BB, >>>"I agree with your opinion on CPU's as
commodity products."<<<
Some CPU's may be categorized as commodities, but not all. The low to mid clock speed x86's, which Intel, AMD, Cyrix/NSM, and to a degree, IDT and Rise can make, could be called that. However, Intel distinguishes themselves from the rest with products those pretenders can't make, and they keep moving up. Currently, the 400 and 450 MHz Pentium II's (AMD has 400 but most likely at poor yield), and Xeon have no competition, hence, are not commodities by definition. Next year, Intel comes with Katmai in February, which has 70 new instructions and no direct competitor and later chips like Cascades, Coppermine, Dixon and then Merced and the IA64 family. You could say that CPU chips could become a commodity if all CPU chip companies were created equal. They are definitely not because only Intel can afford to develop all the new products that keep them far in front.
As far as the PC on a chip (PCOAC), Intel is developing one at their Israel facility. NSM is toast because they are betting the company on theirs. Intel's will win. AMD will continue to make it interesting as they have their design pretty well together and their process technology and manufacturing are "adequate" although nowhere near that of IBM or Intel.
Conclusion is that CPU chips are not a commodity, at least across their whole spectrum, and I didn't get even into Sun Sparc or Power PC or IBM RISC chips.
Tony |
