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

To: Process Boy who wrote (86040)	1/9/2000 12:51:00 PM
From: Charles R	Respond to of 1571405

<I don't understand the way AMD samples product then.> AMD samples like Intel used to - approximately 3 months before official launch. <WHy didn't they annonce an 850 if they are so far ahead?> I see a few reasons: a) The high end pays off on the business side. AMD currently has almost no business skews largely due to infrastructural issues like motherboard/chipset issues. b) On the consumer side AMD will not get any higher ASPs if they increase the speed grades. This segment favors K6s and Celerons and releasing one more Athlon SKU does not make much sense. c) AMD is already shipping one speed grade ahead of Intel for all practical purposes and, finally, d) It reduces the operations margin (I am not talking about gross margin here) and doesn't make much incremental difference to AMD's ASPs. As I have said a few times on this thread, I expect this to change once AMD gets a few business SKUs and once additional capacity comes on-line (Dresden) <Charles, sampling may not be the great indicator you think it is.> I disagree! < I'm sure Intel could also samples some very high MHz parts, witness, next month.> Yes, I think so too. However, in any given time period until Wilamette introduction, I do not think it will be able to sample or produce speed grades as high as what AMD could do. < So do you think that AMD is going to tgo form 800 to 1000 in the next month? > No! <If they are, then I'm worried. If not, I'm not.> Seriously, whether you worry or not I don't think there is much you could do about it. It is a architectural deal and the battle is AMDs to lose. Chuck

To: Process Boy who wrote (86040)	1/9/2000 2:26:00 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1571405

I don't understand the way AMD samples product then. WHy didn't they annonce an 850 if they are so far ahead? PB, AMD has stated repeatedly that their Marketing Dep't will determine what the MHz requirements of the market are at any given time. Further they have stated that the Athlon will have no problem meeting those requirements. I applaud them for this conservative approach. It sounds like a company executing well. And to coin a phrase said recently on this thread, if I were Intel I would be afraid, I would be very afraid. ted