Replies to post #1517 on AMD strictly moderated (AMD)

[marcotte_2000]

They talked a lot about Hammer because, at the time, they were behind in technology; now, that they are so far ahead of Intel, they can be privy; and now it's Ruiz's way of doing things as opposed to Jerry, the flamboyant.

[chipguy]

They are pretty secretive about the next gen arch though, hmm I wonder why?

Their new CTO was pretty forthcoming recently about how
far AMD was from having a new microarchitecture shipping
in products. I guess he hadn't had his remote controlled
pain chip installed yet to ensure silence. ;-)

[CombJelly]

"AMD has been very public about their lawsuit"

There is that. And they do always have some demos running during IDF. But when have you seen a press conference where they waved wafers around when they hit a milestone like functional SRAMs on a process they are developing? Much less at several points as they increase the size of the SRAMs. Or when they tape out a design. Or get first silicon. Or...

Intel publicizes these events, AMD doesn't. Sometimes they will mention one of these events in the course of an interview, but often they don't. I remember when Elmer was claiming the K8 hadn't taped out just a couple of days before they did their first demo. All based on the fact that they hadn't throw a "big tent" party for it.

Yes, they talked the Hammers up a lot. But they were very quiet about the K7 until right before introduction. And the OEMs that got engineering samples were very quiet, unlike Intel where a lot of them wind up on ebay well before shipping.

Two different companies, two different methodologies. Frankly, I wish AMD was more open about these things, but they aren't. But don't confuse their quiet with problems, it usually isn't the case.

[oc detective]

I believe Hector Ruiz said in the last conference call that AMD were going to "underpromise and outperform". The underpromise part of the statement could prove to be very telling.....