"These questions, and AMD's response to this challenging situation, will not be resolved or clarified anytime soon," analysts for FBR Capital Markets wrote.

But some analysts said that ARM is more of a threat to Intel and AMD has reasonable strengths to continue incremental growth in the PC market. One question remains whether AMD can create a Fusion chip for tablets that can be a reasonable competitor to offerings from ARM and Intel.

For tablets, Read will have to focus more on software to generate interest in the company's chips, said Jim McGregor, chief technology strategist at In-Stat. AMD has much invested in a partnership with Microsoft, but Windows tablets are not generating much interest.

"AMD needs Android solutions to gain any traction, but there just doesn't seem to be much interest to put Android on AMD-based tablets at this point," McGregor said.

Nevertheless, with the previous experience in the PC industry, Read offers a better chance for AMD to think outside the box than someone from inside the company or another semiconductor firm. Read's first responsibility should be to develop a cohesive vision and then structure the company and its initiatives around it.