perhaps "rips" is too strong a word but one can read between the lines:


http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20111013232215_Ex_AMD_Engineer_Explains_Bulld...er_Fiasco.html

basically he says that AMD management decided not to use any hand crafting in the design process of their processors and instead use automated tools, which results in roughly 20% bigger and 20% slower designs.

i do not doubt his claims for a second and it would certainly explain how AMD went from building great chips like the k6-2 and first 64 bit Athlons and ended up with the first Phenom (and to a lesser extent the second Phenom) and now the BD.

in contrast Intel has been hand crafting it's processors since at least the first "i" series and in all likelihood well before then.