The note of AMD’s CEO Dirk Meyer that AMD is in the midst of its most significant transition in its history prompted us to take a closer look at AMD’s past to get a better idea of the transformation of the company that took place over the past 39 years. Here is a compressed timeline highlighting key events as well as the company’s most significant achievements.  

1969: A group of former executives of Fairchild Semiconductor, including Jerry Sanders, found Advanced Micro Devices on May 1, 1969, with and initial investment of $100,000.
The company’s focus was the design of logic chips.


1970: AMD introduces the Am2501 logic counter, its first proprietary device.

1972: AMD goes public.

1975: AMD enters the RAM chip business, reverse-engineers the Intel 8080 microprocessor and creates bit-slice processor elements for minicomputer designs.

1979: AMD joins the New York Stock Exchange and opens its new manufacturing facility in Austin, Texas.



1982: AMD becomes an Intel-licensed second-source microprocessor supplier of 8086 and 8088 chips for IBM. AMD creates the 80286 clone called Am286, based upon Intel's design and microcode.

1985: ATI (later acquired by AMD) develops its first graphics controller and first graphics board product. AMD enters the Fortune 500 list.

1986: Intel cancels its license agreement with AMD and refuses to divulge technical details of the i386. An eight-year legal battle follows.

1987: AMD acquires Monolithic Memories and enters the programmable logic business.

1988: AMD established the AMD Submicron Development Center which would later supply next-generation technology to all AMD fabs worldwide.



1991: AMD debuts a reverse-engineered alternative to the Intel 386 processor dubbed Am386, which sold more than one million units in less than one year.

1993: AMD launches Intel 486 processor clone Am486. NOR Flash joint venture with Fujitsu founded.

1994: AMD lands major long-term deal with Compaq to supply Am486 processors.

1992: ATI subsidiary in Germany established, the first VESA and PCI products brought to market and Mach32 unveiled, ATI's first graphics controller and accelerator on a single chip.

1994: Legal fight with Intel over the 386 chip ends and the Supreme Court of California sides with AMD.

1995: K6 launches as Intel Pentium rival and first independently designed CPU.

1996: AMD acquires microprocessor company NexGen for rights to their Nx series of x86-compatible processors, a move that put AMD into direct competition with Intel in the microprocessor market. Plans of construction of Fab 30 in Dresden, Germany, announced.

1997: AMD introduces the K6 processor as an answer to Intel’s Pentium II.

1998: K6-2 launched. AMD announces partnership with Motorola to co-develop a copper-based semiconductor technology that would become the foundation for the K7 manufacturing process.

1999: AMD debuts the Athlon (K7) microprocessor. The processor was designed by a former DEC team led by Dirk Meyer who was one of lead DEC Alpha engineers and would become AMD CEO in 2008. AMD demonstrates the first 1 GHz processor at 1016 MHz.

Read on the next page: The 2000s