Not many high school kids get invited to AMD's unofficial headquarters in Austin, Texas; however, I was one of those kids. Actually, I am probably the only kid. Who else would want to spend a day at an AMD office? As a junior in high school, I was invited, but due to problems securing the non-disclosure agreements in the short time frame available, the plans fell through the floor. I was finally able to make a visit a few weeks after I graduated from school, in 2007.

For months, I have been debating on whether or not I should share my experiences and almost a year later, I have decided to do just that. On one side of the debate, I felt that this was simply a personal visit - I got to meet several people whom I have had contact with in the past few years. It was definitely nice to put faces with the names of those who have been instrumental in helping me get to where I am today. On the other side of the fence, AMD has closed shop at Building 312 and they have moved to a new location, known as the AMD Lone Star Campus. Because of this, I feel that this is the last chance - the last possibility - for others to see inside AMD's Building 312.

I visited Advanced Micro Devices on June 21st, 2007. Not so surprisingly, the parking lot was littered with more Porsches than a Porsche dealer. I was somewhat disappointed to not see one of Hector Ruiz’s Ferraris, but as I read on the Inquirer later that night, he was away on business in Washington DC. It was a shame though, because the two of us go way back and I was hoping to finally meet him.

If I recall correctly, AMD purchased Building 312 roughly five years ago from Lockheed Martin. I arrived early in the morning and met my contact within AMD’s mobile division, Scott S. As can be expected, I was treated very nicely and everyone I came into contact with was friendly and outgoing. First on the agenda was a meeting with AMD’s lawyers, which ended with me signing my life away. Well, not really, but I did have to sign a few papers.

After signing a non-disclosure agreement, Damon M, from AMD’s New Product Review Program, came to take me up to his section of the building. Basically my NDA says that I can’t mention the fact that AMD’s upcoming Opteron core will be based on the Firefly architecture. Anyway, as I was saying, Damon escorted me to his field of the cubical farm. The first thing that I noticed when walking around was that AMD really does have a sense of humor.