Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Intel Corporation (INTC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Amy J who wrote (93379)	12/4/1999 12:56:00 PM
From: kash johal	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 186894

Amy, Re:""If you were an automobile manufacturer, I suppose you can put a focus on max speed (forget about accelleration, cornering, stopping, and other performance ratios) and build a car that is faster (top speed) than a BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, etc." This could translate into, "forget about high-volume production, yield, reliability, compatibility, and build a chip that is faster." " Actually the analogy is TERRIBLE. A small team of say 5-10 can AND regularly DO build sports CARS that do exceed such speeds. The analogy is plainly DUMB. Several companies have tried to come up with competitive x86 microprocessors in the recent past - Rise, IDT, Cyrix/NSM and they have ALL FAILED misereably. AMD also tried AND FAILED miserably with the K5 and K6. So even producing a few high speed x86 samples is clearly difficult. Having a leading edge deep sub-micron wafer fab ready and able to produce millions of units of such chips is EXPENSIVE (BILLIONS) and difficult. Getting majore OEMS like Compaq and IBM to use your chips at any speed is difficult as they have rigorous quality requirements. Getting Motherboard manufacturers to support your alternative to the standard is difficult. Getting chip-set suppliers to design chips sets to your unproven x86 design is diificult. In fact it is so diificult that NO-ONE for many years has had a competitive chip with Intel in high end desktops. The last such chip was from AMD at the 386 level. The fact is that AMD has turned things around and does have a very competitive solution to the coppermine. The good news for AMD is that it has performed very well recently, while Intel seems to be continually shooting itself in the foot. Intel is still a very fine company of course and is trying to recover as I am sure it will. But it would be STUPID of folks on this thread to underestimate how difficult it is to have a leading edge processor/fab/process.chipset etc all come together and perform. In fact this BARRIER to entry is a GOOD thing for AMD and Intel and their shareholders. I think that folks here are seriously UNDERESTIMATING how much damage Intel has done to itself with the RDRAM/820/cumine fiasco to the major OEMS. This gives AMD a great ability to become firmly entrenched as the Number 2 supplier - there aren't too many competitors frankly. I think the true test will be next quarter for the Athlon/Cumine battle. Place your bets and get a good ring-side seat. regards, Kash