Slightly OT--the fork in the road over future chip technology is upon us. AMD is coming out this month with a 64-bit chip that is downwardly compatible with 32-bit computing (which is what most of the software is currently) In other words, it can handle both the legacy and the future 64-bit applications.
Intel is going in another direction. Intel is saying its customers want either 32-bit chips or 64-bit chips. Therefore they are coming out with the Itanium (wags are calling it the Titanic) that is not downwardly compatible. It is 64-bit only.
In my view this is a grave error.
So what does all this have to do with Wave? The implications are obvious. 100% of what I run is 32-bit applications. But I use graphic and video editing software too and Adobe has commented they are ready to step up to the 64-bit world as soon as the chips are available. So does this mean if I buy an Intel chip, it will not be able to handle all my legacy data?
Will AMD's new chip process gaming, graphic and video editing applications better and smoother than Intel's? If so, our partnership with Intel may be affected. Let's hope our relationship with AMD is in the bag by then.
One further note: A video mag I read tested the new Intel 3.2G chip with hyper threading that came with the new 800 frontside bus.
Interesting to note they got better performance by turning off the hyper threading. They reported the 800 MHz FSB made no difference whatsoever on performance over the 533 FSB. These are CPU intense applications (video) and it will be very interesting to see how AMD's new, lower clock speed 64/32 bit chip compares on this same test. Let's hope Wave is aboard both.
Blue
AI
