Replies to post #8036 on Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[wbmw]

Petz, don't be dense. AMD is going after Intel's multi-billion dollar (very real) server market. And like I said, they are claiming to have a "better" solution, by which they demand the industry to hold them to equal or higher standards than Intel, a reputation that they cannot possibly live up to. Furthermore, if AMD's "strategic plan" is simply to let the industry to all the work for them, by virtue of this myth of "64-bits for free", then it's a strategy that's doomed for failure. Despite of what you might think, AMD needs quite a lot of heavy lifting to overcome the barriers of even porting a software suite to their measly 64-bit extension.

[Jerry R]

Petz - Are there really no customers who need 64-bit computing but don't want to spend a lot of money rewriting software?

You are making a false arguement here. It is important to understand that to access the 64-bit features of Opteron, software necessarily needs to re-written, including the OS, device drivers, and the applications themselves. Otherwise, you simply have a 64-bit machine running 32-bit software.

You simply don't get 64-bit computing for free, unlike what AMD's propaganda states. You have to spend the money to get the software infrastructure to have a true 64-bit solution.

Do you really believe there are a lot of customers saying they want 64-bit servers (or desktops, for that matter) but don't want to spend any money getting 64-bit software?