Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[upc]

I still think Intel is speculating about 4GHz in Q1. What gives them any confidence that their binsplits will improve from Q4 to Q1? They've been trying to produce Prescott on their 90nm process since last Q3 or earlier. They've been through steppings A, B, C, D, and now apparently know that the E stepping will not get them to reasonable 4GHz yields by December. Why should some theoretical stepping F manage any better? If it were only 6 or 9 months in, I'd say they had a better shot, but they've been working on it for over 1 year as of NOW, and moved from 3.2 GHz to 3.4 GHz (with the occasional 3.6GHz part).

I guess they could always fall back to water cooling / overvolting by Q1 05, in a real pinch.

upc