1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,360 AMD controls a large piece of client PC processor pie, 2 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:07,560 and while they still lag behind Intel in terms of market share, 3 00:00:07,560 --> 00:00:11,880 Team Red is clearly in no danger of being pushed out of the CPU scene. 4 00:00:11,880 --> 00:00:17,840 But that wasn't always the case. Back in the late 2000s, AMD was getting hit hard by the financial crisis. 5 00:00:17,840 --> 00:00:21,720 But even aside from that, they were having their lunch money taken by Intel. 6 00:00:21,720 --> 00:00:26,800 The first generation of the Core i7 was rolling out, and it, along with other Intel products, 7 00:00:26,800 --> 00:00:29,880 had markedly better performance than AMD's offerings. 8 00:00:29,880 --> 00:00:34,040 AMD had to lay off workers, cut pay for those they actually retained, 9 00:00:34,040 --> 00:00:37,200 and even sold off their mobile division to Qualcomm. 10 00:00:37,200 --> 00:00:41,280 According to an AMD engineer, the company was on the verge of bankruptcy, 11 00:00:41,280 --> 00:00:45,120 with their stock price at one point dipping below two bucks a share. 12 00:00:45,120 --> 00:00:49,040 But they were able to stay afloat because of a fortuitous occurrence. 13 00:00:49,040 --> 00:00:53,240 And no, they didn't suddenly figure out how to make CPUs that didn't suck, 14 00:00:53,240 --> 00:00:57,880 as that didn't happen until 2017. I'm talking about the fact that Sony and Microsoft 15 00:00:57,880 --> 00:01:02,240 chose AMD to make the processors inside their new PlayStation 4 16 00:01:02,240 --> 00:01:07,160 and Xbox One game consoles. You see, in the late 2000s and early 2010s, 17 00:01:07,160 --> 00:01:11,840 we were already used to the idea of consoles being used for more than just gaming. 18 00:01:11,840 --> 00:01:15,360 Both the PS2 and original Xbox could play DVDs, 19 00:01:15,360 --> 00:01:19,520 for example. However, there was still a long way to go before people thought of consoles 20 00:01:19,520 --> 00:01:23,000 as PC-like appliances the way many do today. 21 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:28,960 And it didn't help that the two most popular consoles of the time, the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, 22 00:01:28,960 --> 00:01:33,240 didn't use the x86-based processors that you'd find in PCs. 23 00:01:33,240 --> 00:01:38,680 Both systems instead used chips based on the very different PowerPC architecture, 24 00:01:38,680 --> 00:01:41,960 with the PS3 specifically using a chip called Cell, 25 00:01:41,960 --> 00:01:45,680 co-designed by Toshiba, IBM, and Sony itself, 26 00:01:45,680 --> 00:01:50,040 while the Xbox 360 used a similar IBM chip called Xenon. 27 00:01:50,040 --> 00:01:54,880 Although the Cell was supposed to help provide computational power for graphics rendering, 28 00:01:54,880 --> 00:02:00,040 it was notoriously difficult to program for, a major contributor to the tepid reviews 29 00:02:00,040 --> 00:02:04,440 of the PS3 early in its life cycle, as there simply weren't very many games for it 30 00:02:04,440 --> 00:02:08,640 that people actually wanted to play. And the non-traditional architecture was a barrier 31 00:02:08,640 --> 00:02:11,800 for the developers of non-game apps as well, 32 00:02:11,800 --> 00:02:16,520 on both the PlayStation and Xbox. To make these consoles into more PC-like, 33 00:02:16,520 --> 00:02:22,080 do-it-all home entertainment devices, it was clear that both companies needed to use a CPU 34 00:02:22,080 --> 00:02:25,520 with a more popular architecture in their next-gen consoles. 35 00:02:25,520 --> 00:02:29,780 That meant using x86, which was not only much more powerful 36 00:02:29,780 --> 00:02:33,320 than the ARM solutions of the day, but it was easier to code for, 37 00:02:33,320 --> 00:02:37,480 important for getting developers of streaming and smart home apps on board. 38 00:02:37,480 --> 00:02:42,760 But hold on a sec, why did they choose AMD instead of the market leader Intel, 39 00:02:42,760 --> 00:02:46,760 seeing as x86 is also Team Blue's bread and butter? 40 00:02:46,760 --> 00:02:51,200 Although Intel was still running laps around AMD in PC land 41 00:02:51,200 --> 00:02:56,120 when the PS4 released in 2013, one thing AMD had that Intel didn't 42 00:02:56,120 --> 00:03:00,960 was recent experience in high-performance graphics, especially since they acquired ATI 43 00:03:00,960 --> 00:03:07,320 and its Radeon brand back in 2006. Although Intel CPUs did still have integrated graphics, 44 00:03:07,320 --> 00:03:11,880 AMD had already been focused on trying to combine higher-performance GPUs 45 00:03:11,880 --> 00:03:15,920 with CPUs on the same die for years, which eventually culminated 46 00:03:15,920 --> 00:03:20,840 in the first Accelerated Processing Unit, or APU, in 2011. 47 00:03:20,840 --> 00:03:25,280 While APUs weren't as powerful as higher-end discrete graphics cards, 48 00:03:25,280 --> 00:03:29,280 they still offered more graphics horsepower than what Intel had. 49 00:03:29,280 --> 00:03:33,320 And it also certainly helped that AMD was a lot more willing than Intel 50 00:03:33,320 --> 00:03:36,320 to do semi-custom designs for outside clients. 51 00:03:36,320 --> 00:03:39,920 And since consoles fight against heat and power limitations, 52 00:03:39,920 --> 00:03:46,560 it was more attractive to Sony and Microsoft to go for an SoC that had the CPU and GPU on the same chip 53 00:03:46,560 --> 00:03:50,840 rather than breaking them out into separate chips, meaning they weren't very interested 54 00:03:50,840 --> 00:03:54,200 in getting a company like NVIDIA, another AMD rival, 55 00:03:54,200 --> 00:03:58,800 to make a discrete graphics processor. NVIDIA did, of course, end up having a chip 56 00:03:58,800 --> 00:04:03,200 in the Nintendo Switch, the Tegra X1, but it wouldn't have been powerful enough 57 00:04:03,200 --> 00:04:08,420 for the PS4 or Xbox One. And indeed, not powerful enough for the Switch either, 58 00:04:08,420 --> 00:04:12,360 in some people's opinion. Although AMD's contracts with Sony and Microsoft 59 00:04:12,360 --> 00:04:16,680 didn't suddenly put them on top of the world, they did keep them afloat, 60 00:04:16,680 --> 00:04:21,680 as over 175 million total PS4s and Xbox Ones were shipped 61 00:04:22,120 --> 00:04:28,360 before being replaced by the ninth gen consoles. And of course, AMD really returned to prominence in 2017 62 00:04:28,360 --> 00:04:31,840 after the launch of their very successful Zen CPU lineup. 63 00:04:31,840 --> 00:04:38,060 But there's a good chance we never would have gotten Zen if not for console gamers scooping up so many AMD chips. 64 00:04:38,060 --> 00:04:41,240 So if you're a PCMR diehard, 65 00:04:41,240 --> 00:04:45,360 you might owe them a grudging thank you. I know, it hurts. 66 00:04:45,360 --> 00:04:48,800 But it doesn't hurt me that you watched the whole video. Thanks for watching. 67 00:04:48,800 --> 00:04:54,320 Like the video if you liked it, dislike it if you disliked it, and go check out our video on the history of AMD. 68 00:04:55,320 --> 00:04:58,400 It is sordid. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a comment 69 00:04:58,400 --> 00:05:00,480 with your ideas for future videos.