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Technology Stocks : Intel Corporation (INTC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mary Cluney who wrote (139153)	7/12/2001 9:02:55 PM
From: pgerassi	Respond to of 186894

Dear Mary: You are wrong in the storage required. Have you ever configured a server? The type of server you specify is a compute server, not the typical database server needed for doing accounting, financials, order processing, warehousing, payroll, and other large OLTP type things that get the majority of the revenue you seem to go after. Yes for a compute server like Microway's 64 CPU Beowulf Cluster for $70K minimum (little storage), 64 1.2 Athlon MPs go for $14K. Now add a RAID 5 disk array of 14 18 GB 15K disks to each node, a 1000BT NIC, and a DLT drive for backup, you add $5440K to the price. Now its ready for TPCm runs and OLTP loads. PCs at each user's desktop then are the front end, other systems, and lastly internet round out the requesters of database queries. No compute power has been added, the nodes now are in 4U or 6U rackmounts. No change has occurred to processing power, but the usability of the system is much enhanced at the expense of the CPU cost to server cost ratio. Intel owns how much in the unit server market? Isn't it far higher than how much in the revenue server market? If you want to know the add on business to Intel, then the margin is for those servers it does not supply, not the whole server market. If you talk of the whole market, isn't the bulk of server CPUs ordinary P3s, Celerons, and Athlons? That is the low ASP CPUs. If the $25B is in the low end, and covers another 4 million servers, would the average server price be $6,250? Currently isn't that 1+ CPUs of 700 MHz or about $100 each? So an increase of $400M, far less than you would like. It doesn't seem like much compared to $25B in the current CPU chip market. As to your being dense. Xeons do not control the upper end compute market. This is mostly RISC systems. Furthermore, in the science and engineering realms, Athlon is more desired because of its low price and high performance. Besides, I continue to find regular low speed P3s, Celerons, and Athlons in the web server roles. These systems do not need all that much compute power to serve static web content. Why pay $1400 for a CPU when a $40 CPU will do as good? Why pay for 1 2way Xeon web server when you can get 4 2 way Celeron ones that are collectively faster? Now, who is being dense? You do not buy a Ferrari when you need to haul 500kg washing machine sized crates. You buy a pickup truck. Matter of fact, for the money you save, you can get 4 of them or take it and laugh to the bank. Pete