Replies to post #8371 on Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[UpNDown]

wbmw, on 64-bit marketing advantage

And I take it you'd use the same arguments against Apple's oncoming marketing assault for 64-bit G5? Do you really think Microsoft wants to be caught in the "Intel isn't ready for 64-bit, we're waiting for them" camp?

[sgolds]

wbmw, yes I agree that the consumer market doesn't need 64-bits. However, your conclusions do not follow from this correct assessment of need:

1. Microsoft very much wants to be the premier server company, and that does not happen without a compelling 64-bit story. They do not want to take risk on only Itanium, just to see Linux steal the market from them.

2. With Apple, AMD and Microsoft pushing 64-bit, the consumer will want it whether they need it or not. Now, Apple may not be very good at building market share, but they are very good at anticipating what people will demand in their PCs. If Macintosh has it then users of x86 PCs will want it - that is the lesson of the last 20 years of consumer PC history.

Software makers will oblige & fill hardware, as usual. A year from now the best computer games will be disk-bound on 32-bit PCs and every kid will want a 64-bit solution.

P.S.: I saw your answer to YB. The issue isn't 64-bit graphics, the issue is large DRAM memory to feed data quickly into that 64-bit graphics. Perhaps he was sloppy in his terms, referring to 64-bit rendering, but that is not the issue.


P.P.S: I just saw YB's answer. Double-precision 64-bit (meaning 128-bit) floating point. Yet another advantage!

[yourbankruptcy]

wbmw, Microsoft has to bring 64-bit Windows to server space, because Linux is growing very fast there, nothing to do with Linux in consumer mindshare. When they have 64-bit Windows they may or may not also bring it down to desktop users. I rather bet they do, because they use consumers as beta-testers, so the more bugs people will find the better it will go back into server space.

[blauboad]

wbmw: Microsoft is leagues ahead of Linux in consumer mindshare, and it would take many years to even put a dent in that. The 64-bit label will do little for Linux sales in the consumer market, so Microsoft has nothing to fear. Linux has barely any marketing presence, and besides, it's not about how many bits the OS has, but rather how many applications run under it. Microsoft has all the cards here, and no amount of 'Droid logic can change that.

It's not the consumer market they are worried about. For a large subset of business desktops (not to mention servers), Linux is quickly becomming a very viable--and relatively free--option. All typically used applications have their open-sourced equivalents. Europe is on this in a big way. Microsoft is not oblivious to this.