AMD CEO Dirk Meyer says he doesn't know how anybody could call a bottom - like Intel CEO Paul Ottellini did last week - given the continued lack of visibility and uncertainty in the marketplace.

Although Intel is expecting Q2, usually down from Q1, to be flat with Q1 - a forecast implies a very unseasonal uptick - AMD just expects revenues to be down this quarter because of the macro environment, visibility and seasonal weakness.

The company did say however that it thought it was seeing a return to "normal replenishment," well, maybe, it's not sure.

AMD - that's the newfangled design company coupled with its GlobalFoundry spin-off - in other words AMD as it used to be - lost $416 million or 66 cents a share in the first quarter on revenues of $1.177 billion, flat sequentially and down 21% year-over year, the results of battered demand and equally battered prices.

Wretched as its earnings were - and it's not that they were unexpected - they're a long sight better than the $1.16 billion it lost in Q4.

Its Q1 operating loss was $308 million.

And AMD's gross margin in Q1 was 43%, up 20 whole points including five points it got from selling inventory written down in Q4.

AMD built a lot of inventory in the second half of last year expecting a far different environment and didn't drop the run rate until around Christmas, Meyer said on a conference call Tuesday.

Revenues on CPUs were $938 million in Q1, up 7% sequentially but down 21% year-over-year. GPUs brought in $222 million, down 18% sequentially and down 15% year-over-year.

Speaking only for the design company - known for accounting purposes as the AMD Product Company - it says it lost $189 million (non-GAPP) in Q1 and saw a gross margin of 35%.

Meyer confirmed that AMD's moving up the launch of the six-core Istanbul CPU, a Shanghai derivative, from the second half to May, with systems due in June. Whether that means volume is another matter. The company is also offering discounts to upgrade.