Replies to post #38215 on Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[bobs10]

The secret is in the sauce "64 bits for free". Why buy a soon to be obsolete 32 bit processor when a dual 32/64 bit processor costs the same or less? Besides that the 32/64 bit processor is faster than the 32 bit heater from INTC.

Seems like a pretty simple decision to me.

[mmoy]

A64 is making steady inroads to the enthusiasts market.
Yesterday, someone posted a graphic from ALienware's site
that ran an active-x comparison of their hardware with Alienware's hardware for gaming purposes and the target was
an A64 chip with a hot video card.

Today, there was another poster on the build forum looking for
a native Windows 64 build. So I see people buying them.

Of course if you're running Linux, you just run natively as you
can build anything that you need.

But Windows is the 800 lb gorilla needed to drive adoption of
A64. Along with applications. IMO, the operating system looks
good to go. I use it for several hours per day at work and I've
seen no problems at all with it.

There are uses for it that the non-enthusiast could use it for
but those are still niche markets. I've found that compression
and decompression jobs perform very well on A64.

[sgolds]

chipguy, sobering maybe but still incorrect -

The bigger issue of whether customers are interested in 64-
bit computing simply because it’s 64-bit remains tough for
AMD to address. We don’t think that 64-bit computing
becomes a significant differentiator on the desktop until
Microsoft ships the Longhorn version of Windows in late
2005 or early 2006. Until then we believe that the
Athlon64 will compete with Intel on the basis of its merits
as a 32-bit processor, nothing more.

What Osha seems to forget:

1. WindowsXP and Windows Server 2003 are being updated with 64-bit support this year;

2. Longhorn will undoubtably follow the great Microsoft tradition of being years late - expect it as the decade sets.

The combination of these two factors is that there will be 64-bit OS support soon, and that version will persist for several years. Even though the OS is likely to have both 64-bit and 32-bit internals it will still support 64-bit applications and drivers. The public will not care that it was not designed for 64-bits from scratch, that is an engineering consideration - not a sales consideration.

Remember Windows 3.0? A 32-bit graphics shell on top of DOS. Sold like hot cakes!