UpNDown, I'm not sure what will be in K9. Based on what we know, Intel does not have to offer a product superior to AMD's K8 in 2005 - it just has to be 'good enough'. Remember, Intel has quite an impressive manufacturing capability plus a name that remains golden in the mind of many buyers. They can make quite a good business with a slightly inferior x86-64 solution, throw a lot of cache at it, and crank up the manufacturing.
Since AMD will be manufacturing limited at least until 2006, and because people will still want to purchase PCs, Intel can use this as a stopgap strategy while they continue to pursue Itanium. Alternatively, they can work on a better x86-64 in that time frame. Don't count them out so easily!
However, under this scenerio, AMD does make a lot of money (and that is a good thing). Also, AMD earns a reputation for having the best product available (also a good thing).
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