Elmer, I think that AMD said something along the lines of "Hammer will not have a presence on the desktop until the second half". It depends on how they define a presence. Maybe 150k units in Q1 and 550k units in Q2 is not a presence, but 6.3M units across both quarters in the second half is a presence. According to this report, that is how volumes are expected to pan out.
Notice that in Q4 2003, Hammer still only represents about 45% of AMD's total unit volumes, which would also confirm their statement that Hammer wouldn't be a major revenue part until 2004 ("major" meaning >50%?).
It seems likely that AMD will try and launch Opteron with much ado, while they stealth launch Clawhammer to the review sites, and have them do their benchmark fest, while only allowing enough volumes for it to look like Hammer has been launched.
Given AMD's previous paper launches, I wouldn't doubt it if this is the plan. They know that they need Hammer to compete for mind share, but in terms of revenue, it will be a long time in coming. And that's assuming they don't run into additional problems along the way.
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