ABOUT A WEEK AGO there were various laments about AMD missing a golden opportunity to shout its advantages from the rooftops.
The problem is that while AMD is technically missing an opportunity, it is doing it purposely, keeping quiet so it doesn't ruin the big surprise(1) in January. If you have two dog and pony shows in a few months, you lose the impact of the second one.
The whole thing started about a year and a half ago when IBM seemingly begrudgingly gave AMD the 'good' 90 nanometre process, and with a stroke of the pen made most of AMD's process problems go away. This meant reworking the plans and delaying the 90nm chips a Q or two. If you look closely at the record, you can see when AMD went from cautious to grinning widely when mentioning 90nm.
That delay meant the first generation of 90nm chips, basically a dumb shrink of the current 130nm chips, were 'late', and came within months of the second generation, due to be announced in late January. Make no mistake, the 'dumb' 90nm chips are very good, and if AMD ever published the power figures accurately, something it is blindingly bad at doing, you would see how good the things really are.
The problem is that the second gen parts are vastly improved chips. They will have such goodies as SSE3 and DDR2, but that most likely won't be turned on initially. This new stepping is the one worth shouting from the rooftops, and AMD will.
You can see the dilemma though, scream until people get bored, and then scream again when they are really bored with the message they should get, or sit back and wait. But I think AMD is doing the right thing here. It has a compelling lineup for 2005, and it intends to start it with a real bang. µ
(1) According to our server logs, the majority of humanity still does not read The INQ. While this is reprehensible, it does mean that AMD has a chance at surprising a good many people with the news.
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20049
I think its maybe a dual core supplize. They have already stated that they are releasing .09 in December. Or maybe its their new athlon 64 surprise hmmmm
The problem is that while AMD is technically missing an opportunity, it is doing it purposely, keeping quiet so it doesn't ruin the big surprise(1) in January. If you have two dog and pony shows in a few months, you lose the impact of the second one.
The whole thing started about a year and a half ago when IBM seemingly begrudgingly gave AMD the 'good' 90 nanometre process, and with a stroke of the pen made most of AMD's process problems go away. This meant reworking the plans and delaying the 90nm chips a Q or two. If you look closely at the record, you can see when AMD went from cautious to grinning widely when mentioning 90nm.
That delay meant the first generation of 90nm chips, basically a dumb shrink of the current 130nm chips, were 'late', and came within months of the second generation, due to be announced in late January. Make no mistake, the 'dumb' 90nm chips are very good, and if AMD ever published the power figures accurately, something it is blindingly bad at doing, you would see how good the things really are.
The problem is that the second gen parts are vastly improved chips. They will have such goodies as SSE3 and DDR2, but that most likely won't be turned on initially. This new stepping is the one worth shouting from the rooftops, and AMD will.
You can see the dilemma though, scream until people get bored, and then scream again when they are really bored with the message they should get, or sit back and wait. But I think AMD is doing the right thing here. It has a compelling lineup for 2005, and it intends to start it with a real bang. µ
(1) According to our server logs, the majority of humanity still does not read The INQ. While this is reprehensible, it does mean that AMD has a chance at surprising a good many people with the news.
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20049
I think its maybe a dual core supplize. They have already stated that they are releasing .09 in December. Or maybe its their new athlon 64 surprise hmmmm
