Trouble chip company AMD has sold its programmable logic device unit Vantis to Lattice for half a billion dollars in cash. AMD spun off its PLD division some time ago and it was always on the cards that it would sell the unit after that happened. Last week, AMD turned in very poor financial results and it is saddled with debts of over $1 billion. The sale of Vantis will take some of the pressure off AMD. ®