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

To: Petz who wrote (156982)	4/20/2005 2:42:48 AM
From: maceng2	Respond to of 275872

I'm sure the Forbes article is worth reading, but I could not get past the advert for Jaguar cars. I liked the old fashioned Jaguars, I never owned one but I often got lifts from my bosses who owned them. The engines were so silent and the V6 and V12 configurations made them different. But then they became an unreliable brand compared to the Jap and German cars and a V8 configuration just does not do it for me as a "character car". Do business professionals fall for this type of advert? Maybe there is hope for me in this market after all. ------------------------------------------------------- Regarding processors Intel has loads of muscle, both technological and financial to make this race different. Right now AMD looks to be forcing the pace with the Opteron. (Thanks for the Google search enhancement btw. I have emboldened some text in the article I think is worth noting. pb) Dell seems to be a "swing vote" on Intels side at the moment. htmlfixit.com Dell is the 800 pound gorilla in the hardware arena, they have mastered the mass produced, mass marketed PC market for some time now and always seem to show glowing revenue when others are faltering. Could their decision to sell only Intel CPU’s affect that ranking in the future? I rather suspect it will, at least in the server market as Intel have stumbled somewhat with their CPU range and arguably given AMD something of an advantage. AMD’s Opteron CPU’s are very good performers, and compare very favourably with Intel’s Xeon CPU range in both price and performance. That alone won’t win the race for AMD, but it’s possible that dual core Opterons might make a significant difference. AMD has a couple of things that Intel doesn’t, Hypertransport is far more effective then the bus architecture Intel has used in present and past systems. The integrated memory controller in the Opteron, together with multiple Hypertransport interconnects has enabled the Opteron to leave Xeon in it’s wake for memory intensive applications. When you add in the fact that Opterons where designed for 64bit and multicore from the word go, and that Intel has seemingly been playing catch-up and grafting the new features like 64bit and multi-core to it’s existing line-up you begin to get an idea of how the dual core server processor race is likely to turn out (at least until Intel catch up). Not only that, but dual core Opterons run on the same motherboards that single core Opterons do, usually requiring only a bios update. That gives buyers the ability to buy a cheap single core CPU based system now, and upgrade to dual core by simply replacing the CPU later on (or buy a dual CPU server now, and upgrade to four cores later on). Enterprise cares more about price and performance then it does about marketing. Now that Opteron (and thereby AMD) has gained itself a stable foothold in the server market, if a dual core Opteron system is the same price as a Xeon system, but out performs it significantly, most will end up choosing the Opteron based system. All AMD has to do is make sure that enterprise CTO’s know about their superior performance and pricing. Dell will be able to compete on price. Because of their massive buying power, they would be getting unrivalled pricing for their base hardware, but can they use pricing to compete against superior performance in the server market? Dell has said many times that they will consider offering AMD based systems if enough people ask, but many in the industry seem to think that is just to get more concessions from Intel. If Dell were to start offering a successful Opteron based line of servers, the current AMD/Intel market share figures would significantly change almost overnight. As it stands now, we have Dell in one corner offering Intel only, in the other corner we have IBM, HP and Sun offering AMD Opteron based systems. HP has already revealed it’s dual core based systems, and we can expect the same from the others in the coming weeks. Intel isn’t even slated to release it’s dual core Xeon’s until Q1 2006 which gives AMD a significant lead time to further penetrate into enterprise server rooms. It has taken AMD many years of hard work to get past the “Intel inside” mentality that a vast portion of the market once clung to, and they have made great strides in that regard. It remains to be seen just how well the dual core Opterons perform before we know if they will dramatically improve AMD’s performance lead. Based upon what I have read about the respective technology in the past year, I wouldn’t even consider another Intel based system unless there was a serious price difference in favour to Intel, something that going from past history is unlikely to happen any time soon. Hopefully Dual core Opterons will extend that technological lead further. As it stands now, I know what CPU all my new machines will be based on.

To: Petz who wrote (156982)	4/21/2005 6:42:31 PM
From: maceng2	Respond to of 275872

I see I am late to the AMD party on the CRAY news. Any comment? -------------------------------------------------------- Cray to Offer Supercomputers With Dual-Core AMD Opteron Processors By Market Wire Last Update: 4/21/2005 12:01:49 AM Data provided by SEATTLE, WA, Apr 21, 2005 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- Global supercomputer leader Cray Inc. (CRAY) today announced that Dual-Core AMD Opteron(TM) processors will be available as an option on Cray XD1(TM) supercomputers in July 2005, and on Cray XT3(TM) supercomputers later in 2005. AMD's (AMD) cutting-edge 32- and 64-bit dual-core technology fits two processor cores on a single die, giving users of these Cray systems double the processing capacity in the same amount of space with minimal increases in power consumption and heat levels. Direct-connect system architectures of the Cray XD1 system and the Cray XT3 system speed high-performance computing (HPC) applications by directly linking processors, memory and I/O resources instead of using a conventional PCI bus. These architectures ensure that sophisticated software can take full advantage of all the available processing power as more processors are added to the system. "With our strong collaboration with AMD, we have already performed successful early testing of the Dual-Core AMD Opteron processors on the Cray XD1 system on a range of applications and are excited to be rolling them out to our customers," said Cray president Peter Ungaro. "All of our Cray supercomputers, including the Cray XD1 and Cray XT3 systems, were designed to accommodate higher density dual-core processors in order to leverage our customers' investment in these systems. As a result, customers who choose the dual-core option will enjoy improved price/performance, while continuing to see exceptional sustained application performance without the need to modify their applications." "Cray has helped prepare the way for the next stage in processor evolution by designing the Cray XD1 and the Cray XT3 supercomputers to take advantage of Dual-Core AMD Opteron processor performance," said Ben Williams, vice president of Commercial and Server/Workstation business at AMD. "As dual-core AMD64 technology is also based on AMD's Direct Connect Architecture, it continues to eliminate processor, memory and I/O bottlenecks, while enhancing overall performance for HPC applications." Dual-core processors allow Cray to achieve very high density in both the Cray XD1 and Cray XT3 supercomputers. One Cray XD1 cabinet provides 288 AMD Opteron 200 Series processor cores, boosting its computing capability from the 744 gigaflops (744 billion calculations per second) available with single-core processors to more than 1.2 teraflops. The Cray XT3 supercomputer, based on the Sandia Red Storm massively parallel processor (MPP) system design, can operate with more than 60,000 processor cores -- delivering up to 269 teraflops (269 trillion FLOPS), an increase of 109 teraflops over single-core devices. The 10,000 processor Cray XT3 supercomputer installed at Sandia National Laboratories is the largest Opteron processor-based system in the world. About the Cray XD1 Supercomputer The Cray XD1 supercomputer combines direct-connect system architecture, HPC-optimized Linux, management and reconfigurable computing technologies to deliver industry-leading performance on real-world applications. Purpose-built for demanding high-performance computing (HPC) applications used in areas such as computational chemistry, environmental forecasting and computer-aided engineering, the Cray XD1 system lets users simulate, analyze and solve complex problems more quickly and accurately. The x86-based Cray XD1 system supports a broad range of 32- and 64-bit HPC applications on AMD Opteron single- or dual-core processors. About the Cray XT3 Supercomputer The Cray XT3 Supercomputer is the third generation massively parallel processor (MPP) system from Cray -- purpose-built to offer scientists and engineers a high performance computing system that delivers exceptional sustained application performance to handle their most challenging problems. The Cray XT3 supercomputer's high speed 3D torus interconnect, x86 64-bit AMD Opteron(TM) processors, high speed global I/O, and advanced MPP operating system ensure that applications scale steadily from 200 to more than 30,000 processors without performance losses from communications bottlenecks, asynchronous processing, or memory access delays. About Cray Inc. As the global leader in HPC, Cray provides innovative supercomputing systems that enable scientists and engineers in government, industry and academia to meet both existing and future computational challenges. Building on years of experience in designing, developing, marketing and servicing the world's most advanced supercomputers, Cray offers a comprehensive portfolio of HPC systems that deliver unrivaled sustained performance on a wide range of applications. Go to www.cray.com for more information. Safe Harbor Statement This press release contains forward-looking statements. There are certain factors that could cause Cray's execution plans to differ materially from those anticipated by the statements above. These include reliance on third-party suppliers, the technical challenges of developing high performance computing systems including stable system software, government support for and timing of supercomputer systems purchases, the successful porting of application programs to Cray computer systems, Cray's ability to keep up with rapid technological change and Cray's ability to compete against larger, more established companies and innovative competitors. For a discussion of these and other risks, see "Factors That Could affect Future Results" in Cray's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2004, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Cray is a registered trademark, and Cray XD1 and Cray XT3 are trademarks of Cray Inc. AMD, AMD Opteron and combinations thereof are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. SOURCE: Cray Inc.