Replies to post #27331 on Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[HailMary]

First all the cost that is important to the real customer is
the system cost, not one of the components. In the server
market that IPF currently resides in, IPF processors go
up against CPUs like POWER4+ and USIII and US-IV
which require big off-CPU caches

I wasn't arguing against IPF chip costs in the existing markets it plays in. It is doing fine there. I was arguing as to whether or not it could be a mainstream part (25M units/quarter), or rather when it would be feasible to be a mainstream part assuming there was a market for it.

Thanks for your 2 posts and same to wbmw. I think I see a point sometime in the future where IPF could be more competitive cost wise in a mainstream desktop system application. I'm not sure it will ever happen because of the resistance against it in the x86 world, but I see how the large cache disadvantage today diminishes over time to the point of being no disadvantage.

Keep in mind x86 may shed some baggage as time goes by, although some things can never die. I doubt x86-64 is the last of the extensions or evolution.