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Technology Stocks : Advanced Micro Devices - Moderated (AMD) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tony Viola who wrote (30278)	3/5/2001 1:41:08 AM
From: Paul Engel	Respond to of 275872

Tony - Re: "Amazingly, one startup server company getting a lot of attention is using Transmeta. Guess they'll look if you have something a lot different, like sub watt CPUs." Looks like TransMeta may be a real THORN in the side of AMD !! Just when AMD thinks they may cut into Intel Server CPUS, along comes a third competitor - and AMD will have to duke it out with TransMeta - while Intel runs around end heading for the Goal Line. And just a few months ago, the AMDroids were butt-slapping themselves silly about their new Partner-To-Hate-Intel - TransMeta !!! Wednesday January 03 03:00 AM EST Transmeta to help AMD push into servers By Michael Kanellos;Mary Jo Foley; CNET News.com Advanced Micro Devices plans to take on Intel in the server market, enlisting one of its own competitors to help out. More resources from CNET: • More Tech News • Download Free Software • Find Product Reviews Under a complex deal yet to be announced, sources say AMD is sending to software developers computers that run on competitor Transmeta's Crusoe processor and contain a special version of Transmeta's "code-morphing" software. The computers are designed to run a program that simulates AMD's upcoming server chip, called Sledgehammer, the sources said. In turn, Transmeta has obtained a license that will allow it to make chips that rely in part on the Sledgehammer design. The Sledgehammer simulator is crucial to AMD's plans to break into the lucrative server market. With a software simulation of the chip, developers can tweak their programs so they can release products when Sledgehammer emerges commercially in the first half of 2002. AMD will also come out with a version for desktop computers called ClawHammer, the company has said. Sledgehammer is one of AMD's most ambitious projects to date. The chip will process data in 64-bit chunks, rather than in 32 bits like AMD's Athlon processor. The Sledgehammer also will allow computers to manage more memory than current PCs and servers do. The chip will compete against the long-awaited Itanium processor from Intel. The licensing pact also is likely to be seen as a significant endorsement of Transmeta's code-morphing software. Code-morphing software translates instructions written for Intel- or AMD-based computers into Very Long Instruction Word (VLIW) commands that can be understood by Transmeta's Crusoe chip and then back again. Transmeta has maintained that the translation process eliminates some of the burdens involved in chip design and causes only a minimal performance hit. Critics, however, have said that it is merely a form of emulation, a cross-computer form of translation that has never been satisfactory. By adopting the software for its development systems, AMD is essentially endorsing the technology. In fact, the company sent developers Sledgehammer simulators based on its own chips last fall, but they didn't work very well. "The AMD (Sledgehammer) simulator is quite slow. It runs at speeds like PCs 15 years ago," said a source with a software company, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Simulating a chip is a very expensive operation," the developer continued. "But Transmeta can take any x86 chip--and Sledgehammer is basically an x86 chip on steroids--and simulate it in hardware." Transmeta will also be able to make notebook chips that are compatible with software that is tailored to Sledgehammer. AMD and Transmeta executives declined to comment. Microsoft, Red Hat and Linux seller SuSE have all kicked off pilot programs to examine whether or not to write code for Sledgehammer. Representatives from Microsoft, which said earlier this year that it was evaluating AMD's Sledgehammer, said the company's position on Sledgehammer had not changed. Microsoft is looking at Sledgehammer but has not committed to writing software for the chip. Any deal involving Transmeta and AMD would be "complete news to me," said Michael Stephenson, lead product manager for Windows enterprise servers at Microsoft. "We still have nothing to announce" regarding Sledgehammer

To: Tony Viola who wrote (30278)	3/5/2001 1:49:45 AM
From: Joe NYC	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 275872

Tony, Also, there is revolutionary packaging development going on right now in the 1-2-4 way server space. The OEMs are working furiously to get this new concept out, and anything they can eliminate, like looking at an alternative CPU chip supplier, will be done. Also, low power is critical in this packaging scheme, something AMD has been ignoring. What concept are you talking about? I guess Intel is out of this game with the 600W McKinley. All this talk of the Intellabees reminds me of the time when I was a kid (back in Czechoslovakia). We used to go play hockey to a frozen lake that was a few miles outside of town. We always played until complete darkness (usually when we lost all of our pucks). Anyway, then we had to go home, and on a cloudy night it was pitch dark, we had to walk through some wooded area, and frankly, we were scared $hitless. We would talk loud, sing, and generally make noises so that we sounded like a group to be feared. Nevertheless, we were scared $hitless. The Intelabees sound just like we did when the subject of servers comes up. Joe