Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[KeithDust2000]

Doug, 1.6GHz / 3000+ / 256K L2 might indicate even better IPC than mobile A64.

Athlon XP and Athlon 64 are separate product lines, separate "brands" targeted at different market segments. The 3000+ Athlon XP is not performance competitive with Athlon 64 3000+, just like a Celeron 3 Ghz is a far worse performer than the P4 3Ghz. I´ve made so many posts last year explaining the importance of a successful segmentation strategy (through the highest possible level of differentiation) for AMD ("brand protection", "price protection"), so I won´t repeat that again. I still see many people complaining about a "castrated" A64, and how AMD should make a Duron64, that my attempts last year were probably for nought anyway.

Like I said last year, it´s a great strategy, and it is the only one that makes business sense for AMD. If it works out, unlike the Duron fiasco, and AMD stays more or less performance competitive against Prescott, they should do very well.