AMD CEO envisions users, not vendors, in control of IT

The head of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) is predicting a seismic shift in the balance of power in both the chip industry and the world of IT as a whole, with influence shifting from vendors to users. The move could particularly benefit the health-care industry, which is still struggling to find ways to move forward with technology.

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"We're entering a new era in microprocessor technology where the new phenomenon is choice," said Hector Ruiz, chairman and chief executive officer of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD). "It'll be the single greatest transfer of power the industry has ever seen from vendor to customer." He was speaking at Oracle's OpenWorld conference taking place in San Francisco, the first time AMD has been prominently featured at the event.

Of course, increased customer choice comes at a price. Users will have to make more technology decisions and will have "more confusing advertising claims to sort through," Ruiz said. One of his responsibilities as head of AMD will be to ensure that customers have "an honest choice," he added. The bitter rivalry between AMD and chip giant Intel Corp. has led to both companies engaging in plenty of claim and counterclaim in the past.

In a spoof on the movie The Matrix, always a favorite of technology companies, Ruiz showed a video clip featuring himself playing the role of the film's teacher Morpheus who educates the Neo character, or in this case, a customer called "ITo" on what's really going on in the world.

To underscore the idea of customer choice, Ruiz turned to other hi-jinks. As he read out a list of AMD partners including Oracle, Hewlett-Packard Co. and IBM Corp., he was interrupted by Michael Dell, chairman of Dell Inc. Dell rushed onstage yelling, "Hold on, Hector, I think you missed someone." For many years an Intel-only shop, recently Dell has changed its tune and begun to offer computers based on AMD's chips.

On his core theme, Ruiz spoke about health-care as "an area where our industry could do better." He invited onstage Dr. David Brailer, former U.S. national coordinator for health information technology. The two men discussed what they see as a current crisis in the U.S. health-care industry which remains mired in paper-based records and outdated IT systems.

"Paper kills," Brailer said. He believes that up to 80 percent of the 98,000 people in the U.S. who die every year from medical error could be saved if IT systems were fully instituted. What's needed to make a nationwide health network a reality is further innovation by IT companies along with substantial reductions in the cost of technology so that all sizes of medical facilities can afford to implement IT. "IT is considered to be one of the best therapies for the health-care industry today," he added.

Health-care is a US$2 trillion industry, according to Brailer. Ruiz added that the health-care market represents a huge opportunity for IT companies. Change will come slowly, Brailer said, but eventually consumers will really be in charge of their own medical records and therefore be able to obtain better health care.