<Technically the K6 design is much more shallower pipe than PII/III and *still* AMD has been able to drag this MHz race this far. Even after taking into account the voltage bump, is it not impressive that AMD has been able to get the K6 family into the high-400 MHz range? Why? Or why not?>
It's no secret that AMD is being extremely aggressive in ramping up the MHz of a product that isn't really architected for high MHz (shallow pipeline). That's a main factor behind some of AMD's latest manufacturing snafus.
In comparison, Intel doesn't really need to be as aggressive in ramping up the MHz. Intel can't really afford to, either, since Intel's volumes are so much bigger than AMD's. In other words, Intel has much more to lose than AMD. If AMD stumbles, big deal, only a one million unit shortage. If Intel stumbles, uh oh, there goes at least five million units, and that could cause some shockwaves in the PC industry.
Of course, it's questionable whether AMD can afford to be as aggressive in the MHz ramp-up of the K7 as they were in the ramp-up of K6-2. They can do it, if they were really obsessed with surpassing Intel in the MHz race. But given current shareholder relations, if AMD stumbles one more time, things could really get ugly.
Perhaps AMD will do the same thing that Intel seems to be doing nowadays. Introduce the K7 at 500, 550, and 600 MHz, but say with a whisper that the 550 and 600 MHz parts won't really be available until August, and even then they'll just trickle in.
Tenchusatsu |
