WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.360 AMD controls a large piece of client PC processor pie, 00:00:04.360 --> 00:00:07.560 and while they still lag behind Intel in terms of market share, 00:00:07.560 --> 00:00:11.880 Team Red is clearly in no danger of being pushed out of the CPU scene. 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. 00:00:17.840 --> 00:00:21.720 But even aside from that, they were having their lunch money taken by Intel. 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, 00:00:26.800 --> 00:00:29.880 had markedly better performance than AMD's offerings. 00:00:29.880 --> 00:00:34.040 AMD had to lay off workers, cut pay for those they actually retained, 00:00:34.040 --> 00:00:37.200 and even sold off their mobile division to Qualcomm. 00:00:37.200 --> 00:00:41.280 According to an AMD engineer, the company was on the verge of bankruptcy, 00:00:41.280 --> 00:00:45.120 with their stock price at one point dipping below two bucks a share. 00:00:45.120 --> 00:00:49.040 But they were able to stay afloat because of a fortuitous occurrence. 00:00:49.040 --> 00:00:53.240 And no, they didn't suddenly figure out how to make CPUs that didn't suck, 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 00:00:57.880 --> 00:01:02.240 chose AMD to make the processors inside their new PlayStation 4 00:01:02.240 --> 00:01:07.160 and Xbox One game consoles. You see, in the late 2000s and early 2010s, 00:01:07.160 --> 00:01:11.840 we were already used to the idea of consoles being used for more than just gaming. 00:01:11.840 --> 00:01:15.360 Both the PS2 and original Xbox could play DVDs, 00:01:15.360 --> 00:01:19.520 for example. However, there was still a long way to go before people thought of consoles 00:01:19.520 --> 00:01:23.000 as PC-like appliances the way many do today. 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, 00:01:28.960 --> 00:01:33.240 didn't use the x86-based processors that you'd find in PCs. 00:01:33.240 --> 00:01:38.680 Both systems instead used chips based on the very different PowerPC architecture, 00:01:38.680 --> 00:01:41.960 with the PS3 specifically using a chip called Cell, 00:01:41.960 --> 00:01:45.680 co-designed by Toshiba, IBM, and Sony itself, 00:01:45.680 --> 00:01:50.040 while the Xbox 360 used a similar IBM chip called Xenon. 00:01:50.040 --> 00:01:54.880 Although the Cell was supposed to help provide computational power for graphics rendering, 00:01:54.880 --> 00:02:00.040 it was notoriously difficult to program for, a major contributor to the tepid reviews 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 00:02:04.440 --> 00:02:08.640 that people actually wanted to play. And the non-traditional architecture was a barrier 00:02:08.640 --> 00:02:11.800 for the developers of non-game apps as well, 00:02:11.800 --> 00:02:16.520 on both the PlayStation and Xbox. To make these consoles into more PC-like, 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 00:02:22.080 --> 00:02:25.520 with a more popular architecture in their next-gen consoles. 00:02:25.520 --> 00:02:29.780 That meant using x86, which was not only much more powerful 00:02:29.780 --> 00:02:33.320 than the ARM solutions of the day, but it was easier to code for, 00:02:33.320 --> 00:02:37.480 important for getting developers of streaming and smart home apps on board. 00:02:37.480 --> 00:02:42.760 But hold on a sec, why did they choose AMD instead of the market leader Intel, 00:02:42.760 --> 00:02:46.760 seeing as x86 is also Team Blue's bread and butter? 00:02:46.760 --> 00:02:51.200 Although Intel was still running laps around AMD in PC land 00:02:51.200 --> 00:02:56.120 when the PS4 released in 2013, one thing AMD had that Intel didn't 00:02:56.120 --> 00:03:00.960 was recent experience in high-performance graphics, especially since they acquired ATI 00:03:00.960 --> 00:03:07.320 and its Radeon brand back in 2006. Although Intel CPUs did still have integrated graphics, 00:03:07.320 --> 00:03:11.880 AMD had already been focused on trying to combine higher-performance GPUs 00:03:11.880 --> 00:03:15.920 with CPUs on the same die for years, which eventually culminated 00:03:15.920 --> 00:03:20.840 in the first Accelerated Processing Unit, or APU, in 2011. 00:03:20.840 --> 00:03:25.280 While APUs weren't as powerful as higher-end discrete graphics cards, 00:03:25.280 --> 00:03:29.280 they still offered more graphics horsepower than what Intel had. 00:03:29.280 --> 00:03:33.320 And it also certainly helped that AMD was a lot more willing than Intel 00:03:33.320 --> 00:03:36.320 to do semi-custom designs for outside clients. 00:03:36.320 --> 00:03:39.920 And since consoles fight against heat and power limitations, 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 00:03:46.560 --> 00:03:50.840 rather than breaking them out into separate chips, meaning they weren't very interested 00:03:50.840 --> 00:03:54.200 in getting a company like NVIDIA, another AMD rival, 00:03:54.200 --> 00:03:58.800 to make a discrete graphics processor. NVIDIA did, of course, end up having a chip 00:03:58.800 --> 00:04:03.200 in the Nintendo Switch, the Tegra X1, but it wouldn't have been powerful enough 00:04:03.200 --> 00:04:08.420 for the PS4 or Xbox One. And indeed, not powerful enough for the Switch either, 00:04:08.420 --> 00:04:12.360 in some people's opinion. Although AMD's contracts with Sony and Microsoft 00:04:12.360 --> 00:04:16.680 didn't suddenly put them on top of the world, they did keep them afloat, 00:04:16.680 --> 00:04:21.680 as over 175 million total PS4s and Xbox Ones were shipped 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 00:04:28.360 --> 00:04:31.840 after the launch of their very successful Zen CPU lineup. 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. 00:04:38.060 --> 00:04:41.240 So if you're a PCMR diehard, 00:04:41.240 --> 00:04:45.360 you might owe them a grudging thank you. I know, it hurts. 00:04:45.360 --> 00:04:48.800 But it doesn't hurt me that you watched the whole video. Thanks for watching. 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. 00:04:55.320 --> 00:04:58.400 It is sordid. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a comment 00:04:58.400 --> 00:05:00.480 with your ideas for future videos.