I'm going to interview an AMD engineer

[Thrax]

In the second or third week of October, a gentlemen from AMD Sunnyvale is coming to Michigan for a wedding. His own wedding, but that aside he's the Michigan recruiter for AMD (I just launched into huge grandiose thoughts when I heard that).

This gentlemen from AMD has one of our school's chem teachers as his best man. The chem teacher stepped into our class, and the discussion went something like this (His name is McMann):

McMann: "Why are you sitting at the good computer?"

(The good computer is a watercooled JIUHB Athlon XP 1700+ on an NF7-S 2.0 with 240gb of RAID0 SATA space on Windows 2000 Pro with a 256mb DDRII Radeon 9800 Pro and a gig of Corsair pc3500 memory)

Thrax: "I built it."
McMann: "You did huh? Do you like computers?"
Thrax: "I do."
McMann: "What do you want to do after High School?"
Thrax: "Probably major in computer engineering."
McMann: "You know my best friend is an engineer."
Thrax: "With who?"
McMann: "AMD."

(At this point Thrax looks like he's won a million dollars, the excitement is almost unbearable as Thrax prattles on about how many AMD processors he has in his house, how many he's purchased for his class, and what amount of money he generates each month through converting people to the Glory of Advanced Micro Devices. Of course, Mr. McMann has no clue what I'm saying, but he understands the excitement.)

Thrax: "Does he ever come to Michigan?"
McMann: "He's the Michigan regional recruiter."

(Thrax thinks omfgomfgomfgomfg)

Thrax: "When is he coming to Michigan again?"
McMann: "October for his wedding, I'm his best man."
Thrax: "Can you get him to come in and talk to us?!?!?!?!?!?!?!"
McMann: "Talk to Mr. Kohring" (My teacher) "And have him remind me, we'll set something up."
Thrax: "OMFG."


So this is how I'm getting an AMD engineer to come to MY school for MY class so I can interview him for Short-Media, take the questions YOU guys have that I haven't already come up with. Who knows, maybe if I kiss enough ass something sweet could happen (Drool. Yeah right...But come ON! AMD! AMD! AMD! AMD!)


Here are the questions I have (some basic, some advanced):

Can you tell me what caused the delay on the release of the Athlon 64? Yield issues? SOI development problems? Other?

What can you tell me about AMD's Paris-core Athlon 64 on the .09u process? (If he tells me anything, next 2 questions.)

-Will it support DDRII on the integrated memory controller?
-Are you outsourcing fabrication to IBM? If not them, who else?

How far along is AMD's .09u process? Has it taped out yet?

Will the Paris Athlon 64 increase the pipeline, or is it a die-shrink? Will there be any additional features that aren't present on the .13 Athlon 64?

When do you expect the Opteron to receive integrated DDRII support?

What made AMD decide to use registered/ECC memory for the Athlon FX line?

What is the future of the HyperTransport bus?

Which chipset would you as an AMD engineer use to display the best possible performance for the Opteron and Athlon 64?

Does AMD plan to transition to copper OEM heatsinks at any time?

Does AMD plan to expand its support for thermal pastes outside of shin-etsu?

Does AMD plan to ever endorse water-cooling components, and establish themselves as the first processor company to do so?

How closely is AMD working with Microsoft on their X86-64 distribution of Windows XP?

What sort applications will see an immediate benefit from a 64 bit chip?

How did AMD decide to produce socket 939, 940, and 754 chips? When did this decision occur and why?

Can we ever expect to see AMD-created special-purpose media registers such as intel's SSE2 and SIMD? An extension of the 3DNow! function?

Does AMD plan to introduce chips on new cores for the legacy Socket A for economy process?



<b>So add your questions here so we can make a kick ass interview, and so I can write a kick ass article on it (Cross fingers)</b>.

[EMT]

Wow!!! That kicks ass man. Hopefully he does know technical things and future plans. Congrats!

[Thrax]

That's definitely what I'm hoping. I hope he's not a peon engineer fresh out of college with a low level of knowledge.

Then again, he's the great lakes regional engineer, so he has to be decently high up the ladder.

[primesuspect]

He might be the ceramics engineer or the metallurgist for the pins or part of the socket group or one of a million things, but either way, that rules. Congrats.

Get him to sign up to our forums!

[Mt_Goat]

Thrax,

I don't think I have ever "felt" so much excitement and enthusiasam in a post before. I mean it was just coming through loud and clear like you posted with a special Jedi Foce power post or something. ;) I am happy for you and will let you keep charge of the enthusiasim department. I think you have some real good questions there but please try not to slobber too bad. But now for the not so good news. You do realize that since he is the Michigan regional recruiter he is really in charge of procuring the Venison, Cheese (just too close to Wisconsin to not be affected) and Beer for AMD's meetings.

[GHoosdum]

Wow, Thrax, that is really cool.

You came up with a very good set of questions, also.

SWEET... I can't wait to read the results of your interview. AMD ROCKS!

[MediaMan]

YGPM :D

[Thrax]

YGPM2.

[Geeky1]

How is it that I can live like 30 minutes away from AMD HQ, and Thrax, who lives like 1800 miles away, is the one that gets the interview? LIFE'S NOT FAIR! :bawling: :banghead: ;D

Anyhow, the questions you came up with cover everything I can think of off the top of my head...

[Thrax]

My teacher once told me something wise:

"It's not where you are, or really what you've done....It's who you know."

[Geeky1]

You're teacher is:
1. damn right
2. damn smart

[primesuspect]

But the smarts come in, and you learn to meet the right people ;)

[MediaMan]

Never could words be so true. I always add to that "....and who you know may get you to the door but it's you alone who walks through it to make the impression."

[Straight_Man]

Well, I can tell you that most of the fab is no longer outsourced, it is primarily being done in AMD's own Dresden, Germany, fab. The delay for it to hit the US was in part ocean shipping time (air would add too much to prices, though you can specialorder and folks will air ship if you pay them enough). Some of the early small qty ships were airred in, that is part of the larger price. BUT, they are not fabbing in US the Bartons, Athlon64s, or the Opterons AFAIK, right now. Nor are they doing what most mfr's do, and fabbing in the far east. They want VERY good QC,and the Germans know how to do even quality in QC for many things, steel and electronics these days. THAT is how some Linux distros in Europe got a proven subversion for the Athlon64 out well before the US release, they worked with fab techs and European AMD reps-- not smuggled chips, cooperation.

Europe had the Athlon64 first, not us in US (offical release date was not staggered, but European distributors had chips in hand first).

I would like to know about the SOI and .09 issues myself, VERY much, and the voltage implications (SHOULD be lower voltage and thus derivatively cooler CPUs this way also) if McMann will talk about that in some detail.

John.

[Clutch]

First thing's first :respect: :respect: :respect:



You are one lucky guy there Thrax. I can only imagine how excited once can be to hear such great news. And who knows, if he talks to you one on one maybe he will keep you in mental thought and look you up one day :thumbsup:

Also nice set of questions you got there, hopefully he can give us some juicy info.

And like prime said, get him to sign up to the forums and share the s-m address all across amd.

[mmonnin]

Damn one lucky bastard.

I got a Q for him. Not about a processor, you got a lot of Qs for him there but something else.

"What type of schooling/education is needed to become an AMD engineer?"

Ask him what it takes to be one. What courses are needed? What major is needed to become an AMD engineer? Or even what is needed to get in the door at AMD.

Working at AMD is kind of an Ultimate-Top Notch goal for myself. As a CET (Computer Engineering Techology) major at DeVry University I am just beginning my quest. Myabe out of reach but that would be the pinnicle. I am wondering what it takes schooling wise to get there.

There are 4 DeVry Campuses in lower California so maybe he has heard of it.

Maybe even what he took in school.

[seversphere]

ask him if he overclocks and what he thinks about overclocking. How it has affected AMD since the slot A and duron 600@1000 days.

[FAH_WW]

Nice one :D - subscribing to thread now ;)

[csimon]

I'm happy for you thrax!!! Ask him if he folds ...hehe
No seriously ...I'd like to know how far off Athlon128 (hypathetically) is into the future ... may be way sooner than we think. :fold:

[QCH]

Thrax rules and so does AMD!!!!

[Leonardo]

What a grand thread, Thrax. Thank you. We are in this with you.

How much time will you have for the interview? In what class will the interview transpire?

Something you could do to greatly aid your fellow students is prepare a brief for your class (in paper). I'm afraid most of your questions and the corresponding answers will go straight over their heads.

I wish you much fun.

[Thrax]

I'm just CROSSING MY FINGERS to see if this guy wants to come to my ITA class (Information Technology Academy, highest technical program for a high school available in my state, only at my school). And then I hope he agrees to an interview!

MediaMan has already helped me prepare for asking an interview, standard procedures he follows for getting interviews. He's also provided me with introductory information about the website, and I've been compiling a profile on myself so he knows I'm completely serious.

As far as the interview is concerned, it could very well last in excess of two hours if he agrees to go along with it! There's no reason why he wouldn't want to come in thought..He's a regional recruiter! Recruiting and advertising the good word is his job in life! I'm sure he'd like to talk to a pack of tech-savvy kids and show them The Glory, if not only for the fact that his best man and best friend asked it of him.

It should be pretty solid.

[TheBaron]

CSimon, I talked to an AMD rep and all they would say is that "K9 and K10 are already in production, the movie to 128-bit would require a market push in that direction"

[TheBaron]

oh and just as a heads up to people in college looking for jobs with some major manufacturers i have found out these things

1) NVidia only hires UT students once theyve completed junior level classes - including electronic circuit design

2) AMD takes mostly Co-op students for their Austin office, mostly summer interns for the California office. they take SOME freshman, mostly people with more experience (i'm kind of in the middle, because im a freshman whos a "junior")

anyway, if that helps anybody

[Thrax]

Apparently Mr. Kohring (My IT instructor) lined up an engineer from Intel as well. :rarr:

His ass is, politely, mine.


Furthermore, the AMD Engineer is coming to my school. It's all set up. Sometime in late October (I forget the precise date).

[Geeky1]

Hey Thrax, here's an idea:

Tell them that you'd like to get someone to put the P4-3.2 EE up against the AFX... See if you can get them to give me a board & cpu to test (and no, they can't expect them back) ;D ;D

[WuGgaRoO]

im thinking we run a rigorous folding test on them...for 2 years + and see which one lasts longer :)

[Geeky1]

only if I get to host them :D

[Leonardo]

Tell them that you'd like to get someone to put the P4-3.2 EE up against the AFX... See if you can get

Hmm, if someone other than our Folding team donated the parts, then I could compete for the hosting honors, as it wouldn't involve conflict of interest of me being in the Host Selection Committee!

Wugs, you've got a great idea. :thumbsup:

[Thrax]

Away, urchins. It'd all be going in my house.

[mmonnin]

Road trip to Michigan then.:)

[Tim]

So whatever happened with this interview?

[Thrax]

It obviously fell through. :( I forgot about this post, and now I'm retroactively disappointed for months and months.