Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[bobs10]

Yea, I agree about Dell, but that is just another symptom of the problem. Prima facie, given the all encompassing nature of the Opteron with it's unique scalability features, 32 bit to 64 bit pathway, its' X86 instruction set and ability to run 32 bit X86 programs at least as well as 32 bit machines, with its' future proofing, with its' lower electricity and floor space costs, with its' lower initial price, with its' lower licensing fees, not to mention technical things like lower latency etc. etc., it really is hard to understand how such a machine couldn't compete better with the antiquated and poorly positioned INTC offerings.

The only thing that makes sense is that the playing field isn't level. In fact I bet it's tilted at 45 degrees or more. When a company has 90% of the market it's relatively easy for that company to put the screws to its' customers to keep them in line. For a lot of companies going against INTC effectively means going AMD, a very big life threatening decision for those so bold. To my way of thinking this is the major reason AMD has to have a lot of excess capacity. OEMs thinking about switching to AMD or reducing their INTC dependence need to be assured that AMD will be able to meet their needs.

Anyway, we still have MSFT's 64bit OS to look forward to next month. I'm still thinking this will create a lot of demand, especially when INTC's offerings are put under the scrutiny of comparison.

All in all I'm quite pleased with the way things are going. I tend to look at things from 1000 feet so my view is different from the day to day view the boards tend to represent. I'm particularly pleased with the embedded initiatives, but still concerned with flash.