Replies to post #50203 on Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[Tenchu]

I_banker, Is there some benefit to making high-end server hardware common with low-end and desktop hardware?

The interfaces can be similar. The overall hardware doesn't necessarily have to be.

After all, consider the fact that the Xeon bus is almost identical to the Celeron bus. (Yes, the processor logic cores are 95% similar, but the point is that high-end server hardware can share a similar interface with low-end desktop hardware.)

Tenchu

[kpf]

i_banker

I look at the common platform as part of an exit strategy of IPF: It's the golden hardware brigde to migrate to X86. It would need a software bridge as well, which is easy to imagine already: We have seen a software emulation to run X86 on IPF. Same is possible to run EPIC on X86. It's basically all nonsense nobody with a sane mind would ever use, but it will prevent Intel from loosing face when exiting IPF.

K.