kk,
Some creative quoting Mr. FUD/RAS. Please allow me to correct the record:
<ZDnet: The AMD Athlon chip set, Peng said, has more than 60 errata, each one requiring a workaround. Errata,
when not addressed, can sometimes cause problems with the operation of a PC. Athlon also requires a relatively
complex and expensive six-layer motherboard>
It's Athlon chip set. Big difference.
I stand corrected (maybe). You rarely see news about chip set errata. My mind's eye ignored "chipset" I guess. OK, why so many in a chip set? How many errata are there for Athlon itself? The microprocessor is much more complex than the chipset. Do errata for it scale vs. those of the chipset because of its complexity? Anyway, MPU, chipset, what's the difference? The MPU is no good without the chipset, is it? Somebody has to deal with the workarounds. How many Athlons/chipsets does anyone want to make/use with all these problems before just waiting for the next stepping. It's going to be very easy for OEMs to say 'I think I'll wait until you have all your ducks are in a line.' Here's some more of the article, including what Peng, the mobo guy said about errata and other things.
"What I really don't like about K7 [the code name for Athlon] is that it's not a proven technology to
corporate users," said Al Peng, a top executive with Taiwanese
motherboard maker AOpen. "What really amazes me is that AMD keeps talking about K7 as a mission
critical platform."
Corporate users, in order to buy Athlon, will need to get over a general perception that AMD chips are
not fully compatible with the Windows operating system.
And that's a risk, as far as PC makers are concerned.
"To date, the price difference [of AMD chips] does not offset the risk," said another source at a top-tier
PC maker selling to large corporations. "If they're going to
make it, they need to make it compelling to the OEMs."
The risks are production capacity and performance. AMD has run into production snags with K6-2,
which limited the availability of the chip. The aforementioned
production snags have lead to short supply of top clock speed-rated versions of the chip.
Production, "isn't going to be an issue, because of the two mega-fabs," Lapinski said. AMD will
manufacture Athlon in two different fabrication plants, its Fab 25 in
Austin, Texas, and its Fab 30 in Dresden, Germany. Fab 30 is equipped to move Athlon from a
0.25-micron manufacturing process to 0.18, which will help the
company continue to improve its speed. This transition will happen in the fourth quarter. Around the
same time, AMD will offer a 700MHz version of the chip.
He admits, however, that AMD has at times been a "step behind" with K6-2. But, "With Athlon strategy
that goes away. We definitely have enough headroom on
this to hit the frequency marks and execute on the schedule."
The very PC makers that offer AMD chips to consumers could be holding it back on the corporate side,
Feibus said. "The corporate product line managers have
been really reticent to take the plunge. They want to see some kind of a track record," he said.
AMD realizes "there is a lot of work to be done," Lapinski said. "We've done 16 to 17 focus groups.
We're looking at their care-abouts," such as service and
support.
AMD is also preparing a broad reaching strategy to offer Athlon to corporations in high performance
desktops, workstations and servers and later in sub-$1000
PCs.
(See Athlon attacking corporate market.)
AMD will have to do engineering work as well. The AMD Athlon chip set, Peng said, has more than
60 errata, each one requiring a workaround. Errata, when not
addressed, can sometimes cause problems with the operation of a PC. Athlon also requires a relatively
complex and expensive six-layer motherboard, he said.
Mr. FUD/RAS... glad you woke up my RAS hat! Those errata and attendant workarounds for the chipset, and any that exist/arise for Athlon itself, and the mobos, BIOS, drivers, I/O compatibility questions will make this thing an untouchable RAS risk for most in the corporate markets for a long, long time. 50 MHz more, maybe (what's bin split at 650?) is nowhere near enough for Fortune 1000 companies to jump to AMD. Also, I don't think we've heard the end of the power and noise problems. Enjoy your stock run until AMD's run of quarterly losses takes over the news again.
Tony
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