01/21/2004 — Arctic Slope Regional Corporation and weather.com are the Latest Enterprises to Look to the AMD Opteron Processor to Help Eliminate Disruption Costs

SUNNYVALE, Calif. --Jan. 21, 2004-- AMD (NYSE:AMD) announced today that weather.com(R), the Web site of The Weather Channel(R) and the leading source of online weather information, has successfully completed the migration of its 32-bit database applications to AMD Opteron(tm) processor-based servers from IBM. IBM's eServer 325 running Oracle 8i has delivered a performance boost for weather.com as well as providing a seamless transition from the previous server platform.

"When first introduced to the idea of moving our database to AMD Opteron processor-based servers, we liked the flexibility, price performance and ease-of-integration it offered," said Dan Agronow, vice president of technology at The Weather Channel Interactive Inc. "After testing the AMD Opteron processor, we were excited our applications immediately saw an impressive performance increase without any unexpected software development costs."

Historically, unexpected software development costs -- also known as disruption costs -- have created unnecessary penalties with respect to technology migrations, as recently discovered in a survey of more than 200 enterprises by Momentum Research Group (MRG). As a result, more enterprises are now looking to the x86 architecture-based, 32- and 64-bit AMD Opteron processor to reduce the disruption costs long associated with proprietary 64-bit computing platforms.

A great example of how the AMD Opteron processor can reduce disruption costs is Alaska-based Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC). ASRC recently moved its 32-bit Oracle 9i financial, data warehouse and reporting database onto AMD Opteron processor-based servers from Racksaver running 64-bit SUSE Linux. In addition to seeing a boost in 32-bit performance while having investment protection for future AMD64 applications, ASRC did not incur any disruption costs related to the migration of its existing applications to AMD64. ASRC is an Alaskan Native-owned corporation specializing in natural resource exploration in Alaska's Arctic Slope Region.

"AMD64 technology exists because we listened to our IT customers and recognized that they have been burned in the past by unnecessary software costs when installing new hardware platforms," said Marty Seyer, vice president and general manager of AMD's Microprocessor Business Unit. "We also recognized that disruption costs have been a stumbling block for return on investment for far too long. Because of AMD64's customer-centric innovation, disruption costs associated with migrating to 64-bit computing should no longer be a concern for enterprises."

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AMD (NYSE:AMD) designs and produces microprocessors, Flash memory devices and system-on-chip solutions for the computer, communications and consumer electronics industries. AMD is dedicated to helping its customers deliver standards-based, customer-focused solutions for technology users, ranging from enterprises to government agencies and individual consumers. Founded in 1969, AMD is a Standard & Poor's 500 company with global operations and manufacturing facilities in the United States, Europe, Japan and Asia.

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