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

To: cruzbay who wrote (221781)	12/30/2006 11:35:11 AM
From: plantlife	Respond to of 275872

"If CPUs stop offering meaningful improvements to the vast majority of users starting mid next year, commoditization sets in..." _____________ That's already happening, and has been for a year or so. Most consumers don't need the ultra where modest performance of even the slowest dual cores are more than adequate. Dual cores are deservedly mainstream now because there is a growing need to multitask by even the average users. Virtualization could find a value here as well. Notebooks above the $800.00 range should see a declining market where only a select few would need the ultra high performance...good video, longer battery life and a lower price will make this a commodity part. Fusion should put a final nail in this coffin exhibiting all of the above, (a disruptive price, longer battery life, and graphics that may even exceed the competition).

To: cruzbay who wrote (221781)	12/30/2006 1:08:35 PM
From: combjelly	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 275872

"If CPUs stop offering meaningful improvements to the vast majority of users starting mid next year, commoditization sets in" And what is the sure sign of commoditization? More and more chipset functionality being integrated onto the CPU. When it is all, or at least mostly, on a single chip, then the real margin pressure starts. From an OEM point of view, the ideal motherboard is a double-sided board with a chip, a crystal or two, some passives and a bunch of sockets. Then, the sockets start to go away...

To: cruzbay who wrote (221781)	12/30/2006 1:57:45 PM
From: brushwud	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 275872

For the average individual, either at work or at home, whether mobile or desktop, quad core and above is goofy. Like the Megahertz madness, this will eventually become obvious. Intel would like us to miss this point for as long as possible, and emphasize a new round of "core wars", since if it is really still about single threaded IPC * clockspeed for single and dual core, parity is restored in Q3 2007 and there are no obvious magic bullets waiting in the wings... If CPUs stop offering meaningful improvements to the vast majority of users starting mid next year, commoditization sets in, and the producer best able to support low ASPs gains share. Wonder who that is? I liked better the point that you made earlier: "Intel is currently at an architectural and graphics sophistication disadvantage to exploit anything other than core count, which is their "new MHz". Heterogeneous cores, accelerators, fast on die interconnects, and graphics sophistication are the key to the next advances in both non-server and server processors, and AMD is leading this charge." Message 23135087

To: cruzbay who wrote (221781)	12/30/2006 2:38:34 PM
From: rwhigham	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 275872

I could use more than two cores. I don't know about you, but I have a bunch of security scanners -- Trojan Hunter, SpyCop, SpyBot, NOD32, AdAware, HiJackThis, RootKitRevealer -- that cannot run simultaneously. Ideally, I'd like to have them all running in the background! I also have COMODO-firewall, Adwatch, ProcessGuard, TCPView, and Process Explorer running constantly to give me a reasonable chance of dodging malware bullets (plus a router/hardware firewall). With virtual machines, its easy to improve security, by having only certain virtual machines (VMs) connected to the internet, by keeping sensitive stuff (credit card info, passwords, etc) in other VMs, and by using strong passwords to start them up. "The only secure machine is one disconnected from the internet." Next year, after nested page tables for the AMD processors come out, and the new Linux kernel with KVM (kernel based VM) comes out, I'm planning to build a new system around virtual machines. I'm going to have KVM Linux as my host operating system and run nearly all applications, both Linux and Windows applications, in virtual machines. I'm going to have lots of hard drive space. Once you create a virtual machine, its easy to create multiple copies of it to use for different purposes -- for different types of applications. * No need to install too many applications on the same machine. * Easy to keep backups. * Easy to keep checkpoints * Easy to accommodate multiple users. * Easy to keep clean copies ready to use. * Easy to provide the kid his own game machine. With large hard drives, you can have as many virtual machines as you want. (They are large files though, so they take a while to copy.) The down side is, when upgrades come out, you have to upgrade every copy. And you need to maximize memory to handle at least two simultaneous operating systems. You need more memory bandwidth and more physical memory. Its not often necessary to run more than one VM at a time, but with enough memory (and cores) running more than one VM on your home computer would be the norm. "If you build it, they will come."