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> (another one bites the dust)

Not at all. The market for AMD's products (CPUs and flash
RAM is growing), and AMD is gaining market share on Intel.
Intel recently acknowledged that Intel no longer drives
the x86 CPU market, when Intel cloned AMD's 64-bit
extensions to the IA-32 instruction set architecture.

> ... set up a design centre in India, the first of its
> kind outside the United States. The centre to initially
> employ 50 engineers will be located in the technology
> hub of Bangalore.

My guess is that this is the really boring part of IC
design, routing, placement, testing, etc. I doubt if
we'll see much in the way of novel silicon from there
for some time.

> AMD has said its plan is part of an expansion and
> would not involve laying off American engineers.

Consistent with my hypothesis.

> A row is raging in the US over whether the outsourcing
> of work to the developing world where costs are lower
> is costing US citizens their jobs.

The regulatory cost of having even one employee is too
bloody high here. Until and unless this gets fixed,
employers are going to off-shore every seat they can.

And if things get tight, those off-shore hacks may be
the first hacked, because it's doubtless easier to fire
people in India than here.