AMD released a tangled set of numbers backing up its third-quarter earnings. The bottom line: the chip company reported yet another loss, but claimed that its product segment was barely profitable before charges.

Overall, AMD reported a net loss of $135 million on revenue of $1.396 billion. Revenue increased sequentially from the $1.184 billion AMD reported in the second quarter, but dipped by 22 percent from the same period last year. In the second quarter of 2009, AMD reported a loss of $330 million; in the third quarter of 2008, AMD reported a loss of $134 million.

AMD also initially claimed that its core AMD Product Company, which excludes all costs associated with the GlobalFoundries spinoff, recorded a non-GAAP net income of $2 million. That segment recorded an operating profit of $47 million.

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But in another portion of AMD's statement, marked AMD "Non-GAAP and Reconciliations to Consolidated Statements of Operations," AMD claimed that its Product Company had recorded a non-GAAP net income of $56 million on revenue of $1.396 billion. The GlobalFoundries business and associated restructuring costs resulted in a net loss of $191 million for that segment, resulting in a total non-GAAP net loss of $135 million.
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AMD's revenues from its products segments were slightly easier to parse. AMD claimed its CPU business recorded $1.069 billion in revenue, up 17 percent sequentially, but down 23 percent from a year ago. units and selling prices were up sequentially, but AMD sold about as many CPUs compared to a year ago, and at a lower average selling price. But even that came with a footnote: AMD included $191 million in licensing revenue in its 2008 numbers; excluding that, the revenue for the business dipped by just 11 percent. Operating income for the segment was $76 million, versus a loss of $72 million a quarter ago.

The drivers for the segment were improvements in the desktop product mix, including additional sales of the Phenom II and Athlon II, Meyer said. AMD recorded a record quarter in its chipset business, and notebook CPU shipments increased by 28 percent.

By and large, AMD has tried to avoid the netbook market, supplying graphics chips for low-end notebooks that cost a bit more, and offer a bit more profit. AMD does plan to address the thin-and-light notebook more, though, and Meyer promised to add more details in an analyst meeting scheduled for mid-November. But "Congo," AMD's upcoming platform for thin-and-light notebooks, will appear on store shelves "post Oct. 22," Rivet said, or the day that Windows 7 launches.
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In servers, AMD's six-core chips represented about a third of its sales. AMD's Fusion chip, which will combine CPU and graphics capabilities, will be produced in the first half of 2010, and show up in products during the second half, Meyer said.

AMD's graphics business also recorded $306 million in revenue, up 22 percent sequentially but down 21 percent from the same period last year. Like microprocessors, AMD's graphics unit sales were up sequentially, but flat compared with 2008. But the company's graphics ASPs were down sequentially and year-over-year, a trend that AMD will undoubtedly hope to overcome with the recent launches of the Radeon 5700 HD and the high-end 5800 family.

AMD also initially claimed that its core AMD Product Company, which excludes all costs associated with the GlobalFoundries spinoff, recorded a non-GAAP net income of $2 million. That segment recorded an operating profit of $47 million.

Gstanford, I think that red headed model is an ideal match for the ATi 58XX ad campaign. You should forward this to Dave Baumann, or Kombatant.

I would myself but they won't let me on their ATi-centric fansites any more.

NVIDIA employees took to some forums recently to answer some questions about some FUD. You can spot us on threads from icrontic.com and hexus.net.