Maui,
Is this (Intel's backup plan on x86-64) good news for AMD shareholder ?
On balance, I think so. My reason is that Hammer may have 1 to 2 year lead, and at that point Intel may be forced to be compatible with Hammer. It completely undermines Itanium, and more of the confirmation OEMs have that Itanium is a turkey, the more reluctant they will have to pour more money in the Itanium rathole - resulting in Itanium continuing to not go anywhere.
With Willamette/P4 rocky beginning as a server chip, and Itanium on a life support, Hammer would be very tempting.
think its smart that Intel is working on the backup and hedging. May not be great on the ego, but a good thing for the shareholders. Itanium has done a lot of damage already, driving CPQ, HWP, SGI out of the processor space, narrowing the field down to SUNW, IBM, Intel and AMD.
I have to say that I admire Intel's ability to swallow their pride, and do the opposite of what they preached, when market dictates it. It has been good for the shareholders, since the consequences of not making U-turns would have been very costly.
Good point about narrowing down the field. Actually, growing strength of x86 is server market is good for AMD, since AMD is a (tiny) participant in the market, and this market presents a future potential for AMD. Also, some of the dropouts will need CPUs, and may just as well go to AMD in the future.
Joe |
