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

To: Scumbria who wrote (124796)	9/26/2000 1:51:10 AM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1578299

Scumbria and thread; Another good article reposted from the mod thread. ____________________________________________________________ AMD Touts Performance, Downplays Speed New strategy matches Athlon against Intel’s P4 By Jayant Mathew As the industry awaits the Pentium 4 and higher speeds, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) will be doing something different rather than brag about processor speed. Instead, Intel Corp.'s rival will most likely focus on the Athlon's performance characteristics as a way of downplaying the P4's higher clock speeds. Ever since AMD released the 1GHz Athlon chip, both chipmakers have pushed process technology to the limit to increase clock speeds, leapfrogging each other to claim the fastest processor in the world. This makes little sense for now because there are only a few thousand of these 1GHz and faster chips sold in a quarter. Moreover, this has cost Intel dearly because the chip leader has pushed its aging Pentium III technology beyond its limits, resulting in the recall of the 1.13GHz Pentium III. Yet both companies have continued the chant of faster is better and keep battling for pole position. But there could be a change when AMD is faced with a Pentium 4 microprocessor that can scale to very-high clock speeds. With the P4, Intel hopes to be a couple of steps ahead of AMD just as it once was in its heyday. For its part, AMD is also set to create higher-speed versions of the Athlon with its Mustang core, but it may give up being the fastest chip for a while. "AMD is fully compatible in performance with the P4 except in certain multimedia applications, which they won't talk about too much," said Peter N. Glaskowsky, senior editor of the Microprocessor Report. "They have a little bit of a challenge dealing with P4 in terms of sheer clock speed, but they will have arguments that are pretty compelling." AMD will have some work cut out for it in getting across its new message because it's a change of direction for a company that had been boasting about the clock speed of its Athlon. The immediate concern for AMD is to convince consumers, because the industry will support them, Glaskowsky said. Intel is in an awkward position. The P4 with a higher clock rate does not have the same efficiency as Intel's previous designs. The P4 is only incrementally superior to the Pentium III, based on standard benchmark tests on a clock-for-clock basis, according to analysts. Intel, however, has not released results of comparisons between the two. Intel didn't want to deviate from its faster-is-better mantra when it designed the P4. By increasing the pipeline in the P4, Intel has taken a performance hit, but the clock frequency is far more scalable. The trend in the PC market, however, weighs against AMD. Typically when a new clock speed is introduced in the nosebleed range, it does not create an opportunity at lower speeds, said Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Mercury Research. If this is true, then AMD will have to introduce clock speeds between 1.1GHz and 1.5GHz soon to limit the P4's appeal. Another factor that AMD will need to address is a resurgent Pentium III. Intel is expected to introduce a glitch-free 1.13GHz incarnation and maybe a couple of more iterations after that when it transitions the manufacturing to a 0.13-micron process. Intel may even be forced to keep the Pentium III active for several more years once it streamlines its production. There are signs that Intel is making a recovery in the high-end segment this quarter. Intel has a lead over AMD in clock speeds greater than 800MHz but less than 1GHz. This indicates that Intel's yields are improving in the high-margin segment, McCarron said. But AMD was alone at the top for a while and this has won it respect. According to Mercury Research estimates, AMD sold 58,000 units of the 1GHz Athlon in the last quarter, while Intel sold a paltry 6,000 PIIIs at that speed. "AMD is the only one yielding at that speed and Intel just couldn't do it," McCarron said. Still, AMD is constrained by a lack of manufacturing facilities, and that prevents PC OEMs from dropping Intel. In fact, a couple of weeks ago, AMD pre-empted Intel and resorted to an aggressive price cut to remain competitive. electronicnews.com.