A Day in the Life of AMD’s “Greatest Fan”

May 19th, 2011
Guest Blogger
Graphics

By Guest Blogger, Daniel Andersson – AMD’s “Greatest Fan”

This week has been an exciting one for me! In my last AMD.com blog post, I shared that I recently traveled from Sweden to Austin, Texas to dive head-first into the world of AMD. The people at AMD have been very helpful and welcoming during my visit and today was no exception.

AMD's "Greatest Fan" Daniel Andersson visiting the AMD headquarters in Austin, Texas

This entire week I’ve been meeting AMD employees I’ve only corresponded with online. Today I met two people in particular who have made my time here enjoyable.

Pat Moorhead, AMD’s corporate marketing fellow at AMD sitting at his workspace. So many monitors in one space!

I met Pat Moorhead, the corporate marketing fellow at AMD. Pat’s role at AMD is to predict trends in the PC industry. I’ve been following Pat on Twitter and his reading his blog for awhile, so meeting him in real-life was pretty cool. His workplace is full of monitors in different sizes and he had many tablets sitting on his desk. It’s very obvious how much he loves gadgets of all kinds!

During my meeting with Pat, we discussed mobile devices, specifically chatting about the positives and negatives of tablets. He mentioned that a downfall of tablets is that the software is not fully utilizing the hardware efficiently. This is a challenge for software developers to continue learning and growing in this area. After today, I’ve decided I don’t think I need a tablet and would be much more satisfied with a notebook powered by an AMD Fusion APU!

Rick Bergman, AMD’s senior vice-president and general manager at the AMD headquarters

I also had the chance to meet Rick Bergman, AMD’s senior vice-president and general manager. Rick is a busy man, so I’m grateful he fit me into his schedule. Rick was curious about my passion for AMD and I introduced him to my website, AMD Forum. Rick and I discussed the differences between PC consumers across countries and cultures. In Sweden, consumers often adopt new technology earlier than in the United States. One goal I have with AMD Forum is to promote AMD as a brand in my home country.

One interesting piece of information I learned from Rick was that he is frequently one of the last people to see the test out AMD’s new hardware components. I had initially thought that his position at AMD would give him the first look at new hardware. Rick also said that he believes that the former days when raw benchmark performance was of key importance have passed. AMD is helping to lead the way for the future of computing through their Fusion APU technology.

The best part of being at the AMD headquarters was meeting everyone on the team. Getting to know different people in different areas has been fascinating and each individual’s role at AMD is interesting and important. One main lesson I learned from my visit at AMD is that passionate people can create wonderful things. I think people often forget that you can really love your job if you are passionate about the work you are doing.

The AMD team has treated me as one of their own and this visit to the AMD headquarters has been a life-changing experience. My trip only deepened my passion and excitement for AMD products and the company as a whole. I truly appreciate everyone who made my visit so enjoyable and I hope I can visit again soon!

Thanks to everyone for reading this post and I look forward to connecting with fellow AMD fans on Twitter. Being in the USA has surpassed my expectations and I would love to come back to visit other areas of the country sometime soon.

-Daniel Andersson

Daniel Andersson is a fan of AMD and AMD covered costs for Daniel’s travel. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites, and references to third party trademarks, are provided for convenience and illustrative purposes only. Unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such links, and no third party endorsement of AMD or any of its products is implied.