With recent
news of AMD closing manufacturing plants, laying off employees and
losing Gateway as a customer, will Palomino
be enough to turn around AMD's fortunes?
YES: Then there would be real competition in
the notebook and emerging internet
appliance markets. 37%
NO: There would be less competition and therefore
higher pricing overall in the processor sector.
23% WAIT AND SEE: Merge only if AMD's
upcoming mobile
Palomino fails in the starting gate.
21% MORE, MORE, MORE: They should also merge with
VIA and Elbrus to have any chance
against Intel. 19%
Selected visitor comments:
When there is a big enough competitor to
Intel's money market dominance, only then will the poor,
ill-informed buyers of this world be fully aware that buying
other than an Intel based machine is the "Inteligent"
answer.
They deserve to have someone liquidate their
monopolous enterprise.
Transmeta:
One Year Later-- already doomed
in the mobile marketplace?
YES: A good idea at the time, but the
performance just isn't there. 37%
TOO SOON TO TELL: Even Coca-Cola was a failure in its first
year...
32% NO: With continuing refinements, Crusoe
will still be the mobile processor of choice.
17% MAYBE SO: Doomed in the notebook sector, but
Transmeta will find its niche in other portable computing products. 14%
The tech sector sinks; the
economy slows-- Are you, like
Intel, still planning to invest in new technology and/or
computers this year?
YES: Like Craig Barrett says, "You never
save your way out of a recession". 43%
MAYBE SOME: Just not as much as we did last year.
33% NO: We'll be OK with the computers we
bought in 1999-- at least until McKinley
arrives.
17% OXYMORONIC: "Invest" in tech? Might as
well throw my money into a Survivor campfire... 7%
NO: It may be cheap, but it will never compete with
a Duron. 47%
MAYBE: Good price, low power requirements; I would give the C3 a
try.
25% YES: VIA has finally produced a CPU
that is a better value than a Celeron.
16% FOR CHARITY: It's time VIA was given a fighting
chance in the processor market, just to keep it competitive. 12%
Selected visitor comments:
We'll see whether the 53% that didn't vote
no, plus VIA's commitment--or not--to increasing its technology
in the performance-per-dollar department will keep it afloat . I
suspect not, but hope I'm wrong.
The Pentium
4 is here to stay. Pentium-III
is Intel's new 'budget' processor.
What epitaph would you write for Celeron?
A good overclocker, A cool-running chip; Good-bye valiant Celeron,
And thanks for the trip! 57%
Here is where friend Celeron
lies; Nobody laughs, nobody cries;
Where he goes, how he fares; Nobody knows, nobody cares.
24% I never coulda been a contenda...
16% Here lieth Celeron; More now
than ever, smellerin'. 3%
Now that Itanium
has arrived, which server processor is the weakest
link in the high-end computer market?
Itanium: too little, too late-- Goodbye! 29% Xeon: Never did get any respect with
only 32 bits-- Goodbye!
26% MIPS:
Soon only available in a PlayStation
near you-- Goodbye!
14% Alpha:
too many cooks spoil the pot, and even Compaq
sells out-- Goodbye!
10% PowerPC/3:
IBM may be Big Blue, but will soon be green with envy-- Goodbye!
10% UltraSparc:
Not enough sparks left in this Sun-- Goodbye!
8% PA-RISC:
Hewlett-Packard partnered with Intel to compete against themselves--
Goodbye! 5%
Selected visitor comments:
Intel just doesn't seem to understand that
there is competition now. They need to realize this soon, or the
world's former greatest processor company may just bite the
dust.
Pentium
III-M (Tualatin): Good enough for notebooks only? Or should
Intel extend it to desktops, too?
YES: A desktop Tualatin could rival the Pentium 4
at half the price. 37%
MAYBE SO: Only if Intel can kick it up a few hundred MHz.
27% NO: The Pentium-III
architecture is a dead-end. Why prolong its long-deserved death?
21% DOUBLE DUTY: It would rock as dual-processor solution. 15%
Selected visitor comments:
Intel shouldn't kick up the MHz any more.
AMD has already accused Intel of devaluating the MHz, and they
might be right. They should increase the actual speed of the
thing. Look at your own scores. The
Athlon-MP 1,2 GHz beats all other processors [at
the same clock speed -Ed].
How should AMD & Apple
counter the 'MegaHertz Myth'?
DEBENCHING: Spread the word and educate computer consumers about pipeline
taxes, IPC, and real-world performance. 35%
BENCHMODELLING: Start referring to their processors only by
comparable, performance-rated model
numbers.
22% BENCHMARKETING: Pick and choose the best performance
scenarios for their processors and promote, promote, promote.
21% GET BENCHED: Give up. The performance war is over. Long live
Pentium 4!
8% BENCHBUSTING: Ramp up the clock speed of their
processors to match and exceed the competition, at huge expense.
8% BENCHWASHING: Invent new performance benchmark scales
that show their processors beating everyone else's. 7%
Selected visitor comments:
My first choice was "debenching",
but in spite of AMD's PR rating, most people today think that
the bigger the MHz, the faster the speed. If AMD could ramp up
ATHLON TO 2000MHz, only then will all the other illiterate
people notice.
I want to know who the morons are that think
the performance war is over.
g2000: AMD and iMac should find ways
to speed up their processor at least on par with the MegaHertz
comparison, but sell at the same price as the Intel P4. At the
same time, sell the existing lower speed processors in bulk
quantities: big quantities in the 1.2-1.4GHz range, small
quantities at 1.8-2.0Ghz to sell at higher prices.
Also, slowly spread the words to those uneducated people that
the current 1.4 Athlon already matches closely to the 2.0GHz P4
in performance.
Phil D: I think AMD should invent
their own, completely separate rating system which in no way
relates to the current numbers in any way. Call the 1400 the
'Athlon Model 12', or something.
WHY??
Simple - those uneducated people who shop for a computer will
see IMMEDIATELY that the numbers don't jive, and ask the sales
team how they really compare, rather than assume things
themselves. Maybe they would start putting Sandra benchmarks in
their flyers or on product labels or something, since the basis
for comparison would no longer 'SEEM' obvious.
ALSO - I am afraid that when people are informed about the PR
ratings on the Athlon XP, AMD will lose some credibility in
their minds, undeservedly. Makes them look a bit like a cheap
runner up wannabe.
With recent
news of AMD closing manufacturing plants, laying off employees
and losing Gateway as a customer, will Palomino
be enough to turn around AMD's fortunes?
HUH?: No need to turn around anything! AMD is still gaining on
Intel and is not stopping now. 41%
WELL, D'UH!: AMD's new Athlon XP will be more than up to
the task of taking on Intel's Pentium 4
and demolishing the "MegaHertz Myth".
40% N' --UH!: Intel's Pentium 4 has turned the corner
at 2GHz. Riding on Microsoft's 'XP' coattails won't save AMD.
14% ...UHHHH--: Maybe AMD will just have to concentrate on the
budget market with Duron, just like
in the old K6 days. 5%
Selected visitor comments:
Eugene: As much as I love AMD and
despise Intel, I must say that although XP may give AMD a slight
bump in market share, they just can't come close to Intel. Most
consumers are not techies - they do not study benchmarks; they
buy from major vendors like Dell and Gateway or electronics
chains. Sure, Compaq and HP manufacture systems with both Intel
and AMD chips, but with the combination of higher price and
clock speed, who's not to believe that Intel is the premium?
Name value is also huge. Every average Joe knows and trusts
Intel... and where's the marketing with AMD? How many Athlon XP
commercials have you seen? Too many consumers are ignorant about
CPUs and AMD doesn't seem to be making an effort to educate
them. If AMD were to be picked up by Dell and throw out some
ads, THEN Intel would have reason to be shaking in their boots.
500 MHz or more, but less than 1 GHz. 32%
Less than 500 MHz.
27% 1.0 GHz or more, but less than 1.5 GHz.
25% 1.5 GHz or more! 16%
Selected visitor comments:
Good Disaster: Well, being a Mac
user, only the first two categories are available to
me :P & I'll take this time to remind everyone that
MHz aren't everything :^)
Given the current economic
downturn, will you be spending less on tech items this season
than last year?
NO: Downturn? What downturn? It's my patriotic duty to buy more
tech stuff this year, if only to help the economy. 50%
MAYBE: I may spend less-- I may spend more, depending on
whether I actually need any new tech this year.
42% DON'T KNOW: I still can't decide between a GameCube
or an X-Box...
4% YES: This past year's tragic events have made me more concerned
about the future, and I need to save my money. 4%
37%
NO: There would be less competition and therefore
higher pricing overall in the processor sector.
23%
19%
