AMD'S Opteron processor will be launched at speeds of 1.6GHz and 1.4GHz

What's up with this?
AMD has been promising a quantihurtz 3400+ Hammer when it launched - and for the past year it has been promising at least 2 GHz at launch.

Announcing the speeds backwards - 1.6 GHz first and 1.4 GHz second - is exactly what Sun did a couple of years ago with their USIII - which turned out that only the slower speed CPUS are really available.

This represents a major admission by AMD that their 0.13 micron 9 layer copper SOI process is a complete DUD.
Didn't Intel hit 2 GHz on a 5 layer aluminum 0.18 micron bulk CMOS process over a year ago?

AMD will have to sell these Oppies dirt cheap - since they will be slower than AMD's existing Athlon XP CPUS by over 500 MHz.

Talk about going backwards....

I wonder if this will help Mike Dell make upo his mind about using AMD Opteron....hmmmmmm.

-SZ

and going to sell Athlon 64 branded PC's under the name Compaq..

Do you have a press release or other documentation from Compaq where they committed to using the Athlon 64?

-SZ

If Crusoe is such a dud, why did HP chose it for their Tablet PC? And why does every major Japanese PC vendor use Crusoe in at least part of their product line?

Simple - because HP - through their purchase of Compaq - is an early investor in Transmeta - just as is Sony, Fujitsu and a host of other Japanese and Taiwan companies.
They are merely trying to protect their investments - before it goes completely down the drain.

Transmeta wins $88 million from AOL, others
By Stephen Shankland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
April 24, 2000, 11:20 a.m. PT
URL: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-1751530.html
update Transmeta, which aims to take on Intel in the processor market, announced that it has received $88 million in funding from America Online, Gateway, Compaq Computer, Sony and several major Taiwanese electronics manufacturers in a deal that could lead to an initial public offering later this year.


The Taiwanese manufacturers that invested in Transmeta include Compal Electronics, Quanta Computer and First International Computer, a company associated with Via. Samsung and Phoenix Technologies also invested.

Looks like Intel's Hyperthreading is getting good ISV software support - here's an MPEG encoder using hyperthreading direct, claiming speeds comparable to hardware encoding.

December 11, 2002 13:07

MainConcept MPEG Encoder Adds Support for Intel Hyper-Threading Technology; Speed Now Rivals That of Hardware Encoders

AACHEN, Germany & BEACHWOOD, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 11, 2002--MainConcept, a leader in multimedia technology, today announced that its popular MPEG Encoder supports Intel(R) Hyper-Threading (HT) Technology(a) for the new Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 processor at 3.06 GHz. HT Technology enables a single desktop processor to run two threads of software simultaneously, boosting PC performance by up to 25 percent.

By adding optimizations for Intel's CPU architecture, MainConcept has enabled the MPEG Encoder to rival speeds that were previously only available in hardware encoders.

"We are happy to support the latest Intel advances," said Markus Moenig, founder and CEO of MainConcept. "By breaking the 3 GHz barrier and introducing HT Technology, Intel has raised the bar once again. We are proud to offer software which takes advantage of these capabilities."

"The MainConcept MPEG Encoder is a prime example of how state-of-the-art software can take advantage of latest innovations like HT Technology," said Erik Steeb, Director of EMEA Intel Architecture Marketing, "The latest encoder from MainConcept adds new levels of convenience to users of digital video."

The current version of MainConcept's standalone MPEG Encoder already supports Hyper-Threading. A free demo version is available for downloading at www.mainconcept.com. HT Technology is also supported in the latest version of the SDK available to MainConcept's MPEG licensees. Release dates will vary as licensees incorporate the new version into their products.

About MainConcept

MainConcept AG is a worldwide leader in multimedia technologies for the PC and beyond. Founded in 1993, the company has successfully created video editing software for the Amiga, OS/2, Windows and Linux platforms.

MainConcept supplies core technology to other companies, enabling them to create and enhance applications for PCs, PDAs, set-top boxes and other devices with minimal investment in research and development. The company is especially renowned for its video codec (COmpression/DECompression) technologies. Global headquarters are in Aachen, Germany. A US subsidiary, MainConcept LLC, was established in 2001 in Beachwood, Ohio.

(a) Hyper-Threading Technology requires a computer system with an Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 processor at 3.06 GHz or higher, a chipset and BIOS that utilize this technology, and an operating system that includes optimizations for this technology. Performance will vary depending on the specific hardware and software you use. See www.intel.com/info/hyperthreading for information.


CONTACT: MainConcept LLC
Mark Bailey, 216/378-7655
mbailey@mainconcept.com

Mr. PennyKing - are you Zsa Zsa Gabor Acs, the scam artist described below?

http://www.stockpatrol.com/schlock/articles/panamed2.html
PANAMED CORPORATION (OTCBB: PANA), PART II – PENNY KINGS FROM HEAVEN
June 26, 2002

As we saw in Part I of this series, PanaMed Corporation (OTCBB: PANA) has been promoting plans to market a therapeutic product to treat HIV and AIDS. The Company has not said who developed the treatment, or where, or when. And, so far at least, the Company’s expectations have not been verified by independent clinical tests – unless you count the three AIDS patients who purportedly received the treatment in an “uncontrolled environment.”

It’s not much to go on, is it?


Team PanaMed

Who are the scientists that developed this therapeutic treatment? What are their credentials? Where do they work? Have they written about their findings? Are they teaching at major hospitals or universities? Do they hold any patents on the process? Shouldn’t we expect them to be rushing to take credit? Wouldn’t you?

PanaMed does not name a single individual who might have been involved with the development of Viro-Net, stating only that the product is “supplied” by Havel Investments. PanaMed still has not said whether Havel manufactures the product. If not, where is it coming from, and who is paying for it?

The questions continue to mount. Who is in charge at PanaMed? Is the Company run by scientists, doctors, or clinical investigators? It seems not. PanaMed’s management team consists of investment bankers, deal-makers, and a missionary. Consider this:

• According to its Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2001, PanaMed’s co-founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Director, Phillip Butler, has a background in “developing financial strategies, corporate development, mergers, acquisitions, and financing.”

• The Company’s other co-founder, President, Treasurer and Chairman is Thomas Sims, has been involved with “launching companies, raising money, mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, launching subsidiaries, establishing and building strategic partnerships (domestic and international), going public and launching/nurturing a public trading network.”

Mr. Sims is also CEO and President of Quintek Technologies, Inc. (OTCBB: QTEK), a California-based company that markets a technology for recording and storing digital images on an aperture card. In November 2001, Quintek executed a stock swap, exchanging 2 million shares of Quintek stock for 2 million shares of PanaMed.

• The Company’s two Executive Vice-Presidents, Todd Davis and Seth Cayer (both of whom also were co-founders of PanaMed) are investment bankers, while another Director, Daniel Butler, is a Christian missionary.

Daniel Butler is also Phillip Butler’s brother. The Company’s Secretary, Catherine Sims, is Phillip Sims’ wife. Between them, the Butler brothers and the Sims spouses owned 10,150,000 shares of PanaMed as of April 15, 2002 (not including the 2 million shares held by Quintek, a company controlled by Mr. Sims). Messrs Cayne and Davis each owned an additional 1.4 million PanaMed shares. That accounts for approximately 15 million shares out of the 22.1 million shares of PanaMed stock that reportedly were outstanding as of May 31, 2002.

The Company does not indicate how any of these individuals would be qualified to judge the efficacy of a therapeutic treatment – or who they might rely upon to make that determination.


King of the World

Remember Quintek, the affiliate that holds 2 million shares of PanaMed? Investors who received those e-mails touting PanaMed, or who have been reviewing PanaMed’s press releases and public filings, probably missed this item from Quintek’s Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2002:

During the first quarter of 2002, [Quintek] learned the Securities and Exchange Commission has undertaken an informal inquiry to determine whether violations of federal securities laws may have occurred in connection with sales of securities issued by the Company or the Company’s affiliate, PanaMed Corporation. The Company believes that the inquiry relates mainly to press releases issued in October 2001 about the formation of PanaMed and in January and March 2002 about the attempts to begin selling equipment in Central Europe, and about the trading patterns in the Company’s securities around the time those announcements were made. The Company does not believe the inquiry will have an adverse effect on the financial statements.

We were unable to locate the October 2001 press releases concerning the formation of PanaMed. Oddly, they are not among the press releases that remain available to investors on Quintek’s website, or on the site maintained by Quintek’s investment relations firm.

The January and March 2002 press releases issued by Quintek are available. On January 8, 2002, Quintek announced that a company called Penny King Holdings Corporation (PKH) had signed an exclusive agreement to distribute Quintek’s aperture cards in certain Eastern European countries.

Penny King apparently had developed more than a passing interest in Quintek. The January 8th press release revealed that Penny King had obtained 2.3 million shares of Quintek in a “private transaction.” It did not identify the seller of those shares or indicate what, if anything, Penny King had paid for them. Elsewhere, Penny King claims that it has a “minority interest” in PanaMed.

Penny King’s credentials, and qualifications to act as a distributor, were dubious at best. The press release described Penny King as a private “Investment Holding Company.” How would it distribute the products? The press release did not say. There was no indication that Penny King operated as a distributor or had the financial capacity to perform under the Quintek agreement.

Investors could be excused if they were skeptical. The January 8th press release claimed that Penny King had “exclusive Western Hemisphere distribution rights to a whole new series of technologies under agreements with The Free and Clear Foundations of America, Inc. a Washington DC-based non-profit organization.” At first blush that makes it sound as though Penny King had obtained a valuable asset - but what are “The Free and Clear Foundations of America, Inc,” and what are those “technologies.” Most importantly, what is Penny King, and is it a bona fide business partner for any public company?


A Penny for Your Thoughts - or Your Nickel

The answers to those questions cast a giant shadow on the value of any relationship between Penny King and Quintek. Penny King is controlled by Hungarian-born Gabor Sandor Acs, whose biography reads like a dime store novel. Acs claims that he has worked for Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard; was a mortgage banker/broker in Seattle, Washington; operated an offshore bank in the Pacific; built foreign interests in Canada, Russia, Hungary, the Philippines, the Cayman Islands and Europe; and advised venture capitalists in global investments.

Acs also insists that, in 1983, he tried to sell then-Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos on a plan that would get the Philippines out of debt within five years. Acs says that Marcos rejected the proposal, but told him where the Japanese had hidden 80,000 tons of gold during World War II. Acs says that he passed that information on to the F.B.I. shortly before Marcos was toppled from power (implying that there was some cause and effect here).

Since 1990, Acs has been “managing the vision of a free and clear planet through the aspices (sic) of The Free and Clear Foundations of Earth, International,” which own 50% of Penny King. And what do the Free and Clear Foundations do - when they are not handing out new technologies to Penny King? According to a website maintained by Penny King, the “Foundations buys pennies from homeless people for a nickel each.” Is there an economic theory behind that seemingly illogical exercise? Consider this explanation from Penny King:

By buying pennies for a nickel each the Foundations educate the participants in its self help programs relative to the perception of the value of money and saving for the future. It provides motivation for improving their conditions, and enlightens the general public about how money is created and how it functions in a global society.

Pennies and nickels should not be confused with millions of dollars – or billions. Compare the following two statements:

• The Penny King website states that Penny King is “continuing the process of facilitating up to $2 billion in capital to over 50 different publicly and privately owned companies in the United States, Canada and Hungary.”

• The January 8th press release from Quintek stated that Penny King was “continuing its process of facilitating over $200 million in capital investments to 50 different publicly and privately owned companies in the United States, Canada and Hungary.”

So which is it - $50 million, or $50 billion? Maybe it just doesn’t make any difference.

In any event, on March 20, 2002, Quintek issued another press release - which presumably helped trigger the SEC’s inquiry. This time, Quintek was announcing that Penny King had assigned its distribution rights to EuroTrend Informatics Ltd. (ETL), a private Hungarian information technology and software company.

The press release said that ETL was about to place orders for $10 million in Quintek products, as “the first phase of a $250 million two year project being developed by The Free and Clear Foundations relating to the deployment of automated voting systems in Hungary, Central and Eastern Europe.” It also claimed that Penny King was planning to provide a $15 million revolving credit line to ETL so that it could purchase the Quintek products.

Quintek projected that the ETL sales would result in net pre-tax revenues of “around 18 cents per share.”

Not so fast. Despite all of the talk about millions and billions of dollars, Penny King has yet to raise any funds for this project. On April 12, 2002, Quintek announced that Penny King had not completed any financing arrangements, and that ETL had not yet placed any firm purchase order. At the same time, however, Quintek conceded that it had given Penny King $5,000 and approximately 129,000 shares of common stock in exchange for “promoting Quintek's name in the financial community, providing company information to investors and financial institutions, and seeking contracts or purchase orders for Quintek's products.”

Is it any wonder that the SEC is asking questions?

While they are at it, they may also want to ask why the SEC inquiry is not disclosed in PanaMed’s public filings.


©2002 Stock Patrol.com. All rights reserved.

How bad is it when a company introduces a new "server" processor, and the only company they can get to endorse it is some third world Russian portal operator?

Really pathetic - AMD has sunk to new lows.

Press Release Source: AMD


AMD Athlon MP Processors Strengthen Leading Internet Portal in Russia, Rambler.ru
Tuesday December 10, 12:01 am ET


MOSCOW--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 10, 2002--AMD (NYSE:AMD - News) today announced that Rambler, one of the leading Internet portals in Russia, has selected servers from Tyan Platforms based on AMD Athlon(TM) MP processors to upgrade its search system.
ADVERTISEMENT


The Rambler search system contains information from more than 47 million documents from Internet servers in Russia and other Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries. Rambler has recently passed the benchmark of two million search requests a day, an average of over 50 requests per second. With new AMD Athlon MP processor-based servers from Tyan Platforms, the Rambler search engine has enough power to introduce new search algorithms that index dynamic Web pages and provide finer Web site ranking in search results.

"In making the decision to upgrade Rambler's mission-critical search engine equipment, our first priorities were high-performance and reliability of the systems," said Ivan Zasursky, deputy general director, Rambler. "Before our AMD processor-based servers, our record indexing capacity was 4,410,303 Web pages per day and now we have set a new record of 6,993,403 Web pages per day. We fully expect the new server solution powered by AMD to deliver the right mix of stability and performance to effectively support our users' search requests."

"Working closely with our customers, AMD is committed to provide high-performance computing solutions for ISPs and the enterprise market sector in Russia," said Giuliano Meroni, vice president, Sales and Marketing, AMD Europe. "Servers powered by AMD Athlon MP processors provide the levels of reliability and stability required by Internet service providers."

About the AMD Athlon(TM) MP Processor

The AMD Athlon(TM) MP processor is an x86 processor designed for high-performance multiprocessing servers and workstations.

Leading corporations use AMD Athlon MP processors to increase productivity in areas such as oil and gas exploration, Web-hosting services and motion picture rendering. In addition, many of the world's most prestigious universities use AMD Athlon MP processors in super clusters for compute-intensive research applications.

A key advantage of AMD's multiprocessing platform is Smart MP technology, which greatly enhances overall platform performance by increasing data movement between the two CPUs, chipset and memory system. Smart MP technology features dual point-to-point, high-speed 266MHz system buses with Error Correcting Code (ECC) support designed to provide up to 2.1GB per second per CPU of bus bandwidth in a dual-processor system. Smart MP technology also has an optimized Modified Owner Exclusive Shared Invalid (MOESI) cache coherency protocol that manages data and memory traffic in a multiprocessing environment.

The AMD Athlon MP processor features the patented QuantiSpeed(TM) architecture, which includes a high performance full-speed cache with hardware data pre-fetch, a fully pipelined superscalar floating point engine, and an exclusive L2 Translation Look-aside Buffer (TLB). The processor also incorporates 3DNow!(TM) Professional technology, which has 51 new instructions that extend AMD's 3DNow! technology, enabling smoother, richer and more lifelike images, more precise digital audio and an enriched Internet experience.

The AMD Athlon MP processor is compatible with AMD's stable Socket A infrastructure, and supports DDR memory technology. It is manufactured using AMD's 0.13-micron copper process technology in Fab 30 in Dresden, Germany.

The AMD Athlon MP processor is compatible with AMD's stable Socket A infrastructure, and supports DDR memory technology. It is manufactured using AMD's 0.13 micron copper process technology in Fab 30 in Dresden, Germany.

About AMD

AMD is a global supplier of integrated circuits for the personal and networked computer and communications markets with manufacturing facilities in the United States, Europe, Japan, and Asia. AMD, a Fortune 500 and Standard & Poor's 500 companies, produces microprocessors, Flash memory devices, and support circuitry for communications and networking applications.

Founded in 1969 and based in Sunnyvale, California, AMD had revenues of $3.9 billion in 2001. (NYSE: AMD - News).

AMD on the Web

For more information about today's announcement, please visit our virtual pressroom at http://www.amd.com/news/spotlight. Additional press releases are available at www.amd.com/news/news.html.

For more information about AMD's business products, please visit www.amd.com/business.

AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, AMD Athlon, 3DNow!, and combinations thereof, and QuantiSpeed are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Other product and company names are for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective companies.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact:
AMD
Russia:
Elena Baikaltseva, +7 (095) 795 0622 (PR)
elena.baikaltseva@amd.com
or
U.S.A.:
Laureen Chernow, 512/602-0449 (PR)
laureen.chernow@amd.com
or
Mike Haase, 408/749-3124 (IR)



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: AMD

Interesting developments at HP - with, apparently, a 32-way Itanium 2 Superdome server - running 3 operating systems concurrently.

December 09, 2002 11:01

HP Showcasing Itanium-based Superdome Server Running HP-UX, Windows and Linux Concurrently

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 9, 2002--


Exhibit at Gartner Data Center Conference Demonstrates Power and
Flexibility of Multi-OS Functionality
Today at the 21st Annual Gartner Data Center Conference, HP (NYSE:HPQ) is demonstrating an Itanium(R) 2-based HP Superdome server running multiple operating environments -- HP-UX, Windows(R) and Linux - concurrently within a single system in three separate partitions.

The demo highlights HP's ability to deliver multi-OS functionality on the industry-standard Itanium architecture to meet the diverse customer workload requirements typical of today's enterprise computing environments.

As businesses look to improve operational efficiencies and reduce costs, consolidating applications and workloads on their enterprise servers represents an effective means for increasing the return on their technology investments. By allowing multiple applications and operating systems to run in a partitioned environment, the highly available HP Superdome server gives customers the benefits of better manageability, scalability and flexibility.

This year's Gartner Data Center Conference is focused on helping customers do more with less and on IT consolidation. HP's adaptive infrastructure addresses both of these topics as illustrated by the Superdome demo as well as by additional demos of storage consolidation, a preview of new blades offerings and the industry- leading Utility Data Center.

HP's adaptive infrastructure enables enterprises to become more responsive to changing business conditions by creating a dynamic IT environment that fits with their evolving needs, reduces risk and complexity and delivers real-world return on their information technology investments.

Superdome Demo Description

The demo is being conducted with a 32-way HP Superdome system running HP-UX 11i, Windows and Linux operating environments concurrently in three different hardware partitions. The configuration of the server is as follows:


-- Four-way partition running HP-UX 11i with the Oracle(R)9.2
database and HP-UX Systems Administration Manger. (Note:
HP-UX currently scales to 64 processors on current PA-RISC
based systems)

-- Twenty-way partition running an RC2 version of
Microsoft(R) Windows .NET Server 2003 Datacenter Edition,
a pre-release version of 64-bit Microsoft SQL Server
Enterprise Edition, and Windows System Resource Manager.

-- Four-way partition running Linux with Linux desktop
applications.
The system also is capable of running Oracle database server on Windows .NET Datacenter Server.

In a second scale-up demo that HP is hosting in conjunction with Microsoft, the Superdome server is configured with 32 processors running Windows .NET. When introduced later this year, the Itanium-based Superdome server will scale to 64-way computing and support 512 GB of memory for HP-UX and Windows .NET environments.

About HP

HP is a leading global provider of products, technologies, solutions and services to consumers and businesses. The company's offerings span IT infrastructure, personal computing and access devices, global services and imaging and printing. HP completed its merger transaction involving Compaq Computer Corporation on May 3, 2002. More information about HP is available at http://www.hp.com.

UNIX is a registered trademark of the Open Group. Intel and Itanium are registered trademarks of Intel Corp. or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corp.

This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the possibility that the market for the sale of certain products and services may not develop as expected; that development and performance of these products and services may not proceed as planned; and other risks that are described from time to time in HP's Securities and Exchange Commission reports, including but not limited to HP's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended July 31, 2002 and reports filed subsequent to HP's annual report on Form 10-K, as amended on January 30, 2002, for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2001. If any of these risks or uncertainties materializes or any of these assumptions proves incorrect, HP's results could differ materially from HP's expectations in these statements. HP assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements.


CONTACT: HP
Brian Garabedian, 408/285-9278
brian.garabedian@hp.com

Thanks for your courteous response!

I see you majored in hypocrisy at your school.

Athlons Dead On Arrival - ADOA

Looks like AMD has got itself into a real quality, reliability and Public Relations pickle:

How many people have been receiving dead AMD processors? Email from Freddy:

I work for a local computer company and these past 3 months have produced the most dead AMD processors I have ever seen. They are cosmetically clean but fail to boot and beep the proper codes. This isn't just from one source - we have changed vendors many times due to them not wanting to replace unworking CPU's.

Good question! If you have some skinny on this, please email Joe.

http://www.overclockers.com/home.asp

*Important: The 64-bit version of Windows .NET Server 2003, Enterprise Edition, is only compatible with 64-bit Intel Itanium-based systems. It cannot be successfully installed on 32-bit systems.

Windows .NET Server 2003 Release Candidate 2 System Requirements

http://www.microsoft.com/windows.netserver/preview/sysreqs.mspx

Do you have stupidity training at your AMD School of Naivete ?

All that validation stuff is only necessary if they actually want to sell it.

I nearly fell out of my chair laughing at that one !
It is the truth of that flippant comment that is the bain of AMD.
In order to do full system verification, every application/OS will have to undergo months and months of testing and evaluation - and clearly, there is nobody lining up - Oracle and Oracle customers included - to make these exhaustive, expensive tests.
Once again, AMD's concept of how this segment of the market works proves their incompetence.

So you think I work for AMD?

Sure do - you sound so naive just like the AMD spokesdorks.
And why else would you pump this perennial loser of a company if you didn't work there?

-SZ

I don't think porting Oracle costs a huge amount of resources for Oracle. It's a one-man job.

A one man job?

To recompile abut 10 million lines of code?
And then perfrom extensive validation and verification in multiple CPU - and multi-user environments with a host of different applications, loads, etc.

One helluva man, I'd say.

No wonder AMD is a failure in the business segment - they (you) don't have a clue what it's all about.

-SZ

What's up with this?

Press Release Source: Intel Corporation


ADVISORY/Key Players To Announce Significant Development in Wireless
Thursday December 5, 12:06 am ET


SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 4, 2002--Attention editors and reporters:
Please mark your calendars for a conference call Thursday, December 5, at 2 p.m. EST.

Key players in the information technology marketplace will announce a significant development in wireless that has implications for business and organizations nationwide.

Press materials will be provided at that time.

Call information: 800/314-7867; Passcode: 622207



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact:
Intel Corporation
Laura Anderson, 408/666-5915



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Intel Corporation

Why doesn't Oracle and SAP make a statement to this effect?
What's to gain?

Industry support?

Dont you think that matters?
You think that it is not important for hardware manufacturers to know in advance that software is being written for AMD's hammer?
Software vendors know that they cannot commit valuable resources in a down economy such as now to a platform that has no visible hardware support - exceot from AMD's own Newisiys subsidiary.

aHT* is only 16 bits wide. Additionally you have no ECC and you use up one of Opteron's aHT channels.

Please explain and elaborate, OK?
Does this mean that memory accesses using the hypertransport (from adjacent CPUs) do not also access the extra ecc bits to perfrom ecc after the read operations are complet?

-SZ

I think Barton will be a great product for the upgrader's market especially the millions of Socket A systems out there with Athlons from 800Mhz-1.4Ghz.>/i>

How big this market?

I think Athlon 64 will boast a 400Mhz FSB like the Barton ( or maybe even higher ).

How they do this?
First, hammers have no FSB.

AMD already said the hammers will support 266 and 333 MHz memory.
They claimed that a NEW version of hammer will have to be designed to implement DDR II - so that implies a redesign will also have to be done to the Athlon 64.

Closer Look: AMD faces DDR-II challenge with its Hammer processor
By Jack Robertson, EBN
Jul 9, 2002 (10:47 AM)
URL: http://www.ebnews.com/story/OEG20020709S0031

The 64-Bit Question for Advanced Micro Devices Inc. is how its new Hammer family of processors will support DDR-II next- generation memory.

DDR-II is expected to go into production in the third quarter of next year, six to nine months after AMD's new desktop Athlon Hammer and its Opteron server/workstation versions launch. But the Hammer chips have the unique architecture of on-die memory controller for the current DDR-I generation. Switching to on-die support for DDR-II requires a new Hammer chip controller design with all that entails.

AMD confirms that Hammer's on-die memory controller now supports only DDR-I, and that DDR-II will require a new Hammer chip design, at least for the memory portion. But the company claimed this was no big deal.

AMD embedded the North Bridge controller on the Hammer chip to gain much faster memory throughput and lower latency and lessen impedance problems -- all increasingly major issues with external chipset controllers. High-speed data signals aren't impeded by the extra connection to an external North Bridge.

think AMD's rating holds no matter what apps they use to determine it

Then you clearly have no idea how AMD determines their ratings.
Let us suppose that AMD chooses, for example, a suite of Photoshop, and Discreet applications and benchmarks, optimized for Pentium 4s SSE2 and SMT (hyperthreading).
You think AMD's quantinumbers for (as an example) a 2 GHz Athlon XP will be the same as they currently quote it, when compared to a 3.06 GHz Pentium for with a 533 FSB?
No.
Why?

Because you probably naively believe AMD's propoganda that their quantinumbers are referenced to a Palomino or other AMD product which can't even be run at the rated speeds for comparison.

In fact, maybe you have never seen AMD's literature - have you?

They have distributed Quantinumber charts for dealers - and each Athlon wxyz quantinumber was compared to a Pentium 4 with wxyz MHz - a direct confirmation of their subterfuge.
Send me your email address and I'll send you copy of AMD's literature.

-SZ

Oracle and SAP being ported to Hammer (Inq)

Why doesn't Oracle and SAP make a statement to this effect?

-SZ

Of course, the K6-III wasn't much of a success, either.

I agree.
And I liken AMD's often delayed-constantly-modified Barton as the next version of the K6-III.
Just look at AMD's roadmap - the Barton is an instaneous dead-end product - with no follow on.
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/VirtualPressRoom/0,,51_104_608,00.html

Further, Barton's specs keep changing. It was originally a 256K L2 cache device. AMD kept falling behind Pentium 4 - so Barton was delayed 6 more months along with the hammers and the cache was doubled to 512K.
Because the Barton was delayed, Intel kept spurting ahead in GHz and FSB.
So, Barton fell behind again.
Now AMD is trying to change the Barton FSB on the fly - from 266 to 333 - and now they are doing a Hail Mary and trying to get to 400 MHz FSB - all because Barton keeps falling behind Intel's CPU speeds and FSB speeds.
In the end, it will fail - Barton doesn't have SSE2 - so it is an architecture dead end.
AMD knows it.
Do the fan boys?

-SZ

On the desktop side, a 105mm^2 Athlon 64 with 256KB L2 cache would compare with a Pentium 4 Northwood at 131mm^2

And the Northwood has 512K L2 cache - and will have a 200/800 Mhz FSB by the time AMD's Athlon 64 arrives (which will be stuck with a 166/333 memory bus, despite onboard controller).

I wonder - will the Athlon 64 brand last as long as the Athlon 4 brand ?
Anybody remember that dud?

-SZ

The chip will debut at around 2GHz and come out with a performance rating number in the mid-3,000s, added Dirk Meyer,

Is AMD completely confused with their Opteron strategy?
I ask this because AMD keeps clinging to their Quantihurtz model numbering system - which compares an AMD CPU to a Pentium 4 running retail/consumer software applications.

Out of one side of AMD's mouth, they claim that Opteron will compete with Intel's Xeon.
Well, Intel's Xeon is not generally used to run office applications or games - it is used to run server-specific applications - or workstation applications.
More often than not, Xeons are used in 2-way or 4-way configurations, sometime 8-way or more.
Hence, why would any customer care about an artificial model number for an Opteron CPU based on desktop software in a single cpu mode, when their targeted application is 2-way (or higher) running server and/or workstation applications?

AMD keeps clinging to their retail white box fan base but this will be a pitifully small market for their Opterons.

Now, will AMD re-characterize their model hurtz rating using TCP- type tests for server-specific applications? After all, that, they claim, is their "market" goal.
Or will they just be laughed out of corporate accounts with their quake 3 model rating roots and numbers?

-SZ

You're making about half the CPUs you made a little more than six months ago. Your revenues from your CPUs have dropped by more than half. You still can't get rid of all the inventory you made six months ago.

Your "bet-the-bank" new project is far behind schedule. In eighteen months, you either have or will get rid of about a quarter of your workforce. You're mortgaging your fabs, and trying to borrow even more money to stay afloat.
If this is success, what's failure?




http://www.overclockers.com/tips00196/

"What? Me Worry?"
Edward Stroligo - 11/21/02


Apparently, a few Clawhammers were crawling around at 1.4GHz. No, we're not having problems making these things.
But don't pay any attention to that! What's far more important is the name for it! Athlon 64!!!!! And all the woo-woos go, well, "Woo, woo!!!!!"

I have a much better name for it. Slow.

For at least 3DMark 2001, the performance equivalence came in at around 2.2GHz. You can buy an AMD processor that can do that stock for $140.

Even presuming AMD can get this up to 2GHz, we're looking at the performance equivalent of a little over 3GHz. This is not much to get excited about even now, much less five months from now.

Overclocking? They can't even get demonstration Clawhammer samples anywhere near 2GHz after trying for a year. Not exactly a prime overclocking candidate.
I don't see anything here that would make me want to wait six months to buy one rather than buy a PIV system soon.

Throw in a little cash consciousness, and I don't see anything here that would make me want to toss a socket A system, either. If you don't see enough bang for the buck from a PIV system, you're hardly going to see it from Clawhammer.

I think AMD knows that, which is why Clawhammer has been so deemphasized. Even the majority of fanboys watch their wallets. If it's a choice between cheap (or at least cheaper) TBreds/Bartons and paying for a Clawhammer platform, 90% will go for the first.

Sorry, but 64-bit won't be worth hundreds of dollars extra on the desktop in 2003 to the average person.

If I want AMD, far better to go with the second generation Clawhammer, which should address some of the weaknesses of the first (low cache, single-channel memory structure, integrated DDR-I controller).

A New Career?

You're making about half the CPUs you made a little more than six months ago. Your revenues from your CPUs have dropped by more than half. You still can't get rid of all the inventory you made six months ago.

Your "bet-the-bank" new project is far behind schedule. In eighteen months, you either have or will get rid of about a quarter of your workforce. You're mortgaging your fabs, and trying to borrow even more money to stay afloat.
If this is success, what's failure?

So what does Hector Ruiz do during a keynote speech about the company? He picks up an axe and starts jamming with Slash during a keynote speech. How subliminally appropriate during massive layoffs.

That's pretty close to fiddling while Rome burns.
I think singing "Don't Worry, Be Happy" with Bobby McFerrin would have been more on message.

Or how about Alfred E. Neumann? If AMD has had a theme the last six months, it's been "What? Me Worry?"

All I can say is that AMD had better get its act together and start making a few million more CPUs a quarter pretty soon. If they don't, AMD could have live corporate sex acts onstage, and it still won't keep the vultures away.
Ed

this is an extremely high vote of confidence for Itanium 2.

Yes - Dell has become the defacto leader in PCs and workstations and is showing the best growth in servers. To have Dell sell your flagship product - and continue to avoid amds chips - is good vote of confidence for future growth of intel processors.

-SZ

<more hyperthreaading

Yes - and heres more P4 SSE2 support.

Discreet Releases New Version of gmax Games Mod Software; New Release Offers Eager Gamers New 3D Pipeline to Discreet plasma

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 13, 2002--Discreet, a division of Autodesk, Inc. (Nasdaq:ADSK) announced today the release of gmax 1.2, a free downloadable video game modification application embraced by game enthusiasts, game developers and publishers. With over 300,000 registered users since its 2001 release, gmax software has become the standard for gamers wanting to add custom characters, environments and animations to their favorite PC games including titles from Infogrames, Electronic Arts and Microsoft. Leading game developers and publishers have adopted gmax to produce gmax-ready titles with customization capabilities to enhance the title's appeal to the rapidly growing game "modder" community.

The latest version - gmax 1.2 - offers compatibility with Discreet's plasma software, Discreet's desktop 3D content creation software. Now, gmax users have the new ability to create or enhance their favorite game characters in gmax, and render their creations into movies or flash animations in plasma to share via the web with the gaming community. The gmax 1.2 release also offers performance optimizations for the Intel P4 and includes a number of general software fixes.

"The new release of Discreet's gmax gives us a competitive advantage in our game development pipeline. Designing custom gmax game packs gives us a marketing leverage while simultaneously inspiring Relic fans," said Ron Moravek, Chief Operating Officer at Relic Entertainment. "We want our community to create even more 'impossible creatures' because it not only sells the game, but it is pure creative fun."

The new gmax release also gives gamers a direct avenue to publish and render their custom models in plasma, Discreet's affordable desktop 3D software package at MSRP$650. Now, gmax characters and animations export to plasma for comprehensive modeling, real-time dynamics, texturing power, rendering and integration with Macromedia's Flash(R) and Director(R) for output to the web.

"The gmax technology is revolutionizing the way games are made," said Paul Perreault, Discreet games product manager. "Gone are the days when consumers were stuck playing the same pattern in a videogame again and again. gmax 1.2 allows game companies to create a new experience for the customer every time, challenging the consumer with each game played."

gmax 1.2 is available for free as a software download at www.discreet.com/products/gmax, and information on plasma can be found at www.discreet.com/products/plasma. Developers can start creating gmax-ready games by joining the Discreet sparks Developer Support program at http://sparks.discreet.com.

About Discreet

Discreet empowers moving media professionals to realize the visual experience, transforming their most evocative and ambitious visions into reality. Its range of award-winning systems and software is developed for digital media creation, management and delivery -- across all disciplines from visual effects and editing to animation, game development, web/interactive design, and design visualization. Discreet is based in Montreal, Quebec and is a division of Autodesk, Inc., the world's leading design and digital media creation, management, and distribution company. Product and corporate information is located on the Internet at www.discreet.com.

Note to Editors: Discreet is a division of Autodesk, Inc. Discreet, 3ds max, gmax, plasma and sparks are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc./Autodesk Canada Inc. in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders.



CONTACT: Discreet Public Relations
Kevin G. Clark, 415/547-2457
kevin.g.clark@autodesk.com
or
Access Communications
(for Discreet)
Peter Nguyen, 415/844-6215
pnguyen@accesspr.com

This is a significant signal that I2 has demand.

You are most likely correct.
All reports on itanium 2 are quite positive - in performance and reliability and scalability.
AMD also helped Dell with their decision - by postponing the hammer for the 2nd or 3rd time in a year - making it a no show.

-SZ

Intel strongarms Dell - brow beats them - threatens to cut them off - exercises monopoly control - and Dell rolls over.

AMD love bunnies will be sad.

Dell to produce Itanium 2 computers
By Michael Kanellos
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
November 19, 2002, 9:30 PM PT
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-966499.html



LAS VEGAS--Despite being one of the more visible skeptics of Intel's Itanium chip family, Dell Computer will incorporate the Itanium 2 chip into future high-powered computers, a Dell executive said Tuesday.
The Round Rock, Texas-based computer giant will come out with computers containing Intel's latest 64-bit chip, called Itanium 2, according to Joe Marengi, senior vice president for Dell's Americas division.

"We will support Intel all the way on this...We will have an IA-64 2 (Itanium 2) product on our roadmap," Marengi said in an interview with CNET News.com at Comdex Fall 2002 here. "The technology is totally solid."

The change of mood on Itanium 2 seems to close the book on one of the more florid server melodramas of the past year. Itanium is Intel's entry into the market for chips for high-end servers, a lucrative field currently dominated by Unix systems containing chips from Sun Microsystems, IBM and Hewlett-Packard.

While it scores high on benchmark tests, Itanium has not sold because of product delays and a lack of software, according to analysts and high tech executives.

To run well, Itanium requires different software than Intel's Xeon or Pentium chips, which process data in 32-bit chunks. Chips that process data in 64-bit chunks, such as Sun's UltraSparc and Itanium, can digest twice as much data at once. Among other benefits, these 64-bit machines can handle more than 4GB of memory--the limit for 32-bit machines. Still, the performance benefits are simply theoretical if the software doesn't exist.

Although both HP and IBM have introduced Itanium machines, Dell has been more cautious. At Comdex last year, Marengi said that demand for Itanium servers in the current economic climate was "effectively zero." Dell released a workstation containing the original Itanium chip in 2001, but then quietly pulled it off the market.

Simultaneously, Dell began a fairly public flirtation with Advanced Micro Devices, which next year will come out with Opteron, a server chip that can run software written for Xeon and Pentium chips as well as 64-bit versions of these applications.

Opteron represents an easy path to the 64-bit club for PC makers, according to analysts. CEO Michael Dell and other company executives have said that Dell has been testing Opteron for the past year. Recently, company representatives have said that Dell will make its 64-bit decision clear by the end of the year.

While Marengi declined to discuss Opteron in depth, he noted that the benchmark scores of Itanium are relatively strong and that the path for adoption among corporate customers seems inevitable.

"Over time, that (Itanium) is going to be the technology that takes hold," he said. Last year he was negative on Itanium, but "this year I am in a neutral-to-positive stance," he added.

Still, Dell has not committed to how or when it will adopt Itanium. The technology downturn has put a damper on server purchases.

SoundView Technology analyst Mark Speckter said that Dell's vacillation over the past year was largely for show. Adopting AMD chips would have required Dell to design completely new computers as well as stock additional parts. Servers running AMD chips have also historically been shunned by corporate buyers, he added.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has continued to pledge its support to Itanium. Itanium has been "not a matter of if they (Dell) do it, it is a matter of when," Speckter said.

Scott Randall, also an analyst at SoundView, said that Opteron was also hurt by delays. If the chip had come out six months ago, it would have posed more of a competitive threat, he said.

Neither Intel nor AMD representatives could be reached for comment.

"AMD President and CEO Hector Ruiz's Challenge to the Industry: Let's Get Real"

If Hector really wanted to Get Real, he should have titled his speech as "Let's Get Profitable".

-SZ

AMD Job Throttling in action.

AMD's inferior CPUS aren't selling - and 2000 more AMD's folks are being throttled.

November 15, 2002 12:35

Chip Maker Advanced Micro Devices Starts Job Cuts with 300 in Austin, Texas
Jump to first matched term
By Kirk Ladendorf, Austin American-Statesman, Texas

Nov. 15--Chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. laid off 300 people in Austin on Thursday in the start of worldwide cutbacks that will cost 2,000 people their jobs.

AMD has been unprofitable for five straight quarters because of weak demand for personal computers and intense price pressure from rival Intel Corp.

AMD hopes that new products during the next several months will reinvigorate sales and return the company to profitability in June.

The company cut 1,000 workers Thursday, including 300 in Austin who did marketing, finance, human resources and administrative jobs. Another 1,000 workers will be cut companywide before the end of June.

The job reductions are part of the company's pledge to trim $350 million from its spending next year.

AMD was one of two chip companies in Austin cutting workers Thursday. Legerity Inc., a former AMD division that makes telecommunications chips, said it had cut 80 workers, or 25 percent of its work force, in a move to return to profitability. Sixty of the job cuts were in Austin, where the company employed 250 workers before the layoff.

AMD had signaled nearly a month ago that it would be cutting jobs. "People were expecting it," said one laid-off worker in Austin.

AMD said in October that it would cut spending after the company reported a steep third-quarter loss.

Financial analysts, eyeing the company's flow of red ink, said AMD would have to take steps to cut spending and raise more money -- or face the prospect of running out of cash in the next year.

"This is phase one of a very strategic program to shift the company" toward profitability, said Patrick Moorhead, the company's vice president of marketing. "We are restructuring the company to be profitable in the upturns and the downturns."

Thursday's job cuts left AMD with about 3,000 workers in Austin, which is the company's largest base of workers.

The company's computer processor business and its newly created personal connectivity solutions business group are based here.

The cuts did not affect AMD's Fab 25 chip factory operation in Southeast Austin, which employs 800 people.

Over a nine-month period that ended in June, AMD slashed 2,500 manufacturing jobs, including 1,200 in Austin as the company closed two old chip factories here and restructured its chip packaging operations in Malaysia.

AMD also plans to cut research and development spending next year and trim some factory equipment spending by more than $100 million. Moorhead, however, said the cuts in research spending won't affect the company's schedule of product introductions set for next year.

Shares in AMD closed at $6.59 a share, up 26 cents, or 4 percent.

-----

To see more of the Austin American-Statesman, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.austin360.com

(c) 2002, Austin American-Statesman, Texas. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. AMD, INTC,

Electronic News: Let's change topics. You've inked a technology-sharing deal with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC). Will there be others like that?

Ruiz: The answer is yes. If you think about technology as a solution, it starts out with an architecture

Is this Hector so stupid that he doesn't even remember who he signed a massive technology-sharing agreement?
Hint - it was UMC - and NOT TSMC.
No wonder AMD is in such a miserable state of affairs - their CEO has alzheimers disease.

-SZ

Here is good article talking about real advantages of 300 mm wafers - and good 130 nM process to boot.

300mm volume drive for Xilinx
By Chris Edwards, EE Times
November 13, 2002
URL: http://www.siliconstrategies.com/story/OEG20021112S0009

MUNICH — More than 30 percent of the FPGA supplier Xilinx's production is now coming from 300mm fab lines as yields come up to match those on older 200mm lines and, in one case, surpassed the yield seen on 200mm, its chief executive said in an interview. The company expects half of its production, measured by total die area, to have moved to 300mm by the end of the company's current financial year.

Wim Roelandts, president and chief executive, told EE Times here at the Electronica trade show that at the moment, all of the 300mm production is at UMC, which supplies 70% of the company's overall chip demand. But Xilinx has taped out a design aimed at IBM's 300mm process currently undergoing tests.

Roelandts said the 300mm production is currently on the 150nm node and on a hybrid 150/180nm process. The IBM line will bring 130nm parts using both copper metallization and a spin-on low-k dielectric onto 300mm production lines.

“130nm will have to be done on 300mm because that is what the most up-to-date equipment is designed for. The people who say they can stay with 8in [200mm] will find that out,” said Roelandts.

“If you want to do 130nm with good yields, you have to do it on 300mm. On the hybrid [150/180nm] technology, the yield is now better [than 200mm]. For pure 150nm, it is at parity and continues to improve. Over the long term, it will be better.”

Bigger wafer, better yield
Part of the potential yield improvements come from the larger wafer, said Roelandts. “Defects come in from the side.” But the main potential boost to yields comes from the equipment: “It is more modern, almost peopleless, and is producing better results.”

Roelandts said he expects the high-end device production to come mainly from IBM as the company has been able to combine a spin-on dielectric, which typically has a lower dielectric coefficient (k) than the materials used by most other foundries on 130nm, with copper metallization.

“130nm has been a lot more difficult than people expected, but it is not slowing down deployment of 90nm,” said Roelandts. Problems with low-k dielectrics, particularly spin-on materials has convinced many foundries, such as UMC, to step back to more conventional dielectrics that can be placed on-chip using chemical vapour deposition (CVD). UMC will produce 130nm devices, but using one of the CVD dielectrics.

“IBM is the only who keeps pushing ahead with low-k. The good news is we are working with IBM. You lose 10 to 15% performance without low-k,” said Roelandts.

“We are still planning to use UMC for more low-end products: we will be keeping both fabs occupied. UMC hasn't given up on low-k. They realise that, for the future, they have to have it.”

This must be a good news for Intel and itanium -

Press Release Source: Oracle Corporation


Oracle Announces Record TPC-C, SAP and OASB Benchmark Results on Intel Itanium 2 Servers
Wednesday November 13, 4:31 pm ET
Results Prove Oracle Beats Microsoft on Performance and Price/Performance On Entry Level Intel-based Systems


ORACLEWORLD, SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ( http://www.oracle.com/tellmemore/?1524171 ) Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL - News), the world's largest enterprise software company, today announced four record benchmark results, measuring Oracle database performance for on-line transaction processing (OLTP) on Hewlett Packard (HP) systems using Intel Itanium 2 processors. With these results, Oracle beats Microsoft SQL Server on both performance and price-performance on single-system TPC-C benchmarks on 4 processors. Both Oracle and SQL Server results were on identical HP rx5670 servers. These results further expand Oracle's leadership in database performance, and demonstrate that Oracle database is the platform of choice for organizations choosing to deploy their mission-critical environments on entry-level Intel-based configurations.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20020718/ORCLLOGO )
Best Single System TPC-C result on Linux

With this announcement, the first TPC-C result ever published on a single system running Linux, Oracle outperforms Microsoft SQL Server's best result on 4-processor systems (2), with a superior price/performance ratio. Oracle Database technology on an Itanium 2-based Hewlett Packard rx5670 Server, running Red Hat Linux Advanced Server 2.1, achieved 80,494.98 tpmC with a price/performance of US $ 4.84/tpmC (3). SQL Server's best result on 4-processor systems was also achieved on the HP rx5670.

Best Single System TPC-C result on 4 processors

Oracle is also announcing a new TPC-C benchmark record on 4-processor systems, achieving 80,570.81 tpmC at a price/performance of US $13.26/tpmC (1). Oracle database technology, running on an Intel Itanium 2 based Hewlett Packard rx5670 Server with HP-UX 11i, outperforms Microsoft SQL Server's best result on 4-processor systems, also on the HP rx5670 (2).

Both TPC-C record results further illustrate Oracle's unique ability to provide consistent and price-competitive performance across all types of operating systems and hardware configurations.

IBM DB2 UDB has not published any TPC-C result on single systems running Unix, Linux, or Microsoft Windows-based operating systems.

The TPC-C is an OLTP benchmark developed by the Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC). The TPC-C benchmark defines a rigorous standard for calculating performance and price/performance measured by transaction per minute (tpmC) and $/tpmC, respectively.

Record Result for SAP Sales and Distribution 2-tier Standard Application Benchmark

With this announcement, Oracle establishes a new world record for the SAP Sales and Distribution (SD) 2-tier Standard Application Benchmark on 4-processor platforms. Oracle's record result of 600 SD users (4) is 27 percent better than the best Microsoft SQL Server result on 4-processor platforms, with 470 SD users (5), providing more proof of Oracle's performance leadership. Both results were achieved on the HP rx5670 and Intel Itanium 2 platform.

SAP Standard Application Benchmark was developed by SAP to provide comparative load analysis of the mySAP.com solution. The SAP SD Standard Application Benchmark was established in 1993, and has become the de-facto standard for measuring SAP performance.

Record result for Oracle Applications Standard Benchmark

This announcement establishes a new world record for the Oracle Applications Standard Benchmark on 4-processor systems. The result achieved 3,640 concurrent users, with an average response time of 0.916 seconds, also using the HP rx5670 platform as the database server (6).

HP, a strategic Itanium 2 development platform for Oracle, has supported Oracle in delivering Oracle technology for Itanium 2 to the market in record speed. Through combined expertise with a broad range of architecture, operating systems and support for Itanium, mutual Oracle and HP customers reap the benefits of an optimized platform.

About Oracle

Oracle is the world's largest enterprise software company. For more information about Oracle visit our website at www.oracle.com.

Trademarks

Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

(1) As of November 13, 2002: HP server rx5670L-4P, with 4 Intel Itanium 2
processors at 1GHz, Oracle10i Database Standard Edition on HP-UX 11i,
80,570.81tpmC, US $ 13.26/tpmC
(2) As of August 5, 2002: HP server rx5670 Client/Server, with 4 Intel
Itanium 2 processors at 1GHz, Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise
Edition 64-bit on Microsoft Windows Advanced Server LE 1.2, 78,454.76
tpmC, US $ 5.16/ tpmC
(3) As of November 12, 2002: HP server rx5670L-4P, with 4 Intel Itanium 2
processors at 1GHz, Oracle10i Database Standard Edition on RedHat
Linux Advanced Server 2.1 - IPF, 80,494.98 tpmC, US $ 4.84/tpmC
(4) As of November 11, 2002, this benchmark fully complies with the SAP
Benchmark Council's issued benchmark regulations and has been audited
and certified by SAP: HP rx5670, 4 processors, Intel Itanium 2 at
1GHz, SAP R/3 4.6C, two-tier, 600 SD users, 60,000 fully processed
order line items per hour, average dialog response time 1.99 seconds,
Oracle9i Release 2, certified November 11, 2002
(5) As of July 8, 2002, this benchmark fully complies with the SAP
Benchmark Council's issued benchmark regulations and has been audited
and certified by SAP: HP rx5670, 4 processors, Intel Itanium 2 at
1GHz, SAP R/3 4.6C, two-tier, 470 SD users, 47,000 fully processed
order line items per hour, average dialog response time 1.97 seconds,
SQL Server 2000, certified July 8, 2002
(6) As of November 12, 2002: HP rx5670, 4 processors, Intel Itanium 2 at
1GHz, Oracle Applications Standard Benchmark version 11.5.6,
3640 users, 0.916s average response time. See detailed benchmark
information at
http://www.oracle.com/apps_benchmark/html/index.html?results.html

Make Your Opinion Count - Click Here




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Oracle Corporation

MirrorBit has been shipping in quantity since early summer in the 64MB package

That is complete malarkey - or an outright fabrication.
In AMD's Q3 conference call, they fessesd up to only shipping "about 10,000 mirrorbit" devices in total in the entire third quarter.

Maybe that is your definition of "shipping in quantity" ?
Intel probably ships more strataflash chips beween coffee break and lunch time - every day.

-SZ

Yes, it's good to be king.

First, there's Windows system microprocessors and flash memory, two huge segments where Intel reigns and AMD takes second billing. Intel's Q3 revenues were $6.5 billion, up 3 percent sequentially and flat year-over-year. Hector Ruiz, CEO of No. 2 player Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD), said last week he is scrutinizing every revenue-dependent operation but R&D to find ways to cut costs. He told Wall Street on Thursday that AMD is going to take a Q4 charge of hundreds of millions of dollars, and after all that, the company could break even.


http://www.e-insite.net/electronicnews/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA258059&industryi...

Who's Out In Front?

Downturn sees top players consolidate power

By Gale Morrison -- Electronic News, 11/11/2002


As the semiconductor industry floats into perhaps a third year of recession in what is now undeniably the worst downturn in its history, competitors across the semiconductor market are learning just how good it is to be way out in front of the pack.

Everyone's hurting, to be sure. That even goes for the No. 1 capital equipment maker, Applied Materials Inc.; the No. 1 networking gear maker, Cisco Systems Inc.; and No. 1 chip company overall, Intel Corp. But they're not hurting nearly as badly as everyone else behind them. Top players are holding onto flat growth—which in communications gear is especially miraculous—while the runners-up are on their knees.

"No.1 in a given market cleans up, No. 2 breaks even, number three loses his shirt," Walden C. "Wally" Rhines, CEO of Mentor Graphics Corp.

Recent news provides data points in support of the trend.

First, there's Windows system microprocessors and flash memory, two huge segments where Intel reigns and AMD takes second billing. Intel's Q3 revenues were $6.5 billion, up 3 percent sequentially and flat year-over-year. Hector Ruiz, CEO of No. 2 player Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD), said last week he is scrutinizing every revenue-dependent operation but R&D to find ways to cut costs. He told Wall Street on Thursday that AMD is going to take a Q4 charge of hundreds of millions of dollars, and after all that, the company could break even.

In boom times, the industry dynamic is like bike racing, where there's less wind resistance riding right behind the leader and the overall ride requires less effort. But in down times, the dynamic is like sailboat racing, where being behind the leader on the same tack leaves you in the leader's "bad air," traveling much slower and falling behind.

The picture of this phenomenon is particularly clear in networking equipment, where Cisco rules. Cisco is especially worth examining, too, as it is an extremely important and influential buyer of EDA tools and procurer of lots of the highest-end fab capacity in Burlington, Vt., and Taiwan. This foundry usage impact is especially profound when you include all of the fabless companies from whom Cisco buys CAM and transceiver silicon, for instance. Cisco reported fiscal Q1 2003 results on Wednesday after the market close. On the surface, investors were dismayed that the company's $4.8 billion quarter was flat year-over-year. But CEO John Chambers was a bit more upbeat during the earnings conference.

"Over the last six quarters, Cisco's earnings quarterly went from $4.4 billion to the most recent $4.8 billion," Chambers said. "Our competitors quarterly revenue combined went from $11.2 billion to $6.1 billion to the current $5.2 billion." Chambers noted that's a 57 percent drop for Lucent, Nortel, Juniper and others, while Cisco grew revenues to a place "very close to the levels reached at the height of the 1990s." The company also spent $3 billion to repurchase 1 billion shares of stock and still had more than $20 billion in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities.

Over at Cisco's competitor, Lucent Technologies Inc., CEO Patricia Russo in television interviews in October compared her current management task to piloting a 747 at top speed and trying to swap out the engines. Lucent and Nortel's bond holders are increasingly anxious.

ARM Ltd. is wielding a similar kingly power over the semiconductor IP market. Again, things aren't easy for the Cambridge, England-based RISC processor core specialist. But they are far rosier than for the runners-up. ARM cores will be in every single of the 16 million wireless LAN media access controllers (MACs) sold next year, according to Carter Horney, a Forward Concepts associate whose wireless LAN report comes out next month. All 8 million wireless LAN MACs sold this year will be ARM-based too.

In addition, ARM is inside virtually each of the hundreds of millions of cell phones sold each year. That presence will continue, as Texas Instruments and Intel—two companies not known for altruism and sharing—have made their mobile computing platforms—OMAP and XScale, respectively—ARM-centric. Tyco Electronics, king of the world's connector market and a leading force in many other passive components, has been outpacing its competitors through the rough times, according to company President Juergen Gromer. "We did much better than the overall market" in Tyco's fiscal 2002, which ended in September.

"We dropped 16 percent in sales in fiscal 2002 to $9.8 billion," excluding the former Tycom unit now renamed Submarine Telecommunication Systems, and which recently reported a massive charge following a huge drop in sales. "Except for Tycom, the market dropped more."

Looking at specific areas, Gromer said "the overall automotive electronics market was flat for that period, but Tyco Electronics was up 8 percent. The industrial market was down 15 percent, but we were only down 6 percent. The communications market was down 45 percent, but we were down 35 [percent] to 40 percent."

And future growth could be spurred by acquisitions. Tyco Electronics built itself into a leading passive component player through acquisitions of AMP, Potter & Brumfield and others. "At this moment, we concentrate on organic growth, but we will likely make acquisitions again at some point in the future," Gromer said.

In capital equipment last week nearly permanent king of the hill Applied Materials said it would shed 1,750 jobs. But it's worth remembering that Applied Materials increased its profit margins, new orders and net sales in its fiscal Q3, as reported in August. Tomorrow, Applied will report its fiscal Q4. Novellus' net sales were, at $230 million, about one-fourth of Applied's net sales, in its quarter reported in October. That quarter for Novellus was down 24 percent from the quarter a year ago.

Yes, it's good to be king.

Bernard Levine contributed to this story.


Clear Sailing?

Intel's most recent quarter saw revenues of $6.5 billion, up 3 percent. AMD is going to take a charge in Q4 of several hundred million dollars, cut thousands of jobs and might break even.

Cisco brought in $4.8 billion in its most recent quarter. The revenue of its top five competitors combined for the same period was $5.2 billion, down from $11.2 billion.
ARM is in every single wireless LAN chipset MAC sold and is likely to be the control plane processor in every 3G phone and many of the handheld computers sold in the next five years.

Perhaps AMD found some magic mushrooms in the rain forest. That is the only logical explanation.

I thinks AMD found some magic mushrooms on wall street that belived their baloney talk of cutting R & D and headcount and expenses and increased attaacks onIntel markets where they are already getting their asses kicked before R & D and headcount reductions.

Except for the $391 million charge, they'd probably be neutral or slightly in the black.

Where you get this crazy idea - you make this stuff up?

AMD lost $323 million last quarter - and had sales of $508 million - making their breakeven point $831 million for Q3.
AMD now projects a "whopping" 20% increase in sales to $600 million - based mostly on their FLASH memory business improvement.
If AMD don't cut their expenses, that will still amount to a $231 million loss.
AMD was dancing around at their analyst call suggesting they will reduce expenses by $75 million this quarter - which still leaves a loss of about $151 million - well before any charges for layoff and shutdowns - better words than the sanitized restructuring baloney talk.
So AMD is set up for a crappy quarter - unless you buy into the wall street dribble talk that massive losses that are less than last quarters massive losses is a sign of good things for AMD.

-SZ

AMD will continue to be fierce competition for Intel.

AMD had two main themes from the analyst meeting yesterday - (1) substantial cutbacks in head count and R & D and capital expenditures and (2)agressive attacks on existing and new markets (for AMD) where they main competitior will, once again, be Intel. These areas include CPU server markets, where Intel has gone from 0 to 87% market share since 1994, handheld & wireless which Intel has been growing extensively - StrongARM/XScale/Flash - for 3 or 4 years.
And of course, AMD outlined a broad and deep dreams of adavnced technology development - through 90, 65 and 45 nM processes and 300 mm wafer conversion (all dreams).
What all analysts failed to compute was the following:

AMD is currenlty suffering massive losses and market share losses to Intel - but AMD is going to decrease their expenses by some $350 million while at the same time attacking Intel in Intel's strongest and most entrenched markets.
Just how in the name of common sense can AMD bold faced announce stepped up attacks on Intel and Intel's markets while massively scaling back their (AMD's) expenses and headcount while they are already losing money and market share with their current expenses - before massive cutbacks?

AMD has simply put forth more wild dreams and fanciful expectations that fly in the face of their current economic and technological malaise. Their attack plans fly on the face of the cutbacks they are simutaneously advertising.
AMD is acting like a cornered rat, lunging and attacking while their food supply is dwindling to nothing.

-SZ

You were there to see them?

AMD held a live Internet webcast of their conference. I watched most of it.

Barton no longer is specified as a 512K L2 cache device. Is this an oversight - or another flip-flop admission that Barton won't yield with a large L2 cache?
Also, AMD is admitting at leasta 6 month slip in their 90 nanometer program.