Intel Corp (INTC)

[Elmer Phud]

As for Hammer, that is beyond even the 3 month horizon. I believe they still have functional issues that need to get resolved, and they are probably a number of months away from coming up with a solution to every nook and corner case that they are seeing in validation. Besides that, the theory is that Hammer is binning at very low frequencies, and something fundamental needs to be changed in the design to give it extra headroom. AMD can't likely review a Hammer that locks up on some occasions, nor can they review a Hammer that clocks at 1.5GHz. It's simply farther out, and even AMD's current projection of a late Q1 "introduction" confirms that. Your point is a good one, but I don't think we can infer disaster based on no Hammer paper launch.

These points are exactly my points. What we can infer is that there isn't a Hammer that is anywhere's near production worthy and another slip is very likely. Also, AMD's promise of industry leading performance was based on where they expected Intel to be 6 months or more ago when the original claim was made and based on the Hammer release schedule in effect at that time. I believe the claim is no longer valid but what is AMD going to say now? Please wait for mediocre performance?

EP