Elmer, I noticed the recession. Still, Barrett made an awful string of bad decisions - RDRAM, P4 (less IPCs for more clock speed, something they are now backing away from)*, all those communications purchases. If even one of five of those purchases paid off, then the effort would have been profitable. Zero for all of them? How about Itanium?
How about the future? I share Barrett's expectation that WiFi is coming on like gangbusters. I'm not sure that there will be a lot of profit for the chip makers, though. These chips will be driven down in price very fast; it is necessary for both AMD and Intel to offer WiFi, just to keep up.
I have serious doubts about Barrett's factory spending spree. I think he wants to muscle Itanium into a small enough package to be salable, but I don't think the strategy will succeed.
No, Barrett has been the prolific spender and a visionary in search of a vision. Others at Intel have been following him with a wagon and shovel. Intel still has the greatest marketing and accounting, and a fantastic x86 franchise. Intel amazingly remained profitable despite Barrett. He has focussed on technology trends, purchases and product decisions, leaving the nuts & bolts management to more competent hands.
*The P4 did do well against the Athlon in 2002, because AMD screwed up. Those times are over.
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