... on a handful of specially selected apps; Digital failed with the Alpha, which was a relatively FAR superior design, Itanium won't have much more success.
----Quite a bit more than a handfull. I could sweep around the net and repost all the vendor links, but frankly it's been done many times. Comparing Digital with intel for designing and marketing microprocessors, is apples and oranges. Digital aint no intel.... By a Long Shot
I agree that the 64bits part of the Hammer will take a lot of time to get used and useful but that'll still be a great marketing ploy... OTOH, I think the Hammer family will come right in time for the beginning of SSE2 apparition and clockspeed over 2 GHz will be well enough, especially if the clock-for-clock performance isn't as dumped as it've been on the P4.
-----The fact remains that Hammer will be a 32 bit chip that has been extended to do 64 bit. IA-64 will be a 64 bit chip that can do 32. Looking forward, I'd rather have the True 64, but I digress. There are obviously those that prefer the reverse. More Power To Them.
I would reformulate :
While Intel is trying to be the future, AMD has chosen to live in the present.
-----Right. And like I said, for my "High Technology" investment strategy (Long Term), I would rather have a forward looking company. When I first came into High Tech, as a lowly Test Technician, One of my first mentors said to me: "In High Tech, There's No Standing Still In The Present. If You're Not Moving Forward, Then You're Falling Behind". I realize that others have different strategies, go for it.
I expect AMD to be in a better situation with the Palomino@.18 vs P4@.18 than they were with the T-Bird vs PIII, P4 would have been a terrific chip... but with all the stuff they cut off to shrink it (second x87 FPU, extra ALU, 16Kb L1 cache...)
-----All valid points. In the short term, I expect AMD to match intel, but again, looking down the road, I believe that intel will hold off AMD's"Extended 64" using XEON's well established current Server base, Since as noted, there will be little support for 64 bit applications at first.
In the meantime, they push IA-64 into the Server, and High End Workstation Market. P4 will Dominate the Low end WorkStation Market, and Celeron will become a thing of the past as eventual 0.13u cost savings (price cuts) P4's Displaces P3, and P3 displaces Celeron.
I'll once again reformulate: So, if ya step back for a second, take off those AMD glasses, and try my Intel glasses, whatever mis-steps intel has made in the past couple of years, is the past. Intel is positioned well for what they expect to be the future, whereas AMD is well positioned in the present, and they study the past (how x86 moved from 16 to 32 bits) and listen to the present to try to be well positioned in the future.
-----Again, while nobody has a crystal ball, intel is trying to anticipate what people will want tomorrow. Is it a sure thing? Obviously not, but In High Tech, I would rather invest my money long term, in a company that is trying to grow in many directions, rather than one just focusing on core business. I believe that was the mistake Atari made.
Also, when intel extended 16 bit into 32, they had tons of resources, a huge installed customer base, and very little competition, AMD is attempting to repeat history, with allot less money, and allot smaller base, not to mention competition from a 600lb Gorilla. Good Luck.
Semi |
