Replies to post #16058 on Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[Elmer Phud]

YB -

I don't think Compaq was risking anything. Alpha volume was so tiny that even Itanium can cover all needs. All they need just under 10,000 chips per year.

And with the costs of Enterprise computing coming down Compaq simply couldn't afford to fund Alpha R&D on such tiny volumes. There wasn't any choice in the matter.

[chipguy]

I don't think Compaq was risking anything. Alpha volume was so tiny that even Itanium can cover all needs. All they need just under 10,000 chips per year.

If you said 50k devices a year before the death sentence
announcement you would be far closer to being right. At the
peak, before the recession, it was over 100k per year.