Replies to post #6148 on Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[Elmer Phud]

YB -

But still, why do I have to pay from 40 to 70 K for that server?

You don't have to buy one. Buy an Opteron instead.

[chipguy]

But still, why do I have to pay from 40 to 70 K for that server?

That's a function of the market it addresses. It is competing against IBM pseries 630,
SGI Origin 3200 and Altix 3000, and Sun Fire 880. I doubt the 5670 pricing is out of line
compared to those systems. HP probably doesn't want to undercut its own RISC based
mid range systems by too much either.

Anyway, I am a great believer in Adam Smith's "invisible hand" of capitalism. If HP is
charging too much then they will have to lower their price or not sell as many as they
want.

[Tenchu]

YB, Anyway, 3 Mb cache and 6.4 Gb/s seems to be a good basis for 4-way scalability, but the nothion that propriatery circuitry is in design to make it scaling further suggests that that's about it.

What's the big deal over "proprietary circuitry"? Intel's FSBs have always been limited to four processors per bus. To scale further would require multiple FSBs. Whether you use Intel's chipsets or "proprietary circuitry" to implement that is irrelevant.

Scalability has always been a function of many, many factors. Different architectures require different solutions for scalability. If you think Opteron's scalability comes for free, think again.

Tenchu