Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[kpf]

Keith

IBM began selling the standalone eServer 325 using the Opteron last week."

Really? If so, I would call the offer indeed as a lukewarm offer, far from being really committed to Opteron:
I do not see reports to SPEC.org or to TPG.org about any Opteron-based standalone server-product-Scores.
What I can see is a 1U-rack-unit currently priced some 20 percent over Intel-Servers, without taken into account intended pricecuts for latter. TPC reported for a cluster-system available in November.
The message I receive here is: For those customers who insist long and hard enough on Opteron-servers - yes we have something we can sell you.

We can only hope there is a heck of a lot insisting. And biting the bullet of a considerable premium; as long as there is no competition at all from tier-one there is not much room for negociations on prices. Not exactly the competitive environment Opteron would need to make a significant dent into the lowend of the server market soon.

K.