AMD CEO Hector Ruiz has been replaced by COO Dirk Meyer after six years running the x86 processor rivals to Intel. Ruiz becomes executive chairman.

Meyer had previously been boss of AMD's processor division. The moves come after AMD lost $1.19bn in Q2.

Ruiz had great success as CEO of AMD. Before Intel came out with its Core2Duo processor, AMD had a demonstrably better PC product line than Intel.

Ruiz also saw the move into servers with the Opteron which, though delayed, challenged Intel's position in the server market.

Ruiz also pursued Intel through the world's regulatory practices for unfair business practices resulting in investigations in Japan, Korea, Europe, New York and by the US federal trade Commission.

However Ruiz made one disastrous mistake - buying graphics chip specialist ATI Technologies for $5.6bn in an attempt to boost the graphics capabilities of its processors. AMD now values ATI at less than half its purchase price, and the debt taken on to fund the purchase is dragging the company down.

Ruiz maintained AMD's market share in the PC market at around 20 per cent. Not a bad figure against so formidable a rival as Intel.

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