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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Charles R who wrote (69332)	8/20/1999 12:21:00 PM
From: Yougang Xiao	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1572941

###Intel is the reason for Athlon MOBO shortage### www6.tomshardware.com om's Blurb, August 19, 1999 Athlon Motherboard Story and Intel Continued Abit is pretty upset, although I consider my words in the article as rather harmless. In an email to somebody they call me 'irresponsible journalist', whew!!! I must have hit a nerve there! Abit is franticly defending Intel and claims that there won't be any AMD-processors available this year, which is why they don't see a market for an Abit-Athlon board. This doesn't quite go hand in hand with reports I'm receiving from Germany and other countries, saying that Athlons are available, but no motherboards. We'll see if Abit will produce Athlon-boards once 'there is a market', until then I'd like Abit to think about the 'irresponsible journalist'-accusation. Regarding my 'conspiracy theory', I wouldn't like anything more than that Intel has indeed never strong-armed Taiwanese motherboard makers. However, I'd like to remind you of Intel's strong-arm tactics against several publications in spring 1997. I was right in the middle of it and this memory doesn't fade very easily. It's certainly not true that Intel has never done anything like this, and the 'chipset game' is something all hardware journalists know about, who've ever had closer contact to Taiwanese motherboard makers. Regardless what the truth may be, our Athlon-motherboard article has definitely had the effect that more Athlon-motherboards will become available soon. Thus the people who have access to Athlon-CPUs (and there seems to be quite a lot of them) have the chance to actually plug it into a motherboard. Every reader may make his own rhyme on why this result has been achieved. All in all I'd consider the effect of our Athlon-motherboard article as rather positive. End-users interested in Athlon-systems will certainly benefit from a wider range of Athlon-boards. If this is what results from 'irresponsible journalism' (original quote of an Abit spokesperson), then I won't mind being called an irresponsible journalist. An Intel employee sent me a ail that I appreciate fully, complaining that I painted a picture of Intel-employees as crazy AMD-haters. I know that the majority of Intel-people are hard working, honest and pleasant. The people in the different development-departments haven't got the slightest thing to do with politics, they are trying hard to provide good technology. So far they provided the fastest x86-processors and a lot of other good things too. I'd like to apologize to each of those people, in case they feel that I've insulted them. However, there are some politicians within Intel that are less pleasant. Those people sign responsible for decisions that in the past lead to strong-arming c't-Magazine, PC Professionell and others, including THG. This story was covered by several US-newspapers back in March 1997, including the New York Times and San Jose Mercury News. Whatever happens in Taiwan is less mysterious than you think. The Internet will make sure that Taiwan is not too far away from us to let any company get away with strong-arming practices over there either. It's a whole lot of motherboard makers with a lot of employees. At least one of them will talk and we'll be listening carefully to what he's got to tell us. Update This email just reached me now: Tom, I just read the follow-up to your Athlon motherboard article. I work for a large OEM in the U.S and we have no less than 3000 Athlons in stock. However, we are having motherboard issues (MB company withheld). The idea that there is no need/demand for motherboards is ridiculous. It may cause a delay in us shipping product, and I'm sure we're not the only ones. Anonymous I guess I don't have to comment on that, it says it all really ... Don't blame AMD if you can't get your Athlon-system, the reason for the shortage lies somewhere completely different. I don't think it's too difficult to guess the source for these problems ... Update #2 Tom, First off all, thanks for the great work you do. It's refreshing to say the least. Second, regarding your Athlon motherboard review and Intel sidebar, I am also eagerly awaiting these boards. I am an Authorized AMD reseller in Canada and as of this week have OEM and Retail boxes of Athlon processors. But, NO BOARDS. Please guys (that's you motherboard manufacturers) we are waiting! V.N. Is there still anyone claiming that I am an 'irresponsible journalist' making up crazy theories? I wonder if Abit won't choke at this statement.

To: Charles R who wrote (69332)	8/20/1999 7:21:00 PM
From: Paul Engel	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1572941

Chuckles - Re: "AMD could have done better to exploit Intel's slippage - a feeling shared by a lot of the people on this thread." And now that Intel is "getting up" again, AMD is going to realize that they lost a unique opportunity. AMD will live to regret this. Paul

To: Charles R who wrote (69332)	8/20/1999 7:23:00 PM
From: Paul Engel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1572941

Chuckles - Re: " Good for Intel but not too good. I have yet to hear anything good about Cascades from the people who have had access to it." Nice BLUFF, Chuckles ! Nobody has had access to Cascades because the first Cascades wafers are just now coming out of D1B fab ! Paul

To: Charles R who wrote (69332)	8/20/1999 7:26:00 PM
From: Paul Engel	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1572941

Chuckles - Re: " Without 0.13 in 2000, Intel doesn't have a prayer of staying in the MHz race, don't you think?" Boy are YOU OUT OF DATE ! If AMD really can't deliver 650 MHz AthLATES until October, they will find themselves ONCE AGAIN BEHIND INTEL in the MHz - as October ends. Beware, Chuckles. Time marches on - Intel has recovered from their Coppermine set back and AMD has played a trump card that they apparently don't possess. Paul