General Magic
If you love AMD for its history of betting the farm on a new architecture, you will appreciate the story of 'General Magic'. This film chronicles a secretive Apple spin-off from the early 1990s that set out to build the world's first smartphone. It was
a device complete with features we'd recognize today, from wireless communication to emojis, but it was simply too far ahead of its time and failed spectacularly. The documentary is a heartbreaking and inspiring look at brilliant engineers who saw the future perfectly but got the timing wrong. It features interviews with team members who went on to create the iPhone, Android, and eBay, making it a powerful story about how failure can sow the seeds of future revolutions—a theme any long-term AMD follower knows well.
Silicon Valley: The Untold Story
To understand AMD, you have to understand the ecosystem that created it. This three-part documentary series is a fantastic primer on how a quiet agricultural valley south of San Francisco transformed into the global hub of innovation. It moves beyond the well-worn tales of just Apple and Facebook to explore the confluence of factors—counter-culture, academic research, and early venture capital—that made it all possible. Featuring interviews with pioneers like Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, the series provides crucial context for the rivalries and relationships that defined the industry, including the shared origins of Intel and AMD from the legendary Fairchild Semiconductor. It frames the entire environment that allowed a company like AMD to even exist and eventually compete.
Something Ventured
The AMD vs. Intel rivalry wasn't just fought in labs; it was fueled by money and vision. 'Something Ventured' tells the story of the original venture capitalists who funded the companies that built Silicon Valley, including Intel, Apple, and Atari. The film details how a handful of investors took massive risks on unproven engineers with groundbreaking ideas, fundamentally changing the landscape of business and technology. It explains the origins of the money and mindset that powered the semiconductor boom. For AMD fans, this is the story behind the story, revealing the high-stakes financial game that enabled companies to challenge established monopolies and pursue decade-long technology roadmaps. It’s a lesson in how risk, capital, and engineering intertwine.
AlphaGo
At its core, AMD's recent success with Ryzen and EPYC is about building processors that do more, faster. 'AlphaGo' is a thrilling documentary that showcases the raw power of computation in a dramatic, human-centered way. The film follows the Google DeepMind team as their AI, AlphaGo, takes on Lee Sedol, the world champion of the ancient and incredibly complex game of Go. What starts as a simple man-vs-machine contest becomes a profound exploration of intuition, creativity, and intelligence itself. Watching the AI make moves that initially baffle human experts, only to be revealed as brilliant, is a stunning demonstration of what advanced processing can achieve—the very domain where AMD is now a central player. It’s a must-watch for anyone fascinated by the outer limits of computational power.
