Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[sgolds]

Elmer, that would be a wonderful scenerio for AMD! Think of it: AMD will not have the capacity to seriously challenge Intel market share on 90nm, and even at 65nm it would be a huge challenge. Now, assume Intel continues on their schedule to push Itanium - which is far, far away from becomming a competitive desktop. Where does that leave AMD?

Implementing the most popular 64-bit PCs in the world! Let's say that grows to no more than 25% of the x86 market, and Intel has the other 75%. Traditionally, AMD has had to accept way less money than Intel for processors. Now, however, AMD has desktop, mobile and departmental server product which can support all Intel applications, and a bunch of high-end applications which Intel can't touch!

With Ruiz' philosophy of actually getting paid for the quality of the processor, that leads to economic models where AMD gets more $ per processor than Intel (something unprecedented). To get a premium over Intel, AMD needs two things to happen:

1. Have a clearly better product that runs all Intel applications and many desirable applications that Intel can't run;

2. Limited production so that AMD goes for the high end of the market and does not compete with Celeron.

It would make an interesting profit picture!

(Software note: It would be a boon to software vendors also. They will be very motivated to make premium product for a premium platform - which results in a higher price that the customer is willing to pay. Also, try running one of those apps on a Celeron in Asia! Discourages illegal copying.)