AMD's profits bolstered by continued demand for console chips

Newsbrief: Chipmaker AMD has announced strong first quarter 2014 financial results, which show continued buoyancy in its business supplying GPUs to the current-generation consoles. The Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Wii U all use AMD GPUs. Year-on-year, the company's Graphics and Visual Solutions unit -- which includes its console business -- saw a revenue gain of almost $400 million, jumping from $337 million in the quarter ending March 30, 2013 to $734 million this year. These results follow on from similar gains in the fourth quarter of last year, when Microsoft and Sony launched their consoles. By contrast, its Computing Solutions unit, which delivers chips for PCs, was down by $88 million year-over-year. The company's overall quarterly revenues climbed 28 percent year-over-year, to $1.40 billion, posting net income of $12 million for the quarter.