Intel Corp (INTC)

[Nitt]

re:"That(Hammer) has the potential to be a very strong contender vs Xeon."

Yes it may, but the enterprise customers do not just run out and buy a new system and drop it into a data center. The department server guys are pretty risk adverse to. AMD has at least 12 if not 24 mos of real missionary work ahead to get anyone to consider the Hammer in mission critical environments... and this effort will cost real money. They might get a pop of volume up front just from filling the channel and getting a copy of one into the hands of anyone evaluating it, but then things will stall.

Oh and remember, 12 to 24 months after Hammer is launched, there Intel will be two or three spins ahead of where they are today with of both Xeon and Itanium. The squeeze is on.

Nitt