Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[HailMary]

AMD's next generation cores they are about six months into
the development cycle.

Again - why does that matter? AMD has K8L coming out next year and more derivatives after that. K8L could add all sorts of things to a very good K8 core that would keep it competitive. If a u-arch ain't broke, why fix it? The existing K8 u-arch is a nice balance of performance per clock, frequency, and power. It isn't the best at any single one of these, but to date it is the best at the combined result, otherwise it wouldn't be selling so well.

I do believe Intel's NGA can catch up or surpass K8 in combined result and maybe even win all three of the categories I mention above, but K8L could step up the bar again in 2007.