AM3 current and future

[matsta31]

I do get your point Metaphor. Intel is all doom and gloom.... and if we dont buy amd, they will die.

My question was regarding the future of AM3 and AMD competitiveness.

[SKYMTL]

Originally Posted by matsta31

My question was regarding the future of AM3 and AMD competitiveness.

The only way for AMD to be competitive is for them to undercut Intel in price. Maybe with the cash injection GF received, they will one day be competitive technology-wise with Intel but that's still not even a possibility for the next 5-6 years when you compare Intel's and GF's technology roadmaps.

[b1lk1]

I don't think it even makes sense for AMD to even try to be #1 for the near future. They should of course try and make the best possible CPU's, but Intel has too much of a jump. AMD needs Intel to hit a speedbump like Nvidia did, but I just don't see that happening.

[terrybear]

As far as I understood the new agreement AMD could contract there cpu production out to whomever they wanted as it was explained by anandtech & a few other sites in the agreement no matter what level of cpu it is entry level or high end.

[Zero82z]

Originally Posted by terrybear

As far as I understood the new agreement AMD could contract there cpu production out to whomever they wanted as it was explained by anandtech & a few other sites in the agreement no matter what level of cpu it is entry level or high end.

And again:

Originally Posted by Zero82z

...and that agreement was signed specifically so that AMD can keep manufacturing their CPUs at GF. Where else do you think they would do it? Nobody else other than Intel has the facilities to mass-produce CPUs on the kinds of processes that AMD uses.

AMD may technically be able to manufacture their CPUs anywhere, but there ISN'T any other company actually capable of producing CPUs for them. GlobalFoundries is the only company that AMD could possibly use to fabricate their products.

[Wurmer]

Originally Posted by CMetaphor

"Questionable practices" lol. The entire market was skewed in their favor through their various schemes. Thats pretty much a criminal act in my book.

You got that one right. Furthermore, it's obvious that these "practices" also protected them from having their arses kicked badly when AMD had the better processor for the first time in their history. This might not have changed the history in the long term but it certainly did for that period when K8 was king and Intel had their super duper Netbursters.

[Zero82z]

Originally Posted by Wurmer

You got that one right. Furthermore, it's obvious that these "practices" also protected them from having their arses kicked badly when AMD had the better processor for the first time in their history. This might not have changed the history in the long term but it certainly did for that period when K8 was king and Intel had their super duper Netbursters.

Intel would never have been in any real financial danger even if they hadn't used those business tactics. At their lowest point during the A64 days they still had many times more cash in the bank than AMD did, and that would have been plenty to tide them over until the release of Core 2 at which point they would have taken back the market no matter what. Also, they had plenty of other sources of profit, since at the time AMD had no real integrated graphics solution (most mass-market computers use integrated graphics to save on cost, and Intel won big in that area), and they also didn't have any competitive notebook CPUs since the Centrino platforms based around the Pentium M and later Core CPUs were much more power-efficient and had better performance per clock than competing AMD CPUs even at that time.

[jcmaz]

My three year old Centrino laptop can still pwn many of today's laptops, but it's dying slowly:(

[Wurmer]

Originally Posted by Zero82z

Intel would never have been in any real financial danger even if they hadn't used those business tactics. At their lowest point during the A64 days they still had many times more cash in the bank than AMD did, and that would have been plenty to tide them over until the release of Core 2 at which point they would have taken back the market no matter what. Also, they had plenty of other sources of profit, since at the time AMD had no real integrated graphics solution (most mass-market computers use integrated graphics to save on cost, and Intel won big in that area), and they also didn't have any competitive notebook CPUs since the Centrino platforms based around the Pentium M and later Core CPUs were much more power-efficient and had better performance per clock than competing AMD CPUs even at that time.

I agree with you, like I said in the long run this wouldn't have become a major issue for Intel but much more so for AMD. They probably could have racked up quite a few extra millions in sales during that period if not for these practices. Obviously the impact was on AMD side's not Intel, in the end the customer's good wasn't served well... When you are denied choices by reasons other then a product own merits this can't be good. Honestly, we'll never know but it would be interesting to know what would have happened if AMD had not been kept out of many OEM assembler catalogue.

[Zero82z]

Originally Posted by Wurmer

I agree with you, like I said in the long run this wouldn't have become a major issue for Intel but much more so for AMD. They probably could have racked up quite a few extra millions in sales during that period if not for these practices. Obviously the impact was on AMD side's not Intel, in the end the customer's good wasn't served well... When you are denied choices by reasons other then a product own merits this can't be good. Honestly, we'll never know but it would be interesting to know what would have happened if AMD had not been kept out of many OEM assembler catalogue.

AMD's management isn't exactly made up of business prodigies, so I doubt they'd be in a much different situation compared to their current one. Keep in mind that these were the guys who thought it was a good idea to buy ATI for $5.4 billion (and we all know just how well that worked out for both companies). And they also decided not to develop a successor to K8 while they were on top, while Intel was obviously working on something to take back the performance crown. Although Intel was certainly a part of it, AMD have largely themselves to blame for the situation they are in.