Interesting on Dell and Athlon (not)
zdnet.co.uk
Analysis: Why major players snub AMD's Athlon Thu, 26 Aug 1999 1:02:01 GMT Dave Wilby AMD is turning the heads of techies world-wide with its
Pentium-bashing 650MHz Athlon chip. So why are key PC vendors, including current UK leader Dell, still reluctant to adopt AMD's new baby?
Steve Duignan, UK product manager for Dell's Dimension range -- the desktop PC family currently using high-end Pentium III chips and thus most suited to AMD's Athlon. Although he admits that price/performance is usually paramount for Dell, he highlights the company's similar decision to adopt the Celeron processor early, when AMD's K6 was performing better in performance testing. "To be honest, we did evaluate the Athlon during pre-testing, as we always have done with previous AMD chips, but the big problem is the company's ability to supply," says Duignan. "AMD hasn't got a particularly good track record in its ability to ship to order and that's the kicker. We're not alone in this -- look at Gateway."
"We don't have any visibility of AMD's Dresden plant being able to get up to speed and supply in the necessary bulk," says Duignan. "Great benchmarks are all well and good but if they can't supply to demand for two months, it's a non-runner for Dell."
Duignan says: "With Coppermine in the pipeline, Intel looks as if it will regain the high ground. For a couple of months, AMD win the spec wars but they don't have an astounding combination of integration
with the motherboard and further chipsets. It's a concern when it comes down to real life performance." |
