Paul: IBM, Compaq, Dell, HP seem to think they are proven - they are shipping such systems.
If these companies were shipping dual AthWiper systems instead, would you not assume they were PROVEN and stable?
No, there's always some risk with a new core - more so when the entire architecture is new. Heck, 1.13GHz PIIIs were shipping in systems from "IBM, Compaq, Dell, HP" and were recalled anyway. I cannot recall if those MTH+i820 boards were recalled, but despite the numbers shipped (and the duration), they were a far cry from stable.
There are plenty of other examples - and (of course) not just with Intel. VIA, AMD and every other semiconductor company I can think of (e.g. Sun and their "we didn't see the need for ECC" policy) have experienced similar problems.
That's why "proven and stable" is not something achieved overnight - or even by 6 months of OEM testing. For truly critical systems, I would never go with hardware that hasn't been shipping in volume for at least a year. Of course, I don't make decisions of this kind and the people who do so may well prioritize differently ;-)
-fyo |
