dell became the subject of formal investigations by the US SEC[9] and the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.[10] The company has not formally filed financial reports for either the third or fourth fiscal quarter of 2006, and several class-action lawsuits[11] have arisen in the wake of its recent[update] financial performance. Dell Inc's lack of formal financial disclosure would normally subject the company to de-listing from the NASDAQ,[12] but the exchange has granted Dell a waiver, allowing the stock to trade normally.[13]

On March 1, 2007, the company issued a preliminary quarterly earnings report which showed gross sales of $14.4 billion, down 5% year-over-year, and net income of $687 million (30 cents per share), down 33%. Net earnings would have declined even more if not for the effects of eliminated employee bonuses, which accounted for six cents per share. NASDAQ extended the company's deadline for filing financials to May 4.[14]

Dell and AMD

When Dell acquired Alienware early in 2006, some Alienware systems had AMD chips. On August 17, 2006, a Dell press-release stated that starting in September [15], Dell Dimension desktop computers would have AMD processors and that later in the year Dell would release a two-socket, quad-processor server using AMD Opteron chips, moving away from Dell's tradition of only offering Intel processors in their PCs.

CNet's News.com on August 17, 2006 cited Dell's CEO Kevin Rollins as attributing the move to AMD processors to cost-advantage and to AMD technology[16]. AMD's senior VP in commercial business, Marty Seyer, stated: "Dell's wider embrace of AMD processor-based offerings is a win for Dell, for the industry and most importantly for Dell customers."

On October 23, 2006, Dell announced new AMD-based servers — the PowerEdge 6950 and the PowerEdge SC1435.

On November 1, 2006, Dell's website began offering notebooks with AMD processors (the Inspiron 1501 with a 15.4-inch (390 mm) display) with the choice of a single-core MK-36 processor[17], dual-core Turion X2 chips or Mobile Sempron.

Dell and desktop Linux
First attempt (2000)

In 1998 Ralph Nader asked Dell (and five other major OEMs) to offer alternate operating systems to Microsoft Windows, specifically including Linux, for which "there is clearly a growing interest"[18][19] Possibly coincidentally, Dell started offering Linux notebook systems which "cost no more than their Windows 98 counterparts" in 2000,[20] and soon expanded, with Dell becoming "the first major manufacturer to offer Linux across its full product line"[21] However, by early 2001 Dell had "disbanded its Linux business unit."[22]

The reason(s) for such a quick reversal remain the subject of debate. Court documents accused Microsoft of coercing OEMs to drop Linux:

Microsoft executive Joachim Kempin described his plan of retaliation and coercion to shut down competition from Linux: "I am thinking of hitting the OEM harder than in the past with anti-Linux actions" and will "further try to restrict source code deliveries where possible and be less gracious when interpreting agreements — again without being obvious about it," continuing "this will be a delicate dance"[23]

While in a 2003 interview Michael Dell denied that Microsoft pressured Dell Inc. into doing an about-face with regard to desktop Linux, citing a lack of sales: "unfortunately the desktop Linux market didn't develop in volume. It's more of a server opportunity" but adding: "We continue to offer Linux on the desktop and there is nothing else to say."[24] However, a 2004 report noted that Dell no longer offered pre-installed desktop Linux:

So what does it mean "factory installed Linux"? If you want Dell to install Linux for you, first add on $119. But here is the annoying part. They won't send you a computer with Linux pre-installed. They sell you the computer and the boxes of software on the side, and then they make an appointment to send you someone who comes to your house or business and installs it there.

Ubuntu on Dell systems

On February 26, 2007 Dell announced that it had commenced a program to sell and distribute a range of computers with pre-installed Linux distributions as an alternative to Microsoft Windows. Dell indicated that Novell's SUSE Linux would appear first.[26] However, Dell on February 27, 2007 announced that its previous announcement related to certifying the hardware as ready to work with Novell SUSE Linux and that it (Dell) had no plans to sell systems pre-installed with Linux in the near future.[27] On March 28, 2007, Dell announced that it would begin shipping some desktops and laptops with Linux pre-installed, although it did not specify which distribution of Linux or which hardware would lead.[28] On April 18, 2007 a report appeared suggesting that Michael Dell used Ubuntu on one of his home systems.[29] On May 1, 2007, Dell announced it would ship the Ubuntu Linux distribution.[30] On May 24, 2007, Dell started selling models with Ubuntu Linux 7.04 pre-installed: a laptop, a budget computer, and a high-end PC.[31]

On June 27, 2007, Dell announced on its Direct2Dell blog that it planned to offer more pre-loaded systems (the new Dell Inspiron desktops and laptops). After the IdeaStorm site supported extending the bundles beyond the US market, Dell later announced more international marketing.[32] On August 7, 2007, Dell officially announced that it would offer one notebook and one desktop in the UK, France and Germany with Ubuntu "pre-installed". At LinuxWorld 2007 Dell announced plans to provide Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop on selected models in China, "factory-installed".[33] On November 30, 2007 Dell reported shipping 40,000 Ubuntu PCs.[34] On January 24, 2008 Dell in Germany, Spain, UK and France launched a second laptop, a XPS M1330 with Ubuntu 7.10, for 849 euro or GBP 599 upwards.[35] On February 22, 2008 Dell announced plans to sell Ubuntu in Canada and in Latin America[36] From September 16, 2008, Dell has shipped both Dell Ubuntu Netbook Remix and Windows XP Home versions of the Inspiron Mini 9 and the Inspiron Mini 12. At the present time, the Inspiron Mini 9 and the Inspiron Mini 12 laptops are being shipped with ubuntu 8.04 version. It is expected in the future that Dell will offer ubuntu 8.10 on the mini 9 and mini 12.

Personnel

On January 31, 2007 Michael Dell returned to the company as CEO. As chairman of the board, Mr. Dell had significant input into the company's operations during Rollins' years as CEO. However with the return of Michael Dell as CEO, the company saw immediate changes in operations, the exodus of many senior vice-presidents and new personnel brought in from outside the company.

Departures announced include:

* Kevin Rollins, CEO[37]
* James Schneider, CFO[37]
* John Medica, senior vice president, consumer products[38]
* Joe Marengi, senior vice president, Americas[38]
* John Hamlin, senior vice president, worldwide online operations[39]
* Paul McKinnon, senior vice president, human resources[38]
* Rosenda Parra, senior vice president/general manager, home and small business group[40]
* Glenn E. Neland, senior vice president, procurement[41]

Additions announced include:

* Michael Dell, CEO and co-Chairman of the Board (previously Chairman of the Board)
* Don Carty, CFO and co-Chairman of the Board (previously Board member)
* Michael R. Cannon, former CEO of Solectron, as President, Global Operations[42]
* Ron Garriques, who formerly headed Motorola's mobile phone unit, as President, Global Consumer Group[43]
* Stephen F. Schuckenbrock, Senior Vice President, Global Services[41]

Mr. Dell announced a number of initiatives and plans (part of the "Dell 2.0" initiative) to improve the company's financial performance. These include:

* elimination of 2006 bonuses for employees with some discretionary awards
* reduction in the number of managers reporting directly to Mr. Dell from 20 to 12
* in a noted departure from previous years, "build, partner, and buy" to increase services capabilities
* reduction of "bureaucracy"

On April 23, 2008, Dell announced the closure of one of its biggest Canadian call-centers in Kanata, Ontario — terminating approximately 1100 employees, with 500 of those redundancies effective on the spot, and with the official closure of the center scheduled for the summer. The call-center had opened in 2006 after the city of Ottawa won a bid to host it. Less then a year later, Dell Inc planned to double its workforce to nearly 3,000 workers and to add a new building. Journalists cited a high Canadian dollar and suggested high pay-rates as among the reasons for the cuts. [44] The company had also announced the shutdown of its Edmonton, Alberta office, losing 900 jobs. In total, Dell announced the ending of about 8,800 jobs in 2007-2008 — 10% of its workforce.[45] On January 8 2009 Dell announced the closure of its manafacturing plant in Limerick, Ireland with the loss of 1,900 jobs and the tranfer of production to its plant in Poland.

Products Scope and brands

The corporation markets specific brand names to different market segments:

* Business/Corporate Class: including OptiPlex, Latitude, and Precision, where the company's advertising emphasizes long life-cycles, reliability and serviceability:

* OptiPlex - office desktop computer systems
* Vostro - office/small business desktop and notebook systems
* n Series - desktop and notebook computers shipped with Linux or FreeDOS installed
* Latitude - commercially-focused notebooks
* Precision - workstation systems and high-performance notebooks. (Some of them including Linux pre-installed.[46])
* PowerEdge - business servers
* PowerVault - direct-attach and some network-attached storage (NAS)
* PowerConnect - network switches
* Dell EMC - storage area networks (SANs)
* EqualLogic - enterprise class iSCSI SANs

* Home Office/Consumer Class: including Inspiron and XPS brands, emphasizing value, performance and expandability:

* Inspiron - consumer desktop and notebook systems
* Studio - medium-end consumer slim hybrid desktop and laptop systems
* XPS - enthusiast and high-performance desktop and notebook systems
* Alienware (XPS Extreme) - high-performance gaming systems
* Adamo - high-end laptop brand to compete with the Macbook Air

* Peripherals: Dell has also diversified its product line to include peripheral products such as USB keydrives, LCD televisions, and printers.

* Dell monitors LCD TVs, plasma TVs and projectors for HDTV and monitors

* Services and support:

* Dell On Call - extended support services (mainly for the removal of spyware and computer viruses)
* Dell Support Center - extended support services (similar to "Dell On Call") for customers in the EMEA. The Solution Centers also support hardware for customers outside of warranty.
* Dell Business Support - a commercial service-contract that provides an industry-certified technician with a lower call-volume than in normal queues; it covers hardware- and some software-support.
* Your Tech Team - a new[update] support-queue available to home users who purchased their systems through either Dell's website or Dell phone-centers. These customers gain access to a specialized queue currently[update] located in Tampa, Florida. Customers can request a technician with whom they have worked previously, and the technicians can troubleshoot a wider range of problems — including some that would fall under the "Dell on Call" category. Data backup and virus removal remain out-of-scope for this queue.

Dell also offers Red Hat and SUSE Linux for servers; as well as "bare-bones" computers without pre-installed software (available on n Series by default and by request on XPS and Inspiron systems) at significantly lower prices. Due to Dell's licensing contract with Microsoft, Dell allegedly[citation needed] cannot offer those systems on their website and customers have to request them explicitly. (Dell does offer those systems on their web site at http://www.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/precn_n?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&redirect=1 ). Dell has to ship such systems with a FreeDOS disk included in the box and must issue a so-called "Windows refund" or a merchandise credit after sale of the system at the "regular" retail price.

* Discontinued products/brands:

* Axim - PDAs using Microsoft's Windows Mobile (discontinued on April 9, 2007[47])
* Dimension - home and "small office, home office" desktop computers (discontinued July 2007; replaced by Inspiron desktops)
* Dell Digital Jukebox - MP3 players (discontinued August 2006)
* Dell PowerApp - application-based severs
* Dell Omniplex - 486- and Pentium-based desktop and tower computers previously supported to run server and desktop operating systems.


Manufacturing

In the 1980s Dell became a pioneer in the “configure to order” approach to manufacturing – delivering individual PCs configured to customer specifications. In contrast, most PC manufacturers in those times delivered large orders to intermediaries on a quarterly basis.[48]

To minimize the delay between purchase and delivery, Dell has a general policy of manufacturing its products close to its customers. This also allows for implementing a just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing approach, which minimizes inventory costs. Low inventory is another signature of the Dell business model – a critical consideration in an industry where components depreciate very rapidly.[49]

Dell’s manufacturing process covers assembly, software installation, functional testing (including "burn-in"), and quality control. Throughout most of the company’s history, Dell manufactured desktop machines in-house and contracted out manufacturing of base notebooks for configuration in-house.[50] However, the company's approach appears to have started to change. The 2006 Annual Report states “we are continuing to expand our use of original design manufacturing partnerships and manufacturing outsourcing relationships.” The Wall Street Journal reported in September, 2008 that “Dell has approached contract computer manufacturers with offers to sell" their plants.[51]

Assembly of desktop computers for the North American market takes place at Dell plants in Austin TX (original location), Lebanon TN and Nashville, Tennessee (opened in 1999), Winston-Salem NC (opened in 2005) and at the Miami, Florida facility of its Alienware subsidiary. Dell servers come from Austin TX.

Dell assembles computers for the EMEA market at Limerick in the Republic of Ireland, and employs about 4,500 people in that country. Production at the Limerick facility will cease in 2009 and will be relocated to facilities in Poland and Asia. European Manufacturing Facility 1 (EMF1, opened in 1990) and EMF3 form part of the Raheen Industrial Estate near Limerick. EMF2 (previously a Wang facility, later occupied by Flextronics, situated in Castletroy) closed in 2002,[citation needed] and Dell Inc has consolidated production into EMF3 (EMF1 now contains only offices[52]). Dell’s Alienware subsidiary also manufactures PCs in an Athlone, Ireland plant. Construction of EMF4 in Łódź, Poland has started[update]: Dell started production there in autumn 2007.[53]

Dell opened plants in Penang, Malaysia in 1995, and in Xiamen, China in 1999. These facilities serve the Asian market and assemble 95% of Dell notebooks. Dell Inc has invested an estimated (U.S.) $60 million in a new manufacturing unit in Chennai, India, to support the sales of its products in the Indian subcontinent. Indian-made products will bear the "Made in India" mark. In 2007 the Chennai facility had the target of producing 400,000 desktop PCs, and plans envisaged it starting to produce notebook PCs and other products in the second half of 2007.[citation needed]

Dell moved desktop and PowerEdge server manufacturing for the South American market from the Eldorado do Sul plant opened in 1999, to a new plant in Hortolandia, Brazil in 2007.[54]

Dell began manufacturing in Limerick in 1991 and went on to become Ireland's largest exporter of goods and second largest company and foreign investor. On the 8th of January 2009, Dell announced that they will withdraw all manufacturing from Limerick and move it to its new plant in the Polish city of Lodz by January 2010.[55] European Union officials said they would investigate a €52.7million aid package the Polish Government used to attract Dell away from Ireland.[56]

Compaq

Compaq Computer Corporation was an American personal computer company founded in 1982, and is now a brand name of Hewlett-Packard.

The company was formed by Rod Canion, Jim Harris and Bill Murto — former Texas Instruments senior managers. The name "COMPAQ" was derived from "Compatibility and Quality", as at its formation Compaq produced some of the first IBM PC compatible computers.

Once the largest supplier of personal computing systems in the world[1], Compaq existed as an independent corporation until 2002, when it merged with Hewlett-Packard.

Prior to its takeover the company was headquartered in northwest unincorporated Harris County, Texas, United States.[2]

History 1980s

Compaq was founded in February 1982 by Rod Canion, Jim Harris and Bill Murto, three senior managers from semiconductor manufacturer Texas Instruments. Each invested $1,000 to form the company. Their first venture capital came from Ben Rosen and Sevin Rosen Funds. Like many small startups with unique beginnings, the original Compaq PC was first sketched out on a placemat by the founders while dining in a local Houston restaurant, House of Pies.

Two key marketing executives in Compaq's early years, Jim D'Arezzo and Sparky Sparks, had come from IBM's PC Group. Other key executives responsible for the company's meteoric growth in the late 80s and early 90s were Ross A. Cooley, another former IBMer, who served for many years as SVP and GM North America; Michael Swavely, who was the company's chief marketing officer in the early years, and eventually ran the North America organization, later passing along that responsibility to Mr. Cooley, when Swavely retired. In the United States, Brendan A. "Mac" McLoughlin (another long time IBM executive) lead the company's field sales organization after starting up the Western U.S. Area of Operations. These gifted executives, along with other key contributors, including Kevin Ellington, Douglas Johns, Steven Flannigan, and Gary Stimac, helped the company surpass the IBM Corporation in all personal computer sales categories, after many predicted that none could compete with the behemoth.

Compaq Portable

In November 1982 Compaq announced their first product, the Compaq Portable, a portable IBM PC compatible personal computer. It was released in March 1983 at $2995, considerably more affordable than the Canadian Hyperion. The Compaq Portable was one of the progenitors of today's laptop; some called it a "suitcase computer" for its size and the look of its case. It was the second IBM PC compatible, being capable of running all software that would run on an IBM PC. It was a commercial success, selling 53,000 units in its first year. The Compaq Portable was the first in the range of the Compaq Portable series. Compaq was able to market a legal IBM clone because IBM mostly used "off the shelf" parts for their PC. Furthermore, Microsoft had kept the right to license the operating system to other computer manufacturers. The only part which had to be duplicated was the BIOS, which Compaq did legally by using clean room reverse engineering for $1 million.[3][4][5] Phoenix Technologies were the first to follow their lead, but soon "clone BIOSes" were available from several vendors.

Deskpro

On June 28th 1984 Compaq Released the Compaq Deskpro, a 16-bit desktop computer using an Intel 8086 microprocessor running at 7.14 MHz. It was considerably faster than an IBM PC and was, like the Compaq Portable, also capable of running IBM software. This was the first of the Compaq Deskpro line of computers.

Deskpro 386

When in 1986 Compaq introduced the first PC based on Intel's new 80386 microprocessor, the Compaq Deskpro 386,[6] they began a period of increasing performance leadership over IBM, who were not yet using this processor. An IBM machine eventually reached the market seven months later, but by that time Compaq was the 386 supplier of choice and IBM had lost its image of technical leadership.

Systempro

This technical leadership and the rivalry with IBM was emphasised when the Systempro server was launched in late 1989 - this was a true server product with standard support for a second CPU and RAID, but also the first product to feature the EISA bus which was designed in reaction to IBM's MCA (MicroChannel Architecture).
1990s

At the same time as they began to dominate the server market, in the early 1990s Compaq entered the retail computer market with the Presario, and was one of the first manufacturers in the mid-1990s to market a sub-$1000 PC. In order to maintain the prices it wanted, Compaq became the first first-tier computer manufacturer to utilize CPUs from AMD and Cyrix. The price war resulting from Compaq's actions ultimately drove numerous competitors, most notably IBM and Packard Bell, from this market.

In 1997, Compaq bought Tandem Computers, known for their NonStop server line. This acquisition instantly gave Compaq a presence in the higher end business computing market. In 1998, Compaq acquired Digital Equipment Corporation, the leading company in the previous generation of minicomputers during the 1970s and early 1980s. This acquisition made Compaq, at the time, the second largest computer maker in the world in terms of revenue. Unfortunately for the company, CEO Eckhard Pfeiffer, who engineered both mergers, had little vision for what the combined companies should do, or indeed how the three dramatically different cultures could work as a single entity, and Compaq struggled as a result. Pfeiffer was forced out as CEO in 1999 in a coup led by board chairman Ben Rosen and was succeeded by Michael Capellas, who had been serving as Compaq's CIO. Capellas was able to restore some of the luster lost in the latter part of the Pfeiffer era, but the company still struggled against lower-cost competitors such as Dell.

During November 1999, Compaq began to work with Microsoft to create the first in a line of small-scale, web-based computer systems called MSN Companions.[7]

In 1998, Compaq also signed new sales and equipment alliance with NaviSite. Under the pact, Compaq agreed to promote and sell NaviSite Web hosting services. In return, NaviSite took Compaq as a preferred provider for its storage and Intel-based servers.
Merger with HP

In 2001, Compaq engaged in a merger with Hewlett-Packard. Numerous large HP shareholders, including William Hewlett, publicly opposed the deal, which resulted in an impassioned public proxy battle between those for and against the deal.

The merger was approved only after the narrowest of margins, and allegations of vote buying (primarily involving an alleged last-second back-room deal with Deutsche Bank) haunted the new company.

It was subsequently disclosed that HP had retained Deutsche Bank's investment banking division in January 2002 to assist in the merger. HP had agreed to pay Deutsche Bank $1 million guaranteed, and another $1 million contingent upon approval of the merger. On August 19, 2003, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission charged Deutsche Bank with failing to disclose a material conflict of interest in its voting of client proxies for the merger and imposed a civil penalty of $750,000. Deutsche Bank consented without admitting or denying the findings.[8]

Before the merger, Compaq's ticker symbol was CPQ. This was melded with Hewlett-Packard's previous symbol (HWP) to create the current symbol of HPQ.

Post merger

Capellas left the company after serving less than a year as President of HP to become CEO of MCI Worldcom, leading it to be purchased by Verizon. Carly Fiorina, the Chairman and CEO of HP, added Capellas's responsibilities to her own.

Fiorina helmed HP for nearly three years after Capellas left. HP laid off thousands of former Compaq, DEC, HP, and Tandem employees,[9] [10] its stock price generally declined and profits did not perk up. Though the merger initially made it the number one PC maker, it soon lost the lead and further market share to Dell. In addition, the merging of stagnant Compaq with HP's lucrative printing and imaging division was criticized as that overshadowed the latter's profitability. In February 2005, the Board of Directors ousted Fiorina. Former Compaq CEO Capellas was mentioned by some as a potential successor, but several months afterwards, Mark Hurd was hired as CEO.

In late 2005, HPQ seemed to find its feet under the new leadership of Mark Hurd. At this same time Dell seemed to be faltering and HPQ took back the #1 sales position. Hurd separated the PC division from the imaging and printing division. HP's PC segment has since been reinvigorated and now generates more revenue than the traditionally more profitable printers[citation needed].

Most Compaq products have been re-branded with the HP nameplate, such as the company's market leading ProLiant server line, while the Compaq brand remains on only some consumer-orientated products, notably Compaq Presario PCs. HP's business computers line was discontinued in favour of the Compaq Evo line, which was rebranded HP Compaq. HP's Jornada PDAs were replaced by Compaq iPAQ PDAs, which were renamed HP iPAQ.

In May 2007, HP in a press release announced a new logo for their Compaq Division to be placed on the new model Compaq Presarios.[11]

Sponsorship

Compaq sponsored Queens Park Rangers Football Club from 1994 to 1996, during their most recent two seasons as a Premier League club. Compaq sponsored Bradford Bulls Rugby League club from 1996 to 1998.

Compaq also sponsored the Williams team in Formula One.

Two sports stadiums were named after the company:

* The Compaq Center, of Houston, Texas, formerly The Summit, until its sports teams moved to the Toyota Center. The building became the new home of Lakewood Church, one of the largest Protestant congregations in the United States.
* The Compaq Center at San Jose, later renamed the HP Pavilion when HP purchased Compaq.

Compaq was the original sponsor for Walt Disney World's Mission: SPACE attraction before they were purchased by HP.[12]

Competitors

HP Compaq competes against other computer manufacturers including Dell, Acer, Lenovo and Toshiba among others. Originally the company competed against IBM, making affordable IBM PC compatibles often cheaper and faster than the IBM alternative. Lenovo, which purchased IBM's personal computer business in 2005, is a new competitor, especially in the People's Republic of China where it was founded.

Hewlett-Packard

The Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ), commonly referred to as HP, is a technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, United States. HP is the largest technology company in the world and operates in nearly every country. HP specializes in developing and manufacturing computing, storage, and networking hardware, software and services. Major product lines include personal computing devices, enterprise servers, related storage devices, as well as a diverse range of printers and other imaging products. Other product lines, including electronic test equipment and systems, medical electronic equipment, solid state components and instrumentation for chemical analysis were spun off as Agilent Technologies in 1999.

HP markets its products to households, small to medium size businesses and enterprises both directly, via online distribution, consumer-electronics and office-supply retailers, software partners and major technology vendors.

HP posted US $91.7 billion in annual revenue in 2006[3] compared to US$91.4 billion for IBM, making it the world's largest technology vendor in terms of sales. In 2007 the revenue was $104 billion,[4] making HP the first IT company in history to report revenues exceeding $100 billion.[5]

HP is the largest worldwide seller of personal computers, surpassing rival Dell, according to market research firms Gartner and IDC reported in January 2008;[6] the gap between HP and Dell widened substantially at the end of 2007, with HP taking a near 3.9% market share lead. HP is also the 5th largest software company in the world.[7]
Company history Founding

William (Bill) Hewlett and David (Dave) Packard both graduated in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1935. The company originated in a garage in nearby Palo Alto during a fellowship they had with a past professor, Frederick Terman at Stanford during the Great Depression. Terman was considered a mentor to them in forming Hewlett-Packard.[8]

The partnership was formalized on , 1939 with an investment of US$538.[9] Hewlett and Packard tossed a coin to decide whether the company they founded would be called Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett. Packard won the coin toss but named their electronics manufacturing enterprise the "Hewlett-Packard Company". HP incorporated on August 18, 1947, and went public on November 6, 1957.

Of the many projects they worked on, their very first financially successful product was a precision audio oscillator, the Model HP200A. Their innovation was the use of a small light bulb as a temperature dependent resistor in a critical portion of the circuit. This allowed them to sell the Model 200A for $54.40 when competitors were selling less stable oscillators for over $200. The Model 200 series of generators continued until at least 1972 as the 200AB, still tube-based but improved in design through the years. At 33 years, it was perhaps the longest-selling basic electronic design of all time.

One of the company's earliest customers was The Walt Disney Company, which bought eight Model 200B oscillators (at $71.50 each) for use in certifying the Fantasound surround sound systems installed in theaters for the movie Fantasia.

Early years

The company was originally rather unfocused, working on a wide range of electronic products for industry and even agriculture. Eventually they elected to focus on high-quality electronic test and measurement equipment.

From the 1940s until well into the 1990s the company focused on making electronic test equipment. A distinguishing feature was pushing the limits of measurement range and accuracy: many HP instruments were more sensitive, accurate, and precise than other comparable equipment[citation needed]. Amongst instruments produced were signal generators, voltmeters, oscilloscopes, frequency counters, thermometers, time standards, wave analyzers, and many others.

Following the pattern set by the company's first product, the 200A, test instruments were labelled with three to five digits followed by the letter "A". Improved versions went to suffixes "B" through "E". As the product range grew wider HP started using product designators starting with a letter for accessories, supplies, software, and components.
The 1960s

HP is recognized as the symbolic founder of Silicon Valley, although it did not actively investigate semiconductor devices until a few years after the "Traitorous Eight" had abandoned William Shockley to create Fairchild Semiconductor in 1957. Hewlett-Packard's HP Associates division, established around 1960, developed semiconductor devices primarily for internal use. Instruments and calculators were some of the products using these devices.

HP partnered in the 1960s with Sony and the Yokogawa Electric companies in Japan to develop several high-quality products. The products were not a huge success, as there were high costs in building HP-looking products in Japan. HP and Yokogawa formed a joint venture (Yokogawa-Hewlett-Packard) in 1963 to market HP products in Japan.[10] HP bought Yokogawa Electric's share of Hewlett-Packard Japan in 1999.[11]

First company logo.

HP spun off a small company, Dynec, to specialize in digital equipment. The name was picked so that the HP logo "hp" could be turned upside down to be the logo "dy" of the new company. Eventually Dynec changed to Dymec, then was folded back into HP.

HP experimented with using Digital Equipment Corporation minicomputers with its instruments. But after deciding that it would be easier to buy another small design team than deal with DEC, HP entered the computer market in 1966 with the HP 2100 / HP 1000 series of minicomputers. A simple accumulator-based design, with registers arranged somewhat similarly to the Intel x86 architecture still used today, it was produced for 20 years, in spite of several attempts to replace it. It was a forerunner of the HP 9800 and HP 250 series of desktop and business computers.

The
1970s

The HP 3000 was an advanced stack-based design for a business computing server, later redesigned with RISC technology, that has only recently been retired from the market. The HP 2640 series of smart and intelligent terminals introduced forms-based interfaces to ASCII terminals, and also introduced screen labeled function keys, now commonly used on gas pumps and bank ATMs. Although scoffed at in the formative days of computing, HP would eventually surpass even IBM as the world's largest technology vendor in sales.

HP is identified by Wired magazine as the producer of the world's first marketed, mass-produced personal computer, in 1968, the Hewlett-Packard 9100A.[12] HP called it a desktop calculator because, as Bill Hewlett said, "If we had called it a computer, it would have been rejected by our customers' computer gurus because it didn't look like an IBM. We therefore decided to call it a calculator, and all such nonsense disappeared." An engineering triumph at the time, the logic circuit was produced without any integrated circuits; the assembly of the CPU having been entirely executed in discrete components. With CRT display, magnetic-card storage, and printer, the price was around $5000. The machine's keyboard was a cross between that of a scientific calculator and an adding machine. There was no alphabetical keyboard.

Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, originally designed the Apple I computer while working at HP and offered it to them under their right of first refusal to his work, but they did not take it up as the company wanted to stay in scientific, business, and industrial markets.

The company earned global respect for a variety of products. They introduced the world's first handheld scientific electronic calculator in 1972 (the HP-35), the first handheld programmable in 1974 (the HP-65), the first alphanumeric, programmable, expandable in 1979 (the HP-41C), and the first symbolic and graphing calculator HP-28C. Like their scientific and business calculators, their oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and other measurement instruments have a reputation for sturdiness and usability (the latter products are now part of spin-off Agilent's product line). The company's design philosophy in this period was summarized as "design for the guy at the next bench".

The 98x5 series of technical desktop computers started in 1975 with the 9815, and the cheaper 80 series, again of technical computers, started in 1979 with the 85[1]. These machines used a version of the BASIC programming language which was available immediately after they were switched on, and used a proprietary magnetic tape for storage. HP computers were similar in capabilities to the much later IBM Personal Computer, although the limitations of available technology forced prices to be high.

The 1980s

In 1984, HP introduced both inkjet and laser printers for the desktop. Along with its scanner product line, these have later been developed into successful multifunction products, the most significant being single-unit printer/scanner/copier/fax machines. The print mechanisms in HP's tremendously popular LaserJet line of laser printers depend almost entirely on Canon's components (print engines), which in turn use technology developed by Xerox. HP develops the hardware, firmware, and software that convert data into dots for the mechanism to print.

In 1987, the Palo Alto garage where Hewlett and Packard started their business was designated as a California State historical landmark.
The 1990s

In the 1990s, HP expanded their computer product line, which initially had been targeted at university, research, and business customers, to reach consumers.

HP also grew through acquisitions, buying Apollo Computer in 1989 and Convex Computer in 1995.

Later in the decade HP opened hpshopping.com as an independent subsidiary to sell online, direct to consumers; in 2005 the store was renamed "HP Home & Home Office Store."

In 1999, all of the businesses not related to computers, storage, and imaging were spun off from HP to form Agilent. Agilent's spin-off was the largest initial public offering in the history of Silicon Valley. The spin-off created an $8 billion company with about 30,000 employees, manufacturing scientific instruments, semiconductors, optical networking devices, and electronic test equipment for telecom and wireless R&D and production.

In July 1999, HP appointed Carly Fiorina as CEO. Fiorina was the first woman ever to serve as CEO of a company included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Carly served as CEO during the tech downtown of the turn of 2nd millenium. During her tenure, the market halved HP’s value commensurate with other tech companies at the time and the company incurred heavy job losses.[13] The HP Board of Directors asked Carly Fiorina to step down in 2005, and Fiorina resigned on February 9, 2005.

2000 and beyond
Compaq Merger. HP merged with Compaq in 2002. Compaq itself had bought Tandem Computers in 1997 (which had been started by ex-HP employees), and Digital Equipment Corporation in 1998. Following this strategy HP became a major player in desktops, laptops, and servers for many different markets. After the merger with Compaq, the new ticker symbol became "HPQ", a combination of the two previous symbols, "HWP" and "CPQ", to show the significance of the alliance. In 2006 HP outsourced its Enterprise support to countries with lower cost workers: the Spanish support (for Spain) moved to Slovakia, the German support moved to Bulgaria, English support moved to Costa Rica, etc.

EDS purchase. On May 13, 2008, HP and Electronic Data Systems announced [14] that they have signed a definitive agreement under which HP will purchase EDS. On June 30, HP announced [15] that the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 had expired. "The transaction still requires EDS stockholder approval and regulatory clearance from the European Commission and other non-U.S. jurisdictions and is subject to the satisfaction or waiver of the other closing conditions specified in the merger agreement." The agreement was finalized on August 26, 2008 and it was publicly announced that EDS would be re-branded "EDS an HP company.”

Technology and products

HP has successful lines of printers, scanners, digital cameras, calculators, PDAs, servers, workstation computers, and computers for home and small business use computers; many of the computers came from the 2002 merger with Compaq. HP today promotes itself as supplying not just hardware and software, but also a full range of services to design, implement and support IT infrastructure.

The three business segments: Enterprise Storage and Servers (ESS), HP Services (HPS), and HP Software are structured beneath the broader Technology Solutions Group (TSG).
Imaging and Printing Group (IPG)

According to HP's 2005 U.S. SEC 10-K filing,[16] HP's Imaging and Printing Group is "the leading imaging and printing systems provider in the world for printer hardware, printing supplies and scanning devices, providing solutions across customer segments from individual consumers to small and medium businesses to large enterprises." This division is currently headed by Vyomesh Joshi.

Products and technology associated with the Imaging and Printing Group include:

* Inkjet and LaserJet printers, consumables and related products
* Officejet all-in-one multifunction printer/scanner/faxes
* Large Format Printers
* Indigo Digital Press
* HP Web Jetadmin printer management software
* HP Output Management suite of software, including HP Output Server
* LightScribe optical recording technology that laser-etches labels on disks
* HP Photosmart digital cameras and photo printers
* HP SPaM Hosted within IPG, SPaM is an internal consulting group that supports all HP businesses on mission-critical strategic and operation decisions.

On December 23, 2008, HP releases iPrint Photo for iPhone a free downloadable software application that allows to print 4" x 6" photos.[17]
Personal Systems Group (PSG)

HP's Personal Systems Group claims to be "one of the leading vendors of personal computers ("PCs") in the world based on unit volume shipped and annual revenue."[16]

Personal Systems Group products/technology include:

* Business PCs and accessories
* Consumer PCs and accessories including the HP Pavilion, Compaq Presario and VoodooPC series
* Workstations for Unix, Windows and Linux systems
* Handheld Computing including iPAQ Pocket PC handheld computing devices (from Compaq)
* Digital "Connected" Entertainment including HP MediaSmart TVs, HP MediaSmart Servers, HP MediaVaults, and DVD+RW drives. HP resold the Apple iPod until November 2005.[16]
* Home Storage Servers

Technology Solutions Group (TSG)

TSG incorporates Managed services, HP software and Enterprise Storage and Servers Group (ESS)

Enterprise Storage and Servers Group (ESS)

* HP ProLiant: entry line of x86 based servers (from Compaq)
o ProLiant BL: x86-based blade servers (from Compaq)
* Integrity: server line using the Itanium processor architecture running several operating systems including HP-UX and OpenVMS.
o Integrity BL: Itanium-based blade servers
o HP Integrity Superdome: line of high-end servers
* HP 9000: line of servers and workstations based on PA-RISC processors and running HP-UX
o HP 9000 Superdome: line of high-end servers
* AlphaServer: product line using the Alpha processor (from DEC) and running either:
o Tru64 operating system (from DEC)
o OpenVMS operating system (from DEC)
* NonStop: high-reliability Itanium-based architecture and operating system (from Tandem Computers)
* StorageWorks: product line (from Compaq), which includes business class and enterprise class data storage and protection products.[18]
o StorageWorks HP XP high-end storage arrays (from Hitachi)
o StorageWorks EVA mid-range storage arrays (from Compaq)

HP Software

* the OpenView family of management software

With the major acquisitions of Peregrine and Mercury Interactive completed, HP has dropped the names OpenView, Peregrine and Mercury from its portfolio. The Business Technology Optimization (BTO)part of the software organization is now being referred to as HP Software & Solutions. The OpenCall branding still remains.

* HP Data Protector software
* HP Integrated Archive Platform
* HP Database Archiving
* HP Email Archiving for Microsoft Exchange
* HP Email Archiving for IBM Lotus Domino
* HP File Archiving
* HP Medical Image Archiving
* HP TRIM software (previously TOWER Software)

* HP-UX operating system developed since 1983

Office of Strategy and Technology

HP's Office of Strategy and Technology [19], under Executive Vice President Shane Robison:

* Steers the company's $3.6 billion research and development investment — including HP Labs.
* Fosters the development of the company's global technical community.
* Leads the company's strategy and corporate development efforts — including mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, intellectual property licensing, venture capital partnerships, and the ProCurve Networking Business Unit. [20]
* Performs worldwide corporate marketing activities — including external and internal communications, brand marketing, customer intelligence, and corporate affairs.

HP Labs

HP Labs (or HP Laboratories) is the research arm of HP. Founded in 1966, HP Labs' function is to deliver new technologies and to create business opportunities that go beyond HP's current strategies. An example of recent HP Lab technology includes the Memory spot chip.
HP IdeaLab

HP IdeaLab www.hp.com/idealab provides a web forum on early-state innovations to encourage open feedback from consumers and the development community. [21]
ProCurve Networking Business Unit
HPs networking business unit, ProCurve, are responsible for the family of network switches, wireless access points, and routers.

Environmental record

In 1998, the United States Environmental Protection Agency‎ sought a $2.5 million penalty against Hewlett Packard for violations against the Substance Control Act.[23] The PA EPA alleged that the company had not filed a Pre-Manufacturing Notice (PMN) before it began manufacturing and exporting chemicals. Without filing these PMNs, the EPA cannot conduct risk analysis of new chemicals.

In 2002, Scorecard.org ranked Hewlett Packard facilities in the top 10-20 percentile for total environmental releases and top 30-40 percentile for air releases of recognized developmental toxicants.[24] It also showed that HPs factory in Puerto Rico released 246lbs of air released TRI pollutants, and had a total of 483,136lbs of production related wastes.[24]

In July 2007, the company announced that it had met its target, set in 2004, to recycle 1 billion pounds of electronics and toner and ink cartridges.[25] It has set a new goal of recycling a further 2 billion pounds of hardware by the end of 2010. In 2006, the company recovered 187 million pounds of electronics, 73 percent more than its closest competitor

HP Certified Professionals

Hewlett-Packard's Certified Professional (HP-CP) program is organised by job roles. Within each role, there are certification levels. It was developed to confirm the technical skills, sales competencies and knowledge that is required to propose and deploy, service and support technology and solutions sold by HP. HP-CP is intended for customers, resellers, and HP employees.
Partnerships

HP contributes to free software projects such as the Linux operating system. Some HP employees, such as Linux CTO and former Debian Project Leader Bdale Garbee, actively contribute and have Open Source job responsibilities. Many others participate in the Open Source community as volunteers. HP is also known in the (GNU/) Linux community for releasing drivers for most of their printers under the GNU GPL. [26]

Hewlett-Packard also continues Compaq's extensive relationship with Microsoft and uses technology from most major software and hardware vendors.

Until November 2005, HP offered a re-branded version of the Apple iPod.[16]

HP partners with many application software companies, for example SAP AG.

Sponsorships

HP has many sponsorships. One well known sponsorship is of Walt Disney World's Epcot Park's Mission: SPACE. Others can be found on Hewlett-Packard's website [2]. From 1995 to 1999 they were the shirt sponsor of English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur. They also sponsored the BMW Williams Formula 1 team. Hewlett-Packard also has the naming rights arrangement for the HP Pavilion at San Jose, home of the San Jose Sharks NHL hockey team.

Product legacy

Agilent Technologies, not HP, retains the direct product legacy of the original company founded in 1939. Agilent's current portfolio of electronic instruments are descended from HP's very earliest products. HP entered the computer business only after its instrumentation competencies were well-established.

After the acquisition of Compaq in 2002, HP has maintained the "Compaq Presario" brand on low-end home desktops and laptops, the "HP Compaq" brand on business desktops and laptops, and the "HP ProLiant" brand on Intel-architecture servers. (The "HP Pavilion" brand is used on home entertainment laptops and all home desktops.)[27]

HP uses DEC's "StorageWorks" brand on storage systems; Tandem's "NonStop" servers are now branded as "HP Integrity NonStop"

Culture

The founders, known to friends and employees alike as Bill and Dave, developed a unique management style that has come to be known as the HP Way. In Bill's words, the HP Way is "a core ideology ... [which] includes a deep respect for the individual, a dedication to affordable quality and reliability, a commitment to community responsibility, and a view that the company exists to make technical contributions for the advancement and welfare of humanity."[29]

Controversy HP pretexting scandal

On September 5, 2006 Newsweek published a story[30] revealing that the chairwoman of HP, Patricia Dunn, had hired a team of independent electronic-security experts that later spied on HP board members and several journalists, to determine the source of a leak of confidential details regarding HP's long-term strategy in January, 2006. The independent, third party company used a technique known as pretexting to obtain call records of HP board members and nine journalists, including reporters for CNET, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Dunn has claimed she did not know the methods the investigators used to determine the source of the leak.[31] Board member George Keyworth was ultimately outed as the source.

On September 12, 2006 Keyworth resigned from the board and HP announced that Mark Hurd, the current CEO and president, would replace Dunn as Chairman after the HP board meeting on January 18, 2007.

On September 22, 2006 Hurd announced at a special press briefing that Ms. Dunn had resigned effective immediately from both the Chairmanship role and as a director of the Board;

On September 28, 2006, Ann Baskins, HP's general counsel (head attorney) resigned[32] hours before she was to appear as a witness at which she would later invoke the Fifth Amendment to "not be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime."[33]

Investigation by the government

On October 4, 2006, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer filed criminal charges and arrest warrants against Kevin Hunsaker, Dunn and three outside investigators.[34] On September 11, 2006, the United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce wrote to Patricia Dunn stating that they have been conducting an investigation on Internet-based data brokers who allegedly use "lies, fraud and deception" to acquire personal information, and allow anyone who paid a "modest fee" to acquire "itemized incoming and outgoing call logs", and when had learned about HP's use of pretexting through their September 6 SEC filing and through their own inquiry of HP's Nominating and Governance Committee, stating they are "troubled" by the information, "particularly that it involves HP—one of America's corporate icons."

The committee requested, under Rules X and XI of the United States House of Representatives, information from HP by September 18, 2006:

At the September 28, 2006 hearing, Dunn and Hurd[35] both testified extensively about the investigation. Dunn testified that until June or July 2006, she did not realize that "pretexting" could involve identity misrepresentation. Dunn repeatedly insisted that she had believed that personal phone records could be obtained through legal methods.

Other witnesses refused to answer questions due to the ongoing criminal investigations.[33]
Perceived impact on the company's operations

Despite the intense media coverage, investors continue to show faith in the company. As of October 23, the price of the company's stock had increased from $36.50 to $39.87 per share.[36]

On October 8, 2006 Reuters ran a story describing pretexting used by Hewlett-Packard and other companies.[37]

On October 12, 2006 HP announced the appointment of Jon Hoak as vice president and chief ethics and compliance officer. Hoak served as senior vice president and general counsel for NCR from 1993 until May 2006.[38]

On December 7, 2006 HP paid $14.5 Million to settle civil charges brought by the California Attorney General.[39]

In December 2006, two members of Congress requested that HP provide more information regarding CEO Mark Hurd's sale of $1.4 million of stock options on August 25, the same day he was questioned by attorneys investigating the pretexting scandal.[40] Mark Hurd explained that the August trade was part of his normal investment strategy to diversify assets and was made during a regularly scheduled trading window for senior officers and directors.[citation needed] Additionally, Hurd assured the Subcommittee that the August trade had nothing to do with his interview by attorneys investigating the leak investigation and that he had initiated the trade before any such request had been made to him.

Traceable e-mail

Fred Adler of HP revealed before a U.S. Congressional Inquiry that HP used an e-mail tracking service to trace a leak in an e-mail sent to CNET reporter Dawn Kawamoto.[41] The e-mail contained a Web bug. Adler stated that HP considers Web bugs to be a legitimate investigative tool, and has used them a number of times.[42] The California attorney general's office has said that this practice was not part of the Pretexting charges.

Management

Chairman of the Board, CEO, and President: Mark Hurd (March 29, 2005 - current, appointed Chairman September 22, 2006)

History

* Co-founder: David Packard (President: 1947; Chairman: 1964–1969; Chairman 1971—1993)
* Co-founder: William Hewlett (Vice President: 1947; Executive Vice President: 1957; President: 1964; CEO: 1969; Chairman of the Executive Committee 1978; Vice Chairman 1983—1987)
* CEO: John A. Young (1978—October 31, 1992)
* CEO: Lewis Platt (November 1, 1992—July 18, 1999; Chairman 1993—July 18, 1999)
* Chairman: Richard Hackborn (January, 2000—September 22, 2000; Lead Independent Director September 22, 2006—)
* CEO: Carly Fiorina (July 19, 1999—February 9, 2005; Chairwoman September 22, 2000—February 9, 2005)
* Interim CEO: Robert Wayman (February 9, 2005—March 28, 2005)
* Chairwoman: Patricia C. Dunn (February 9, 2005—September 22, 2006).
* CEO: Mark Hurd (CEO: April 1, 2005—; Chairman: September 22, 2006—)

AMD Graphics Product Group

AMD Graphics Product Group is a major designer and supplier of graphics processing units, motherboard chipsets, and video display cards. In 2006, the company was acquired by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), although the ATI brand was retained for graphics cards. ATI was a fabless semiconductor company conducting in-house research and development and outsourcing the manufacturing and assembly of its products. Its main competitor was NVIDIA in the graphics and handheld market. The flagship product, the Radeon series of graphics cards, directly competes with NVIDIA's GeForce. The two companies' dominance of the market forced other manufacturers into niche roles.

History

The company was founded as Array Technologies Incorporated in 1985 by immigrants Kwok Yuen Ho[1] of Guangzhou, and Benny Lau and Lee Ka Lau of Hong Kong.[2] Working primarily in the OEM field, it produced integrated graphics cards for large PC manufacturers like IBM and Commodore. By 1987, it had grown into an independent graphics card retailer, introducing EGA Wonder and VGA Wonder graphic card product lines under its brand that year.[3] In May 1991, the company released Mach8, its first product able to process graphics without the CPU. Mach32 debuted in 1992 and offered improved memory bandwidth and GUI acceleration performance. ATI Technologies Inc. went public in 1993 with stock listed at NASDAQ and Toronto Stock Exchange.

In 1994, the Mach 64 accelerator debuted, powering the Graphics Xpression and Graphics Pro Turbo. It offered hardware support for YUV-to-RGB color space conversion in addition to hardware zoom, early techniques of hardware-based video acceleration.

ATI introduced its first combination of 2D and 3D accelerator under the name 3D Rage. This chip was based on the Mach 64 but it featured elemental 3D acceleration. The ATI Rage line powered almost the entire range of ATI graphics products. In particular, the Rage Pro was one of the first viable 2D-plus-3D alternatives to 3Dfx's 3D-only Voodoo chipset. 3D acceleration in the Rage line advanced from the basic functionality within the initial 3D Rage to a more advanced DirectX 6.0 accelerator in the 1999 Rage 128.

The All-in-Wonder product line introduced in 1996 was the first combination of integrated graphics chip with TV tuner card and the first chip that enabled to display computer graphics on a TV set.[4] The cards featured 3D acceleration powered by ATI's second generation 3D Rage II, 64-bit 2D performance, TV-quality video acceleration, analog video capture, TV tuner functionality, flicker-free TV-out and stereo TV audio reception.

ATI made an entrance into the mobile computing sector by introducing 3D-graphics acceleration to laptops in 1996. The Mobility product line had to meet requirements different from desktop PC, such as minimized power usage, reduced heat output, TMDS output capabilities for laptop screens, and maximized integration. In 1997, ATI acquired Tseng Labs's graphics assets, which included 40 engineers.

The Radeon line of graphics products was unveiled in 2000. The initial Radeon graphics processing unit was an all-new design with DirectX 7.0 3D acceleration, video acceleration, and 2D acceleration. Technology developed for a specific Radeon generation could be built in varying levels of features and performance in order to provide products suited for the entire market range. The range stretches from the high-end Radeon HD 3000/4000 series, which support DirectX 10.1 Unified shader model technology, to Mobility Radeon products for laptops, and to the budget series, such as Radeon X1300. Later generations expanded this to include flexibility for easy construction of both integrated and discrete parts from the same technology.[5]

In 2000, ATI acquired ArtX, which engineered the Flipper graphics chip used in the Nintendo GameCube game console. They have also created a modified version of the chip (codenamed Hollywood) for the successor of the GameCube, the Wii. ATI was contracted by Microsoft to create the graphics core (codenamed Xenos) for the Xbox 360. Later in 2005, ATI acquired Terayon's Cable Modem Silicon Intellectual Property strengthening their lead in the consumer digital television market.[6] K. Y. Ho remained as Chairman of the Board until he retired in November 2005. Dave Orton replaced him as the President and CEO of the organization.

On July 24, 2006, AMD and ATI announced a plan to merge together in a deal valued at $5.4 billion. The merger closed on October 25, 2006.[7] The acquisition consideration included over $2 billion financed from a loan and 56 million shares of AMD stock.[8] ATI retained its name, logos and trademarks. ATI's then CEO Dave Orton was made the Executive Vice President of Visual and Media Businesses.[9]

It was reported that in December 2006 AMD/ATI, along with its main rival NVIDIA, received subpoenas from the United States Department of Justice regarding possible antitrust violations in the graphics card industry.[10]

In July 2007, AMD announced the resignation of Dave Orton. ATI, a subsidiary of AMD, is called the Graphics Product Group (GPG) inside the company.[11] The top-level management of the Graphics Product Group consists of Rick Bergman, Senior Vice President and General Manager and Adrian Hartog, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Consumer Electronics Group. Both report to Héctor de Jesús Ruiz, CEO and Chairman of AMD.[12]

Products

In addition to developing high-end GPUs (originally called a VPU, visual processing unit, by ATI) for PCs, ATI also designs embedded versions for laptops (Mobility Radeon), PDAs and mobile phones (Imageon), integrated motherboards (Radeon IGP), set-top boxes (Xilleon) and others.ATI promotes some of its products with the fictional "Ruby" female character, a "mercenary for hire."[13] Computer animated videos produced by RhinoFX about Ruby on a mission (being a sniper, saboteur, hacker and so on) are displayed at large technology shows such as CeBIT, CES.

Computer graphics chipsets

* Graphics Solution / "Small Wonder" - Series of 8-bit ISA cards with MDA, Hercules and CGA compatibility. Later versions added EGA support.
* EGA / VGA Wonder - IBM "EGA/VGA-compatible" display adapters (1987)
* Mach Series - Introduced ATI's first 2D GUI "Windows Accelerator". As the series evolved, GUI acceleration improved dramatically and early video acceleration appeared.
* Rage Series - ATI's first 2D and 3D accelerator chips. The series evolved from rudimentary 3D with 2D GUI acceleration and MPEG-1 capability, to a highly competitive Direct3D 6 accelerator with then "best-in-class" DVD (MPEG2) acceleration. The various chips were very popular with OEMs of the time. The Rage II was used in the first ATI All-In-Wonder multi-function video card, and more advanced All-In-Wonders based on Rage series GPUs followed. (1995–2004)
* Rage Mobility - Designed for use in low-power environments, such as notebooks. These chips were functionally similar to their desktop counterparts, but had additions such as advanced power management, LCD interfaces, and dual monitor functionality.

* Radeon Series - Launched in 2000, the Radeon line is ATI's brand for their consumer 3D accelerator add-in cards. The original Radeon DDR was ATI's first DirectX 7 3D accelerator, introducing their first hardware T&L engine. ATI often produced 'Pro' versions with higher clock speeds, and sometimes an extreme 'XT' version, and even more recently 'XT Platinum Edition (PE)' and 'XTX' versions. The Radeon series was the basis for many ATI All-In-Wonder boards.
o Mobility Radeon - A series of power-optimized versions of Radeon graphics chips for use in laptops. They introduced innovations such as modularized RAM chips, DVD (MPEG2) acceleration, notebook GPU card sockets, and "PowerPlay" power management technology.
o ATI CrossFire - This technology was ATI's response to NVIDIA's SLI platform. It allowed, by using a secondary video card and a dual PCI-E motherboard based on an ATI Crossfire-compatible chipset, the ability to combine the power of the two video cards to increase performance through a variety of different rendering options. There is an option for additional PCI-E video card plugging into the third PCI-E slot for gaming physics, or another option to do physics on the second video card.[14]
* FireGL - Launched in 2001, following ATI's acquisition of FireGL Graphics from Diamond Multimedia. Workstation CAD/CAM video card, based on the Radeon series.
* FireMV - For workstations, featuring multi-view, a technology for the need of multiple displays for workstations with 2D acceleration only, usually based on the low-end products of the Radeon series.

Personal computer platforms and chipsets

* IGP 3x0, Mobility Radeon 7000 IGP - ATI's first chipsets. Included a DirectX 7-level 3D graphics processor.
* 9100 IGP - 2nd generation system chipset. IXP250 southbridge. It was notable for being ATI's first complete motherboard chipset, including an ATI-built southbridge. It included an updated DirectX 8.1 class graphics processor. [15]
* Xpress 200/200P - PCI Express-based Athlon 64 and Pentium 4 chipset. Supports SATA as well as integrated graphics with DirectX 9.0 support, the first integrated graphics chipset to do so.[16]
* Xpress 3200 - similar to Xpress 200, but designed for optimal CrossFire performance.
o AMD 580X CrossFire chipset - AMD edition of Xpress 3200 renamed, due to AMD acquisition of ATI.
* 690G, Xpress 1250 - for AMD and Intel platforms. Includes DirectX 9 graphics processor improved over Xpress 200 [17] and industry first native HDMI implementation on motherboards.
* AMD 700 chipset series - exclusively for AMD processors, this is a chipset family supporting Phenom processors and Quad FX enthusiast platform (790FX), enthusiast chipset (790X), IGP (790GX, 780G, 740G) and single graphics card variants (770, 740) aimed at mainstream and value computing systems available.

In addition to the above chipset ATI has announced that a deal has been struck with CPU and Motherboard manufacturers as of 2005, particularly Asus and Intel, to create onboard 3D Graphics solutions for Intel's new range of motherboards that will be released with their range of Intel Pentium M-based desktop processors, the Intel Core and Intel Core 2 processors, the D101GGC and D101GGC2 chipset (codenamed "Grand County" [18]) based on the Radeon Xpress 200 chipset. However, high-end boards with integrated graphics processor (IGP) will still use Intel GMA integrated graphics processors. The deal with Intel was deemed to be officially ended with the purchase of ATI Technologies from AMD in July 2006, with Intel announcing SiS IGP chipset (D201GLY chipset, codenamed "Little Valley") for entry-level desktop platform, replacing the "Grand County" series chipsets.

Multimedia and Digital TV solutions
* All-In-Wonder series - A series of multimedia graphics cards which incorporating TV tuner and Radeon family graphics cards onto one add-in card, who, after being seemingly discontinued was relaunched as All-In-Wonder HD on June 26, 2008.
* TV tuners
o TV Wonder and HDTV Wonder - a chipset family providing TV reception of various analog TV and digital TV signals (PAL, NTSC, ATSC, DVB-T and so on) with first generation AVIVO technology, also supporting CableCARD, and Clear QAM technologies.
o Theatre - a family of QAM and VSB demodulators for the Digital Cable ready and ATSC environments.
* Xilleon - A 32-bit MIPS processor featuring hardware decoding of MPEG2, H.264 and VC-1 encoding and decoding.
* Remote Wonder, wireless remote control series for ATI multimedia products. Operates using radio frequency, away from mainstream implementations using infrared.

Console graphics solutions

* Flipper - The Nintendo GameCube contains a 3D accelerator developed by ArtX, Inc, a company acquired by ATI during the development of the GPU. Flipper is similar in capability to a Direct3D 7 accelerator chip. It consists of 4 rendering pipelines, with hardware T&L, and some limited pixel shader support. Innovatively the chip has 3 MiB of embedded 1T-SRAM for use as ultra-fast low-latency (6.2 ns) texture and framebuffer/Z-buffer storage allowing 10.4 GB/second bandwidth (extremely fast for the time). Flipper was designed by members of the Nintendo 64 Reality Coprocessor team who moved from SGI. The Flipper team went on to have a major hand in development of the Radeon 9700.
* Xenos - Microsoft's Xbox 360 video game console contains a custom graphics chip produced by ATI, known as "R500", "C1", or more often as Xenos. Some of these features include the embedded DRAM (eDRAM). The Xenos also features the “True Unified Shader Architecture” which dynamically loads and balances pixel and vertex processing amongst a bank of identically capable processing units. This differs greatly from past-generations PC graphics chips that have separate banks of processors designed for their individual task (vertex/fragment). Another feature presented in Xenos is the hardware surface tessellation to divide a surface into smaller triangles, similar to TruForm in terms of functionality, which is an advanced feature as it is not presented even in the most up-to-date DirectX 10 specification. The latest-generation Radeon R600 GPU core inherited most of the features presented in Xenos, except eDRAM.
* Hollywood - Successor to Flipper. Part of Nintendo's latest gaming console, Wii.

Handheld chipsets

* Imageon - System-on-a-chip (SoC) design introduced in 2002 to bring integrated 2D and 3D graphics to handhelds devices, cellphones and Tablet PCs. Current top-of-line product is the Imageon 2298 which includes DVD quality recording and playback, TV output, and supports up to a 12 megapixel camera, with another line of Imageon products, the 2300 series supporting OpenGL ES 1.1+ extensions. The Imageon line was rebranded under AMD, after AMD acquired ATI in Q3 2006, as AMD Imageon.
* Imageon TV - Announced in February 2006, allowing handhelds devices to receive digital broadcast TV (DVB-H) signals and enables watching TV programs on these devices, the chipset includes tuner, demodulator, decoder, and a full software stack, operates alongside the Imageon chip.
* Besides full products, ATI has also supplied 3D and 2D graphics components to other vendors, specifically the Qualcomm[19] MSM7000 series SoC chips of handheld and upcoming Freescale i. MX processors [20].
* ATI claimed in May 2006, that it had sold over 100 million[21] 'cell phone media co-processors,' significantly more than ATI's rival NVIDIA, and announced in February 2007 that the firm had shipped a total of 200 million of Imageon products since 2003 [22].

High Performance Computing

AMD FireStream, originally ATI Firestream, and previously rebranded as AMD Stream Processor for a short period of time, utilizing the stream processing concept, together with Close to Metal (CTM) hardware interface.

ATI graphics drivers

ATI currently provides proprietary drivers, called ATI Catalyst, for Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows XP, Mac OS X, and Linux. Linux users have the option of both the old proprietary (R200 and above) and new open source (R480 and below) drivers.

In an interview with AMD official Hal Speed, it was suggested that AMD were strongly considering making at least the functional part of the ATI drivers open source.[23] However, at least until the merger with AMD was complete, ATI had no plans to release their drivers as open source code:

Proprietary, patented optimizations are part of the value we provide to our customers and we have no plans to release these drivers to open source. In addition, multimedia elements such as content protection must not, by their very nature, be allowed to go open source.

GeForce

GeForce is a brand of PC graphics processor units (GPUs) designed by Nvidia. The first GeForce products were designed and marketed for the high-margin computer gamer market, but later the product's releases expanded the product line to cover all tiers of the graphics market, from low-end to high-end. As of 2008[update], there have been ten iterations of the design. Nvidia only designs the chips; manufacturing is outsourced. While several companies (notably, Intel) design low-end GPUs, only Nvidia's GeForce and ATI's Radeon series compete for the high-end GPU market.

Name origin
The "GeForce" name originated from a contest held by Nvidia in early 1999. Called "Name That Chip", the contest called out to the public to name the successor to the RIVA TNT2 line of graphics boards. There were over 12,000 entries received and 7 winners received a RIVA TNT2 Ultra graphics board as a reward.[1][2]

Generations

GeForce 256
Launched on August 31, 1999, the GeForce 256 (NV10) was the first PC graphics chip with hardware transform, lighting, and shading although 3D games utilizing this feature did not appear until later. Initial GeForce 256 boards shipped with SDR SDRAM memory, and later boards shipped with faster DDR SDRAM memory.

GeForce2
Launched in April 2000, the first GeForce2 (NV15) was another high-performance graphics chip. Nvidia moved to a twin texture processor per pipeline (4x2) design, doubling texture fillrate per clock compared to GeForce 256. Later, Nvidia released the GeForce2 MX (NV11), which offered performance similar to the GeForce 256 but at a fraction of the cost. The MX was a compelling value in the low/mid-range market segments and was popular with OEM PC manufacturers and users alike.

GeForce3
Launched in February 2001, the GeForce3 (NV20) introduced DirectX 8.0 programmable pixel shaders to the GeForce family. It had good overall performance and shader support, making it popular with enthusiasts although it never hit the midrange price point. A derivative of the GeForce3, NV2A, was developed for the Microsoft Xbox game console.

GeForce4
Launched in February 2002, the high-end GeForce4 Ti (NV25) was mostly a refinement to the GeForce3. The biggest advancements included enhancements to anti-aliasing capabilities, an improved memory controller, a second vertex shader, and a manufacturing process size reduction to increase clock speeds. Another "family member," the budget GeForce4 MX, was based on the GeForce2, with a few additions from the new GeForce4 Ti line. It targeted the value segment of the market and lacked pixel shaders.

GeForce FX
Officially launched in November 2002, the GeForce FX (NV30) was a huge change in architecture compared to its predecessors. The GPU was designed not only to support the new Shader Model 2 specification but also to perform well on older DirectX 7 and 8 titles. However, initial models suffered from weak floating point shader performance and excessive heat which required two-slot cooling solutions. Products in this series carry the 5000 model number, as it is the fifth generation of the GeForce, though Nvidia marketed the cards as GeForce FX instead of GeForce 5 to show off "the dawn of cinematic rendering".

GeForce 6
Launched in April 2004, the GeForce 6 (NV40) added Shader Model 3.0 support to the GeForce family, while correcting the weak floating point shader performance of its predecessor. It also implemented high dynamic range imaging and introduced SLI (Scalable Link Interface) and PureVideo capability.

GeForce 7
The 7th generation GeForce (G70/NV47) was launched in June 2005. The design was a refined version of GeForce 6, with the major improvements being a widened pipeline and an increase in clock speed. The GeForce 7 also offers new transparency supersampling and transparency multisampling anti-aliasing modes (TSAA and TMAA). These new anti-aliasing modes were later enabled for the GeForce 6 series as well.

A modified version of GeForce 7800GTX called the RSX 'Reality Synthesizer' is used as the main GPU in the PlayStation 3 from Sony.

GeForce 8
Released on November 8, 2006, the 8th generation GeForce (G80 originally) was the first ever GPU to fully support DirectX 10. Built on a brand new architecture, it has a fully unified shader architecture. Originally just the 8800GTX, the GTS was released months into the product line's life, and it took nearly 6 months for mid-range and OEM/mainstream cards to be integrated into the 8-series. Die-shrinks and revisions to the G80 design, codenamed G92, were implemented into the 8 series with the 8800GS, the 8800GT, and 8800GTS-512.

GeForce 9
The successor to the GeForce 8 series graphics products. The first product was released on February 21, 2008.[3] No concrete information about the products was known except officials claiming the next generation products having close to 1 TFLOPS performance while the GPU cores being made on 65 nm process, and reports about Nvidia downplaying the significance of DirectX 10.1.[4] So far, all 9-series designs, both currently-out and speculated, are simply revisions to existing late 8-series products. The 9600GT uses the G94 architecture, which differs from G92 architecture as the GPU has 64 stream processors.[5] The 9800GX2 uses two G92 GPU's, as used in later 8800 cards, in a dual PCB configuration while still only requiring a single PCI-Express 16x slot. The 9800GX2 utilises two separate 256-bit memory busses, one for each GPU and its respective 512MB of memory, which equates to an overall of 1GB of memory on the card (although the SLI configuration of the chips necessitates mirroring the frame buffer between the two chips, thus effectively having the memory performance of a 256-bit/512MB configuration). The later 9800GTX features a single G92 GPU, 256-bit data bus, and 512MB of GDDR3 memory[6].

GeForce GT200
Based on the GT200 graphics processor consisting of 1.4 Billion transistors, the GTX 200 series launched at 0630 PDT on 16 June 2008.[7] The next generation of the GeForce series takes the card-naming scheme in a controversial new direction, by replacing the series number (such as 8800 for 8-series cards) with the GTX acronym (which used to go at the end of card names, denoting their 'rank' among other similar models), and then adding model-numbers such as 260 and 280 after that. The GTX could be interpreted as 10000, as the predecessor was 9000, and the Roman Numeral X is also representative of 10, which could translate as: GeForce 200 could also be read as 10200.[8] The series will feature the new GT200 core on a 65nm.[9] The first products will be GeForce GTX 260 and the more expensive GeForce GTX 280.[10]

Geforce GT300
"Nvidia is planning to launch its next-generation high-end GT300 GPU in the first quarter of 2009. The GPU will be manufactured under a 55nm process, according to sources at graphics card makers."[11]

Mobile GPUs
Since the GeForce2, Nvidia has produced a number of graphics chipsets for notebook computers under the GeForce Go branding. Most of the features present in the desktop counterparts are present in the mobile ones. However these GPUs do not perform as well as their desktop counterpart. Nvidia later rebranded their mobile chipset for the GeForce 8 based GPUs the GeForce 8M series.

AMD Fusion

AMD Fusion is the codename for a future next-generation microprocessor design and the product of the merger between AMD and ATI, combining general processor execution as well as 3D geometry processing and other functions of modern GPUs into a single package. AMD's merger with ATI closed on October 25, 2006. This technology is expected to debut in the second half of 2011 [1]; as a successor of the latest microarchitecture.

Regarding future AMD microarchitectures beyond the introduction of the latest microarchitecture at mid-2007 and a refresh of the microarchitecture in late 2007 and early 2008; AMD executive VP Henri Richard's June 2006 interview with DigiTimes hints at the future processor development beyond that of the well documented one:

“Q: What is your broad perspective on the development of AMD processor technology over the next three to four years?

A: Well, as Dirk Meyer commented at our analysts meeting, we're not standing still. We've talked about the refresh of the current K8 architecture that will come in '07, with significant improvements in many different areas of the processor, including integer performance, floating point performance, memory bandwidth, interconnections and so on. You know that platform still has a lot of legs under it, but of course we're not standing still, and there's a next-generation core that's being worked on. I can't give you more details right now, but I think that what's important is that we're establishing clearly that this is a two-horse race. And as you would expect in a race, sometimes, when one horse is a little bit in front of the other, it reverses the situation. But what's important is that it is a race.”

Opteron

The Opteron is AMD's x86 server processor line, and was the first processor to implement the AMD64 instruction set architecture (known generically as x86-64). It was released on April 22, 2003 with the SledgeHammer core (K8) and was intended to compete in the server market, particularly in the same segment as the Intel Xeon processor. Processors based on the AMD K10 microarchitecture (codenamed Barcelona) were announced on September 10, 2007 featuring a new quad-core configuration.

Technical description Two key capabilities

Opteron combines two important capabilities in a single processor die:

1. native execution of legacy x86 32-bit applications without speed penalties
2. native execution of x86-64 64-bit applications

The first capability is notable because at the time of Opteron's introduction, the only other 64-bit processor architecture marketed with 32-bit x86 compatibility (Intel's Itanium) ran x86 legacy-applications only with significant speed degradation. The second capability, by itself, is less noteworthy, as all major RISC makers (Sun SPARC, DEC Alpha, HP PA-RISC, IBM POWER, SGI MIPS, etc.) have had 64-bit implementations for many years. In combining these two capabilities, however, the Opteron earned recognition for its ability to run the vast installed base of x86 applications economically, while simultaneously offering an upgrade-path to 64-bit computing.

The Opteron processor possesses an integrated DDR SDRAM / DDR2 SDRAM (Socket AM2/F) memory controller. This both reduces the latency penalty for accessing the main RAM and eliminates the need for a separate northbridge chip.

Multi-processor features

In multi-processor systems (more than one Opteron on a single motherboard), the CPUs communicate using the Direct Connect Architecture over high-speed HyperTransport links. Each CPU can access the main memory of another processor, transparent to the programmer. The Opteron approach to multi-processing is not the same as standard symmetric multiprocessing as instead of having one bank of memory for all CPUs, each CPU has its own memory. Thus the Opteron is a Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA) architecture. The Opteron CPU directly supports up to an 8-way configuration, which can be found in mid-level servers. Enterprise-level servers use additional (and expensive) routing chips to support more than 8 CPUs per box.

In a variety of computing benchmarks, the Opteron architecture has demonstrated better multi-processor scaling than the Intel Xeon[1]. This is primarily because adding an additional Opteron processor increases bandwidth, while that is not always the case for Xeon systems, and the fact that the Opterons use a switched fabric, rather than a shared bus. In particular, the Opteron's integrated memory controller allows the CPU to access local RAM very quickly. In contrast, multiprocessor Xeon system CPUs share only two common buses for both processor-processor and processor-memory communication. As the number of CPUs increases in a typical Xeon system, contention for the shared bus causes computing efficiency to drop. Intel is migrating to a memory architecture similar to the Opteron's for the Core i7 family of processors.

Multi-core Opterons

In May 2005, AMD introduced its first "Multi-Core" Opteron CPUs. At the time, AMD's use of the term "Multi-Core" in practice meant "dual-core"; each physical Opteron chip contained two separate processor cores. This effectively doubled the computing-power available to each motherboard processor socket. One socket can now deliver the performance of two processors, two sockets can deliver the performance of four processors, and so on. Because motherboard costs increase dramatically as the number of CPU sockets increase, multicore CPUs enable a system of higher performance to be built at lower cost.

AMD's model number scheme has changed somewhat in light of its new multicore lineup. At the time of its introduction, AMD's fastest multicore Opteron was the model 875, with two cores running at 2.2 GHz each. AMD's fastest single-core Opteron at this time was the model 252, with one core running at 2.6 GHz. For multithreaded applications, the model 875 would be much faster than the model 252, but for single threaded applications the model 252 would perform faster.

Second-Generation AMD Opteron processors are offered in three series: the 1000 Series (up to 1P/2-core), the 2000 Series (up to 2P/4-core), and the 8000 Series (4P/8-core to 8P/16-core). The 1000 Series is built on AMD's new Socket AM2. The 2000 Series and 8000 Series are built on AMD's new Socket F.

AMD launched its Third-Generation Quad-core[2] Opteron chips on September 10th, 2007 [3] with hardware vendors to follow suit with servers in the following month. Based on a core design codenamed Barcelona, new power and thermal management techniques are planned for the chips. Existing dual core DDR2 based platforms will be upgradeable to quad core chips[4].

Socket 939

AMD has also released Socket 939 Opterons, reducing the cost of motherboards for low-end servers and workstations. Except for the fact they have 1 MB L2 Cache (versus 512 KB for the Athlon64) the Socket 939 Opterons are identical to the San Diego and Toledo core Athlon 64s, but are run at lower clockspeeds than the cores are capable of, making them more stable. They are also the only dual core Socket 939 processors still easily available now that the Athlon 64 X2s for that platform have been discontinued, though even these processors are becoming more and more difficult to find. [1]

Socket AM2

Socket AM2 Opterons are available for servers that only have a single-chip setup. These chips may prove to be as successful as the previous generation socket 939 Opterons due to the Opteron's overclockability. Codenamed Santa Ana, rev. F dual core AM2 Opterons feature 2×1 MB L2 cache, unlike the majority of their Athlon 64 X2 cousins which feature 2x512 KB L2 cache.

Socket F

Socket F (LGA 1207 contacts) is AMD’s second generation of Opteron socket. This socket support processors such as the Santa Rosa, Barcelona and Shanghai codenamed processors. The “Lidded Land Grid Array” socket adds support for DDR2 SDRAM and improved HyperTransport version 3 connectivity. Physically the socket and processor package are nearly identical, although not generally compatible with socket 1207 FX

Micro-architecture update
The Opteron line saw an update with the implementation of the AMD K10 microarchitecture. New processors, launched in the third quarter of 2007 (codename Barcelona), incorporate a variety of improvements, particularly in memory prefetching, speculative loads, SIMD execution and branch prediction, yielding an appreciable performance improvement over K8-based Opterons, within the same power envelope.[5]

In the meantime, AMD has also utilized a new scheme to characterize the power consumption of new processors under "average" daily usage, named Average CPU Power (ACP).

Models

For Socket 940 and Socket 939 Opterons, each chip has a three-digit model number, in the form Opteron XYY. For Socket F and Socket AM2 Opterons, each chip has a four-digit model number, in the form Opteron XZYY. For all Opterons, the first digit (the X) specifies the number of CPUs on the target machine:

* 1 - Designed for uniprocessor systems
* 2 - Designed for dual-processor systems
* 8 - Designed for systems with 4 or 8 processors

For Socket F and Socket AM2 Opterons, the second digit (the Z) represents the processor generation. Presently, only 2 (dual-core, DDR2) and 3 (quad-core, DDR2) are used.

For all Opterons, the last two digits in the model number (the YY) indicate the clock frequency of a CPU, a higher number indicating a higher clock frequency. This speed indication is comparable to processors of the same generation if they have the same amount of cores, single-cores and dual-cores have different indications despite sometimes having the same clock frequency.

The suffix HE or EE indicates a high-efficiency/energy-efficiency model having a lower TDP than a standard Opteron. The suffix SE indicates a top-of-the-line model having a higher TDP than a standard Opteron.

A detailed list of Opteron microprocessors is here. The broad model families are:

Opteron (90 nm SOI, DDR)
Single-core — Venus (1yy), Troy (2yy), Athens (8yy)

* CPU-Steppings: E4
* L1-Cache: 64 + 64 KB (Data + Instructions)
* L2-Cache: 1024 KB, fullspeed
* MMX, Extended 3DNow!, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, AMD64
* Socket 940, 800 MHz HyperTransport
* Socket 939/Socket 940, 1000 MHz HyperTransport
* Registered DDR SDRAM required for socket 940, ECC possible
* VCore: 1.35V - 1.4V
* Max power (TDP): 95W
* NX Bit
* 64-bit segment limit checks for VMware-style binary-translation virtualization.
* Optimized Power Management (OPM)
* First Release: February 14, 2005
* Clockrate: 1600 - 3000 MHz (x42 - x56)

Dual-core — Denmark (1yy), Italy (2yy), Egypt (8yy)

* CPU-Steppings: E1, E6
* First Release: Spring 2005
* Clockrate: 1600–2800 MHz (x60, x65, x70, x75, x80, x85, x90)
* ...
* Socket 939/Socket 940, 1000 MHz HyperTransport
* ...
* NX bit

Opteron (90 nm SOI, DDR2) Dual-core — Santa Ana (12yy), Santa Rosa (22yy, 82yy)

* CPU-Steppings: F2, F3
* L1-Cache: 64 + 64 KB (Data + Instructions)
* L2-Cache: 2*1024 KB, fullspeed
* MMX, Extended 3DNow!, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, AMD64
* Socket F, ??? MHz HyperTransport - Opteron 2yy, 8yy
* Socket AM2, ??? MHz HyperTransport - Opteron 1yy
* VCore: 1.35 V
* Max Power (TDP): 95W
* NX Bit
* AMD-V Virtualization
* Optimized Power Management (OPM)
* First Release: ?????? 2006
* Clockrate: 1800–3200 MHz (xx10, xx12, xx14, xx16, xx18, xx20, xx20, xx22, xx24)

Opteron (65 nm SOI) Quad-core — Barcelona (23yy, 83yy), Budapest (13yy)

* CPU-Steppings: BA, B3
* L1-Cache: 64 + 64 KB (Data + Instructions) per core
* L2-Cache: 512 KB, fullspeed per core
* L3-Cache: 2048 KB, shared
* MMX, Extended 3DNow!, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, AMD64, SSE4a
* Socket F, Socket AM2+, HyperTransport 3.0 (1.6 GHz-2.0 GHz)
* Registered DDR2 SDRAM required, ECC possible
* VCore: ?
* Max Power (TDP): ?
* NX Bit
* AMD-V Virtualization
* Split power plane dynamic power management
* VCore: 1.2 V
* First Release: September 10, 2007
* Clockrate: 1700–2500 MHz

Opteron (45 nm SOI) Quad-core — Shanghai

This is AMD's recently-announced 45 nm Opteron processor. Advantages over current Opteron processors include:

* L3-Cache: 6 MB, shared
* Clockrate: up to 2700 MHz
* HyperTransport 3.0
* 20% reduction in idle power consumption[3]

Supercomputers

On the November 2007 TOP500 list, 15.8% of the world's 500 fastest known supercomputer installations were AMD64 Opteron-based systems (down from 22.6% on 11/06), while 64.4% were Intel ia32e/EM64T/Intel 64 Xeon-based.

Supercomputers based

on Opteron mentioned in the top 10 fastest supercomputers in the world:

* #2: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA. Jaguar - Cray XT5. AMD64 Opteron Quad Core 2300 MHz (9.2 GFlops/unit). Cray Inc. 150,152 total cores. Rpeak: 1381.400 TFlop.
* #6: Sandia National Laboratories, USA. Red Storm - Sandia/ Cray Red Storm, AMD64 Opteron Dual Core 2400 MHz. Cray Inc. 26,569 total cores. Rpeak: 127.531 TeraFlops.
* #9: NERSC/LBNL, USA. Franklin - Cray XT4. AMD64 Opteron Dual Core 2600 MHz. Cray Inc. 19,320 total cores. Rpeak: 100.464 TFlop.

Future

Future Opteron processors will include codenamed Istanbul products in early 2009, later in 1H 2009- 2H 2010 the lineup will be replaced with codenamed six-core Sao Paolo and twelve-core Magny-Cours products manufactured using the MCM technique, utilizing Socket G34. Further, the server line of processors will incorporate the newly announced Bulldozer core with native 4 cores or more configurations on 32 nm process, each supporting SSE5 aimed at better HPC and cryptographic computations. Currently,[when?] Bulldozer-based products are expected to be released in 2011.