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October 02, 2004
AMD
It's interesting to watch to AMD vs. Intel wars particularly on processors.
Intel of course is the giant, but I think it is interesting to see how AMD plays it. They are running an interesting drag race in the processor business. They are of course x86 compatible, but they are trying to use 64-bit to put themselves into a new category.
If you read the earning call you can see how they work to say they are in their own ecosystem with their own partners building their own systems.
It's not easy to do this and IMHO is a great example of trying to run a stealth play (we are in 64 bits and Intel is not), while everyone else thinks that it is a drag race. A great try, although for many folks a stealth add-on play might make more sense.
Still exploiting the 64-bit gap has been amazingly successful for them plus the fact that Intel has had trouble delivering knockout performance and is instead moving to deliver "solutions" like Centrino for mobile, whatever they will call digital home, etc.
What does this mean? Both sides are trying to get out of a drag race and keep from dropping prices. The real end point to a drag race.
Posted by rich at October 2, 2004 12:30 AM
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Comments
Great insights!
Usually High Low means you have two products one that is high end (Itanium) and one that is low-end (Celeron), so that doesn't quite apply to AMD.
In truth, your comments make me feel like AMD is perhaps just running a drag race vs. Intel. That is, you it is still in the business of trying to bet the farm on things and kicking folks ass. That is to us at least the definition of a drag race.
So, I'll recategorize them into a drag race.
Maybe it is wishful thinking, but I would have thought AMD was really aiming at enthusiasts (after all, what does 64 bits mean to the average human) and with their limited production, just trying to make them happy on the desktop. On the server, its a different story. AMD and Intel went to 64-bits in different ways. One compatible and one not. No surprise who won that drag race.
Posted by: Rich at October 8, 2004 09:15 PM
I was a little close to the action of AMD64, and think “stealth” mode may be a mischaracterization. AMD was very open about their plans for a backwards compatible 64-but processor for more that a year before release. AMD had to let a lot of people know about the technology – Microsoft, SUSE Linux, IBM, etc. And they were very public about the technology and price points.
It seems to be more of a high-low play. Intel erred by abandoning backwards compatibility with Itanium (it was part of their original plan). AMD, betting the farm, built a 64-bit chip that ran 32-bit applications without changes, and set the price point near that of existing Intel 32-bit chips. AMD’s offer to the market is and was “32-bit now, 64-bit now, same price”. They removed a switching cost and provided a simpler migration path for third party vendors and customers alike. All in all, they were redefining the market as opposed to finding a niche.
(for the record, I was doing AMD alliances work for SUSE during the Opteron launch)
Posted by: Guy Smith at October 8, 2004 05:06 PM
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