Elmer Re -"Not wanting to get in an argument I thought I'd move this along from the pissing contest stage to the discussion stage." Yes, Elmer thanks for that. I was done with the pissing contest anyway. I agree with what you say in your post.
Re -"Would you care to speculate on what IBM bid with if it wasn't Power?" I don't know what IBM bidded with. This was my point all along. IBM also has IPF designs. How can one (chipguy) know for certain that IBM did not bid with it? If Montecito is sampling right now would you not agree that IBM has samples up and running also? They could of bid with it. The second problem with chipguys post was his claim that Montecito is superior to Power 5. Would you not agree Elmer that both will show strengths and weaknesses relative to each other? Or do you also feel that Montecito will beat Power 5 top to bottom in ALL HPC apps?