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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Charles R who wrote (57192)	5/4/1999 4:17:00 PM
From: Tenchusatsu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1572598

<Technically the K6 design is much more shallower pipe than PII/III and still AMD has been able to drag this MHz race this far. Even after taking into account the voltage bump, is it not impressive that AMD has been able to get the K6 family into the high-400 MHz range? Why? Or why not?> It's no secret that AMD is being extremely aggressive in ramping up the MHz of a product that isn't really architected for high MHz (shallow pipeline). That's a main factor behind some of AMD's latest manufacturing snafus. In comparison, Intel doesn't really need to be as aggressive in ramping up the MHz. Intel can't really afford to, either, since Intel's volumes are so much bigger than AMD's. In other words, Intel has much more to lose than AMD. If AMD stumbles, big deal, only a one million unit shortage. If Intel stumbles, uh oh, there goes at least five million units, and that could cause some shockwaves in the PC industry. Of course, it's questionable whether AMD can afford to be as aggressive in the MHz ramp-up of the K7 as they were in the ramp-up of K6-2. They can do it, if they were really obsessed with surpassing Intel in the MHz race. But given current shareholder relations, if AMD stumbles one more time, things could really get ugly. Perhaps AMD will do the same thing that Intel seems to be doing nowadays. Introduce the K7 at 500, 550, and 600 MHz, but say with a whisper that the 550 and 600 MHz parts won't really be available until August, and even then they'll just trickle in. Tenchusatsu

To: Charles R who wrote (57192)	5/4/1999 4:19:00 PM
From: Elmer	Respond to of 1572598

Re: "Even after taking into account the voltage bump, is it not impressive that AMD has been able to get the K6 family into the high-400 MHz range? Why? Or why not?" What value is there in impressing people if you can't make money? Other than AMDolts, do you know of any other shareholders who are content to know that their company is impressing people despite a long history of financial losses and terrible stock price performance? EP

To: Charles R who wrote (57192)	5/4/1999 4:22:00 PM
From: Paul Engel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1572598

Charles - Re: " Even after taking into account the voltage bump, is it not impressive that AMD has been able to get the K6 family into the high-400 MHz range? Why? Or why not?" No. AMD has adjusted their 0.25 micron process to incorporate features of a 0.18 micron process. The 400 MHz K63 - and I assume the 400/450/475 MHz K6-2's now have a 0.18 micron (Final CD) gate length, 36 - 38 nM gate thickness (down from >40 nM) and Cobalt Silicide gates. These are "almost" 0.18 micron minimum feature devices already - so this performance is a LET DOWN - considering that AMD STILL HAD TO JACK UP THEIR SUPPLY VOLTAGES to 2.4 volts to hit Intel's 2.0 volt speed bins. Re: "What is your estimate of where AMD will begin K7 on 180nm and how far AMD can ramp its K7 on 180nm (ignore copper)? " AMD should be shipping some small volumes of 0.18 micron products by Q499 - but the performance will be "muted" since the existing 0.25 micron parts already incorporate many 0.18 micron "modules" and 500 MHz parts seem difficult to obtain. Maybe the K7 architecture will allow for some performance increases - but 700 MHz may be a reach - for the first 6 months. Paul