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

To: Dan3 who wrote (118008)	6/28/2000 10:12:00 AM
From: milo_morai	Respond to of 1574750

Faster bus speeds may give AMD advantage over Intel in cheap PC market By Stefan Dubowski, Posted Jun 27, 2000, 10:39 AM Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) and Intel Corp. unveiled their value-priced chips recently. And for once, Intel might be the underdog, according an industry observer. On June 26 Intel introduced its latest Celeron processor running at 700 MHz, 667 MHz and 630 MHz. Email this story to a friend Printer friendly version Post Comment to this story Only one week earlier, on June 19, AMD said its Duron chip (700 MHz, 650 MHz and 600 MHz) was ready to go. AMD and Intel built these components for the sub-$1,000 PC market. It's an important market, according to Kevin Krewell, a senior analyst with MicroDesign Resources. "I believe it's somewhere in the 30 to 50 per cent range," he said about the value-priced PC segment. "I know that the Celeron line represents about 40 per cent of desktop processor sales." But AMD's new chip is big on performance. Can Intel hold on to its lead? Consider the numbers: AMD's Duron is built with 0.18-micron technology. It comes with 192 KB on-chip cache and a 200 MHz front-side bus. Intel's latest - and fastest - Celeron is also built with 0.18-micron technology. But it offers only 128 KB on-chip cache and a 66 MHz system bus. It's often said that the bus is the bottleneck. If this is true, Intel's price-conscious processor could be in trouble. "I think on the performance side Intel has a tough claim," Krewell said. "I've seen Duron out-perform Celeron on pretty much every benchmark." What was Intel thinking? "In a balanced value-PC system the bus has to complement the chipset," said Brett Udashkin, Intel's regional manager for computer sales group. Thus "you get two things: You get great performance and you get a good price." But when it comes to performance and price, Intel has an uphill battle. The Duron and the Celeron cost the same (Intel: US$138 to US$192-per-1,000 units; AMD: US$112 to US$192-per-1,000 units.) And AMD boasts benchmark beatings. Krewell said Intel's bus-botch might signal AMD's time to shine. "AMD has the support of key OEMs (original equipment manufacturers, like IBM Corp. and Compaq Inc.)," he said. "Duron has received good reviews in the press. Even though it's a brand new strategy ... they have the support." Then again, maybe Intel has the right idea. After all, Celerons dominate the low-end computer market. The precedent is set. Dell Computer Corp., for example, counts among Intel's fans. Krewell said AMD is looking for 30 per cent of the market, but the analyst predicts the company will gain no more than 25 per cent. And Duron's electronic gymnastics, he said, won't help. "A number of people say - and maybe it's over-said - with the sub-$1,000 PC business, everyone expects customers to be as dumb as wood. They only buy megahertz ... So actual performance doesn't matter." The average computer user wants connectivity and ease of use. From this point of view, according to Krewell, AMD's Duron holds no trump with Intel's Celeron. The MHz-measurements are similar, no matter the maker. And the prices aren't very different. "I don't know why they added a 200 MHz front-side bus," Intel's Udashkin said. "Will it make a difference to the end user? Probably not." Aaron Feen, AMD's spokesman, said Duron should up the status quo for low-priced PCs. "They want to be able to play every game," he said of future Duron-users. "But they aren't looking for the ultimate gaming experience." Udashkin said Intel's Celeron makes for an easy PC-entry to the Internet. canadacomputes.com Source: S.Tribe Milo