Intel Corp (INTC)

[Elmer Phud]

Semi -

Woooops...... Too early this morning...... I meant Merced. Intel is still running their 0.18u Fabs as far as I know, and with most of the cost reduction done, couldn't they just move that design over to 0.13u, like they did with P4 and Celerons, and continue to crank those out and sell them as desktops???

I hope not. Merced was the first incarnation of Itanium and it was frankly a poor performer, even on Itanium code. Maybe you're thinking of the current version McKinley? It is still not a good choice for desktop because the die size is too large and the available software base is too small for desktop type applications. I must say though that I believe the recent articles about it being a real disappointment and selling poorly are ill informed.

EP