AMD to cut 15% of staff as sales fall Advanced Micro Devices will cut 15 per cent of its workforce as it struggles to cope with falling demand for PCs, a tougher economy and the growth of tablet devices. The world's second-largest maker of PC microprocessors had issued a revenue warning last week, saying sales would fall by about 10 per cent compared to the second quarter due to "weaker-than-expected demand across all product lines." The Silicon Valley company has been slower to respond to the challenge from smartphones and tablets than its bigger rival Intel, which itself reported a 5 per cent year-on-year decline in quarterly revenues on Tuesday due to slowing demand for its chips. AMD will cut nearly 1,700 jobs from its workforce of about 11,000 to achieve annualised cost savings of about $190m. The move is part of a restructuring plan aimed at lowering AMD's expenses by 25 per cent compared to those in the second quarter. "These are difficult, but necessary steps to ensure our plan has the right scale and scope to address the market and competitive challenges we face," said Rory Read, chief executive. "[The company has to] diversify beyond the traditional PC market and become a leader in fast-growing and adjacent markets where we can differentiate and lead," Mr Read said. It plans to expand in tablet, server and industrial embedded chip markets. AMD said it aimed to break even operationally in the third quarter of next year with $1.3bn in quarterly revenues.