re: Hector’s quote "I urge you to demand that those companies who are currently serving you today begin developing technology not for its own sake. Not in isolation from the real world. But in line with what you are really trying to do."
This makes total sense... the only problem is that Intel took the lead on this one long ago and I don't expect the IT managers to be fooled into believing AMD can actually do better. Yes, Intel will continue to move forward with new and faster products, at the same time they work with the industry to develop H/W and S/W building blocks that end up making better solutions. When AMD had the clock speed lead all they did was scream they were faster. When AMD lost the lead, they said it didn't matter. Now AMD is saying people can't live without their new 64bit chip because they are having a hard time getting more than a $50 ASP for their 32bit stuff.
AMD might have had a chance if Hammer came out in the middle of this year... they are now looking at the middle of next year for volume, and they will launch with a desktop version. Once all of the diehard AMD fans each buy one I expect demand to dry up, or ASP will dry up in order to keep demand up. My guess is most IT managers will sit on the sideline waiting to see how things shake out for AMD. In this economy, nobody is going to get fired for not trying the new Opteron or Athlon 64.
AMD’s claims that they will be number one in computing are even more bold then Transmeta’s were regarding mobile, and even more unlikely. Intel has been battling for over 20 years in this space… There was the 68K, Z8000, MIPs, SPARC, PowerPC, Alpha, HPPA, ARM, along with all the clones (I’m sure I missed a few). Now there is AMD with X86-64. This is AMD, a company in terrible debt, stripping 15% more of its work force, moving to a new fab-less model relying on a company half a world away to develop a process to support 100M+ transistor devices. At the same time, Intel's pipeline, process and manufacturing technology, and capacity capability appear to be stronger in all computing segments than they have ever been.
I know a lot of people on this thread are Intel cheerleaders, but I’d like to hear from anyone who can articulate how AMD pulls this one off.
Nitt
AI
