Ten,
Here are some of my X-box posts from the AMD thread.
************************************************************* Message 13326401 From: Scumbria To: 5dave22 Dave,
Are you still concerned with 3DNow!?
If X-box uses SSE, AMD better support it as well for games.
Scumbria ************************************************************* Message 13216057 From: Scumbria To: milo_morai Milo,
if Via's new Socket 370 chip Joshua with 3DNow! SIMD does well it will continue support for 3DNow!.
I don't see how game developers can continue to write 3DNow! programs when the X-box uses Intel processors. 3DNow! gained support because it was there first, but I don't see how it can keep momentum in the face of dirt cheap 1GHz Willy SSE2 computers next year.
Scumbria ************************************************************* Message 13214922 From: Scumbria To: 5dave22 Dave,
You say they can't copy SSE, and 3D-Now! is doomed. I think you're serious. But you say AMD must switch to SSE. Very confusing, you're making me worry about my rather large investment (in my little world). In your opinion, what is the answer? I'm hoping to hold AMD LONG term.
Switching to SSE will be very tricky, for the reasons I described in :
Message 13214909
AMD has never been a good long term investment, and I don't see any reason to believe that has changed. The early arrival of Willy, combined with the X-box disaster, gives me no reason to think otherwise.
Perhaps AMD has something great in the works. I certainly hope so, but I'm not counting on it at this point.
Scumbria ************************************************************* Message 13231525 From: Scumbria To: Dan3 Dan,
The company's 800MHz Athlon chip will soon cost up to 50 percent less than an equivalent Pentium III chip processor. Reductions on other Athlon processors are also expected, according to the sources.
I think that Intel may have pushed Jerry a little too far with the X-box. He seems to have taken off the kid gloves, and is ready to slam them with the full force of Dresden.
Scumbria
************************************************************* Message 13334754 From: Scumbria To: chic_hearne chic,
There are occasionally worthwhile posts from Intel FUDsters on this thread. However, Athlon has been hitting them so hard, that the FUDsters have sunk into a repetitious, blabbering state.
Some of us go to great lengths to warn of the risks AMD is facing. I have been quite vocal about the threat of Willy, SSE, X-box, and Rambus' lawsuits. You can find balance on this thread if you read carefully.
Scumbria
************************************************************* Message 13214899 From: Scumbria To: Charles R Chuck,
Pretty strong statement! Regardless, do you really think AMD would let X-box go if that is the case? Also, do you think there is much of a chance that AMD will not implement SSE by the time the year is over? What enhancements are you expecting for Mustang?
I am quite convinced that losing the X-box is the end of 3DNow! I doubt that AMD had the cash required to beat Intel's offer, so they really had no choice in the matter. After X-box, SSE will be a requirement for gamers, so AMD better implement it. I don't have any idea about Mustang, but AMD needs a very deep pipeline to keep up with Willy.
If AMD uses SSE, and if AMD implements a 15-20 stage pipeline, they may be able to keep parity with Intel's offerings. They have a tough row to hoe however.
Scumbria
************************************************************* Message 13210785 From: Scumbria To: kash johal Kash,
The real issues of Dresden yields and Athlon volume ramps are shielded in mystery.
Every time that AMD has given any advance notice about products, Intel has taken advantage and punished them. K6 and X-box were prime examples of this. In contrast, the secrecy of 1GHz K7 threw Intel for a loop.
Scumbria
************************************************************* Message 13014979 From: Scumbria To: Tenchusatsu Ten,
Will the X-Box have a hard drive?
According to the Register, it will.
Scumbria
************************************************************* Message 13147004 From: Scumbria To: Charles R Chuck,
The interesting thing about X-box to me is that it uses off the shelf parts. PS2 uses custom hardware which has a much longer turnaround time.
Scumbria
************************************************************* Message 13181203 From: Scumbria To: Process Boy PB,
What is the Spitfire core for, if not to compete for just the kind of lower end business that the X-box would be?
AMD had a wonderful experience competing against Intel at the low end with K6. I can see why they might have wanted to repeat that experience with x-box.
Intel has the cash on hand to undercut any AMD sale at the low end. They could pay Microsoft to use their CPUs. The only way that AMD can compete is to have a faster processor than Intel, which for the time being they do.
Scumbria ************************************************************* Message 13186519 From: Scumbria To: Bill Jackson Bill,
X-box games will likely be optimized for SSE, making AMD clones impossible.
Scumbria ************************************************************* Message 13186915 From: Scumbria To: Gopher Broke Gopher,
I think it is unlikely that MSFT will allow INTC to move into a position of sole supplier. INTC might start looking to make a profit on the processor sales or something equally preposterous.
In order to compete against PS2 graphics, X-box will have to use SIMD for the physics calculations and/or geometry. Perhaps they will make generic SIMD wrapper as part of the X-box API?
Scumbria ************************************************************* Message 13232517 From: Scumbria To: Y. Samuel Arai Y.
Re: Is it time to buy Rambus puts? The premiums are way too high.
Check this out:
techweb.com
"It's also likely that many X-Box features will find their way into next-generation consumer PCs, analysts said. For instance, the console will use an Nvidia graphics engine and a 200-MHz, 128-bit bus to connect directly to 64 Mbytes of double-data-rate (DDR) SDRAM. This eliminates the core-logic chip set, AGP port, and separate dedicated graphics memory.
With no graphics frame buffer, the Nvidia chip interfaces to main memory but with data access as high as 6.2 Gbytes/s.
Microsoft's decision to use DDR SDRAM gives a boost to the emerging memory interface, and is a blow to proponents of the Direct Rambus DRAM architecture.
Scumbria
************************************************************* Message 13175073 From: Scumbria To: steve harris Steve,
I wonder if eMachines is going to get cutoff now that Gates is taking over the responsibility of emptying the dumpster?
With five fabs cranking out PIII's full steam, Intel will have plenty of slow parts for e-machines, x-box, and 0-profit.
Scumbria
************************************************************* Message 15286777 From: Scumbria To: richard surckla Richard,
Anybody who would think any different would be rather naive, don't you think?
Yea, some people even think that RDRAM is going to be used in X-Box. Pretty funny, ?que no?!
Scumbria |