Intel Corp (INTC)

[chipguy]

P.S. My favorite stocks right now for hitting a potential “home run” are TMTA and NUVO

I don't know anything about NUVO but if I was in TMTA I would be looking for an exit
strategy. Their JIT binary recompilation on VLIW technology was novel a few years
ago and the low power angle gave Transmeta a foothold. But the performance was
pitiful even compared to the crippled desktop processors it competed against.

Where does it go from here? From four way to eight way VLIW? That will raise power
significantly more than it will raise performance because it will be far beyond the
point of diminishing returns for ILP yet much of the active portion of the processor
will double in width (ifetch, dispatch, execution resources, register file ports etc). A
wider VLIW also means more NOPs, lower code density, and the need for larger
on chip caches. IMO the 8000 might be able to approach Pentium M in either
performance or power characteristics but not both. And that's before Pentium M
even reaches 90 nm.

It looks like TMTA will need to compete on price. Foundary based manufacturing, a
relatively large die, and low ASPs hardly sounds like the recipe for a "home run".