IDF The Intel Developer Forum, like having gas after eating beans, is one of those things that you can always count on.

Twice a year, Intel's top executives spend a Monday before the show refining their gripping speeches. Their faces are primed to receive makeup. Their throats are lubricated with the finest teas Aramark can acquire. Their buzzwords are galvanized by roadmaps, code-names and ambiguous dodges to tough questions. And, on Tuesdays, the executives bloom in front of developers gathered from around the globe.

IDF too has long meant that AMD would make a showing in San Francisco. Without money of its own, AMD depended on Intel to fly in hundreds of journalists and then poached the hacks for a meeting or two at a hotel near the Moscone Center.

AMD's ingenious journalist kidnapping often required some awkward maneuvers such as limo drivers waiting outside of the Moscone Center trying their hands at Guy Incognito impressions. A wink and a nod, and you were in the hired car, racing toward an AMD executive.

Well, that fun has come to an end.

AMD - now flush with cash and strong Opteron sales - has decided that it's all grown up. It doesn't need to borrow Intel's sloppy seconds. AMD will boycott IDF this year, preferring to hold its own events in Sunnyvale, Austin or wherever on different dates. (Even virtual shows like Grand Theft Auto - Henri Richard will do.)

It brings a tear to your eyes. The little chipmaker that could is ready to go it alone. ®