>> It could as well be that focusing in K12 would have delayed Zen, maybe delaying it enough that it could have become irrelevant by the time it got to market.
Agree. AMD stock was under $2 prior to Zen. Buying was a bet that Zen would be competitive with Intel in which case the stock would come back, otherwise they were doomed. The first Zen chips were in fact competitive but beat Intel in some benchmarks and lost in others. That would have brought back competition, but who knew Intel would flounder for many more years while Zen got a nice uplift with each generation! Delaying Zen would have been bad for AMD, but in hindsight that wouldn't have mattered so long as they could stay afloat til it launched.
Agree. AMD stock was under $2 prior to Zen. Buying was a bet that Zen would be competitive with Intel in which case the stock would come back, otherwise they were doomed. The first Zen chips were in fact competitive but beat Intel in some benchmarks and lost in others. That would have brought back competition, but who knew Intel would flounder for many more years while Zen got a nice uplift with each generation! Delaying Zen would have been bad for AMD, but in hindsight that wouldn't have mattered so long as they could stay afloat til it launched.