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

To: Scumbria who wrote (96941)	3/5/2000 5:43:00 PM
From: SteveC	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1579675

Thanks. The favorable PR begins. See how Reuters is starting to alter the story to highlight AMD's accomplishment: AMD Set to Beat Intel 1GHz Chip By Therese Poletti SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - In a business where speed is paramount, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. appears ready to jump out ahead on Monday of Intel Corp. in the race to ship the first ultra-fast computer chip that reaches a new milestone of 1 billion cycles per second. Advanced Micro (NYSE:AMD - news) issued a news release on Sunday stating it will announce early Monday that it has ``commenced shipments of 1GHz (gigahertz) AMD Athlon processors.' Analysts had said they expected both Intel (NasdaqNM:INTC - news) and its scrappy rival Advanced Micro to launch their first processors running at one gigahertz this week. A call to Intel on Sunday afternoon was not returned. Both companies sped up their product plans, analysts said, in order to capture the boasting rights for being first to the market with a chip that runs at 1 billion cycles per second. As recently as last month at the company's developer forum, Intel executives said they planned to launch the Pentium III at one gigahertz chip sometime in the second half of this year. On Friday, AMD officials scrambled to take down some details of their own product launch plans from their Web site, which had been inadvertently published in an FAQ (frequently asked question) on AMD's Web site, and republished Friday in an article on The Register (http://www.theregister.co.uk). On its Web posting, AMD said that its current manufacturing process, combined with the seventh generation architecture in the Athlon processor, will enable it to launch one gigahertz processors in March. ``It went live prematurely,' said John Greenagle, a spokesman for AMD in Sunnyvale, Calif. Analysts, however, note that these chips will not be available in big volumes after they are launched and that only a handful of personal computer makers are likely to announce products designed with one gigahertz processors. ``I think it's chest-thumping more than anything else,' said Mark Edelstone, a Morgan Stanley Dean Witter analyst. Ashok Kumar, an analyst with US Bancorp Piper Jaffray, agreed. ``I don't think there is a big push from an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) perspective. It's just bragging rights,' Kumar said of current PC maker demand for more powerful chips. ``The sweet spot in the market is closer to 500 megahertz,' he said of the speed required to run the overwhelming number of computer software programs now available. But because these will be the first processors on the market running at one gigahertz, the companies will be able to charge a premium, even if it is just for a short time. Keith Diefendorff, editor-in-chief of the Microprocessor Report, estimates that both one gigahertz chips will be priced around $900 or so, compared with the $850 now charged for the most expensive Pentium IIIs. Brookwood of Insight 64 has even higher projections, ranging from $1,200, $1,500, to even as high as $2,000. ``It is a huge milestone,' Brookwood said. ``In a couple of years we won't be talking about 800 megahertz. ... The machines you bought a few years ago will '.8 gigahertz.' The whole scheme of measuring will change. That doesn't happen very often.' ((therese.poletti+reuters.com, SF Bureau 415/677-2542) ============= I suggest that someone with more technical know how than me send Ms. Poletti an email telling her that she is still missing the key point: AMD's 1GHz chip will be available in volume, any 1GHz PIII will be as rare as the California Condor.