Hector Ruiz, Chairman & CEO, AMD

In what Ruiz called AMD's most significant technology ever, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company's Torrenza initiative is enabling supercomputer vendors like IBM to add specialized co-processors to AMD-based servers. While pressing ahead with antitrust action, Ruiz this year finally cracked holdout Dell as an account. And in September, Ruiz plunked down $5.4 billion for graphics chip maker ATI, preparing for yet further innovations.

"We believe as technology advances, integration is not only inevitable but also advantageous," AMD's 60-year-old guitar-picking CEO said after the acquisition.

When Ruiz became CEO in April 2002, after two years as president, some opined that if anyone could put this erratic, would-be giant killer on an even keel, he was the one. The technically astute former Motorola executive, with a doctorate in quantum electronics, ran a tight ship. Moreover, Ruiz championed innovation over me-too cloning.

Some were right. Since turning nicely profitable in 2004, AMD's share of the x86 market climbed to 27 percent in the second quarter, according to Mercury Research. While sales growth paused this year, after climbing 16 percent to $5.8 billion in 2005, earnings did not. Sure, Intel, Santa Clara, Calif., made missteps. But Ruiz also pushed advanced architecture, beating Intel to the performance-per-watt and multicore parties, and Silicon Valley is likely to be a two-company town from now on.