Steve,
Jerry sounds pretty confident:
Intel has already demonstrated its 1.5GHz Willamette processor in what is seen as a bit of a game. Are you going to continue playing that game?
If the game means we can produce high-volume production of competitive performance processors like Intel, then the answer is yes. If the game is announcing or demonstrating a leading-edge product a year ahead of introduction, I don't know if I want to even play that game. Intel can put more engineers on marketing and promoting, but let's look at mid-year. Let's see which company has delivered more GHz-based machines -- AMD or Intel? Let's take a look at that, not who will, at some distant point in the future, have a 1.5GHz processor. We believe in doubling performance every 18 months. We can do that.
My understanding is that the Intel 1GHz machines, which were Intel-based PCs that were announced, semi-announced or pre-announced at the Intel Developer Forum, are in Intel boxes. There's no difference if it's company A, company B or company C -- it's an Intel-built box with an Intel power supply, Intel tweaking and Intel cooling. It's all Intel. All you do is put your brand on the box. That makes companies nothing more than distributors, and there's no margin in that. That's not the game AMD wants to play. We want to give the guy the chance to differentiate his box.
If your question is: do you think you can keep up with Intel on processor performance? Well, the answer is an unqualified 'yes'.
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