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

To: Dan3 who wrote (76427)	4/3/2002 9:17:25 PM
From: nixtox	Respond to of 275872

DAN Because Athlon MP servers are picking up momentum in the market. The are inexpensive, rock solid reliable, and their 20-way caches give them superior performance on server applications like database and web-hosting. Wouldn't it be time now for Intel to start imitating AMD? Or will we have to wait until they attempt to clone the Hammer? Nick

To: Dan3 who wrote (76427)	4/4/2002 3:00:39 AM
From: Monica Detwiler	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 275872

Dan3 - You wrote Because Athlon MP servers are picking up momentum in the market. The are inexpensive, rock solid reliable, Now there you go, pulling another Pinnochio: AMD Servers Lack Platform Stability 213.219.40.69 Servers are about stability I had not really thought about it, but the Sledgehammer really does not make sense and AMD should stop wasting time and energy on it. Servers are not about processors. Servers are about having a robust and stable platform which draws from powerful processors, excellent chipsets, and quality system design and manufacturing. The key issue is stability and reliability. AMD is not taking the steps to establish a record of stability and reliability. They have an excellent processor in the Athlon series. The chipsets for Athlons lag far behind the offerings of Intel and Server Works. AMD based systems lag behind too: I cannot get a high quality major OEM business class desktop using an AMD processor. Mostly there are cheaply built AMD clone systems available. > I agree with Jerry Pournelle at Byte (reference this article: byte.com ) where he states “the AMD Athlon and Duron, although excellent processors, have been hampered by their dependence on mediocre third-party chipsets from VIA and others.” VIA still has PCI implementation bugs. SIS may have some nice chipsets now, but they have a long reputation of horrible chipsets in very low end markets. ALI is not a contender. When I want to build a system for a customer I go all Intel: Intel processors, Intel chipsets. I do this to avoid headaches and problems for my customers. You can argue that AMD offers better price/performance. And I will tell you that the cost of a flaky system or driver issues more than negates that benefit. I have mostly AMD XP systems in my lab – but I don’t bill myself on an hourly basis, and I live with the compatibility issues that arise and my lab systems can be down. Of course my server is an Intel OEM dual processor server. I don’t trust AMD for my server. I have found consistently over the years that going with quality components and quality manufacturers saves time and money. I want quality for my customers because a little extra up front will cost them much less money. When my customers do not take my advice and pick up “great deals” on “value” systems it usually works out great for me. The customers save a $100 by getting a system made of low end parts and they pay me several hundred dollars getting it to work. So it really does benefit me. This market is dominated by AMD. None of the major OEMs offer a business class AMD solution. The business desktop market is dominated by Intel processors and Intel brand chipsets (except some very low end systems which really are not business class PC’s). The press sees it too. It has been reported that the i845 chipset is as stable as the BX chipset. Intel chipsets are the benchmark of reliability and stability. Nobody makes such claims for AMD chipsets. The major OEM server market is entirely Intel processors with a mixture of Intel and Server Works chipsets. No other platform exists. These vendors have spent years establishing solid reputations. AMD is still hyping and focusing on processor performance. It will take years of focusing on platform quality and stability for them to become a viable business desktop and server platform. Is AMD ever going to shift their focus to stability and reliability of their platform? Nobody in their right mind is going to set up an eight processor AMD box. If you can afford an eight processor box, you cannot afford downtime. Sincerely, Mark Pells Message 17269654