I can only hope not as it protects Intel from anti-trust issues, which is my processor manufacturer of choice.

The entire article is overblown -- mobile processors have never been AMD's strong suit anyway.

which is my processor manufacturer of choice

Excepting the aforementioned mobile arena... I'm sorry.

Intel's really fucked up their implementations for the past 3 years. The only reason they haven't lost vastly more market share is because of their strong arm marketing and sales tactics.

That and they're the best processor manufactures this side of the "I use AMD to be l33t" fanbois club.

I'm not sorry. The level of support that Intel provides for developers is far and above what AMD's wildest dreams are, in my experience.

My most recent experience is as follows for both manufacturers:

Intel:
"Have X amount of bad processors? We're very sorry and we'll have your replacements there by tomorrow afternoon at the latest."

AMD:
"Have X amount of bad processors? Well, what did you do wrong? Ship them back to us and we'll have them to you in 4 to 6 weeks."

I understand for single processor purchases for home use that the scenario is different but for what I do, Intel is by far the better manufacturer.

"I use AMD to be l33t" fanbois club

Frankly, I own quite a bit more Intel stock than AMD stock, so I'd much rather Intel do better.

But the reality is that their desktop and server processors suck compared to AMD. They're hotter, they're slower, and they're more expensive (mostly).

The dual core Intel chips are actually cheaper than AMD's X2 offerings, but there's a reason for that -- their performance really, really blows. The implementation of dual core was extremely poor, with very low integration between the cores. It was clearly a last minute bodge job to put out a dual core chip at about the same time AMD did. Note that none of the future dual core chips (including Core Duo) replicate the current Pentium D's architecture. Intel knows that it's a shitty solution.

Intel's been getting caught with its pants down for years now -- first RDRAM, then Netburst, then x86-64, and now dual core. AMD certainly hasn't been perfect -- they were slow to adopt on-die thermal protection for example, the first couple generations of Athlons had TDP issues (esp. when compared to the Pentium 3 series), and for awhile the deskto chipsets sucked (basically until the nForce chipsets arrived; but the server chipsets have been solid for much longer since AMD rolls their own there). But it's pretty sad when you realize that Intel hasn't been leading the technology push on x86, but rather following AMD. Particularly given how much R&D Intel does in comparison.

And don't forget, Intel wasted a crapload of money on Itanium. We should be thankful (pro Intel or not) that AMD64 was there to offer a convicing x86 compatible, non-software emulation alternative.

Intel wasted a crapload of money on Itanium

Itanium has certainly not been a success in the general market, but the reality is that it was never supposed to be (although Intel was awfully hopeful on that end, with the idea being that a smaller subset of the Itanium core might eventually replace x86; that's not happening).

In the high-end server market Itanium has been moderately successful. Certainly HP isn't screaming bloody murder, and they've long since shelved their PA-RISC systems and are roughly competitive with the IBM (Power) and Sun (HyperSparc) offerings.

People keep forgetting that Itanium wasn't supposed to outright replace x86 on the desktop -- it was supposed to give Intel a foot in the door in the mid-end server and high-end workstation market. The workstation market has pretty much disappeared (the x86 market ate it alive; so Intel isn't suffering there), and the Itanium is giving them the entrance into the mid-range server market they wanted.

Although I'm still glad I didn't take that job in the Itanium software development group that I was offered way back when. It certainly didn't succeed as much as Intel had hoped it would, and most of that group wound up looking for new jobs.

Oh, and if AMD's large customer support is as abysmal as Caelistis says, then that's a good reason not to go with them. My company is almost certainly a large customer, but I'm not in that department.

I'm not sorry. The level of support that Intel provides for developers is far and above what AMD's wildest dreams are, in my experience.

Wrong.

Intel:
"Have X amount of bad processors? We're very sorry and we'll have your replacements there by tomorrow afternoon at the latest."

Complete utter bullshit.

AMD:
"Have X amount of bad processors? Well, what did you do wrong? Ship them back to us and we'll have them to you in 4 to 6 weeks."

More fictional bullshit.

understand for single processor purchases for home use that the scenario is different but for what I do, Intel is by far the better manufacturer.

No, I don't think so. You know nothing, you are nothing.
Please die.

Yeah, Intel always releases the high end processors with the "this is intended to be for high end servers" line and gamers always think about using it.. assuming it's better than what they're using. There are some processors that don't make sense in in a desktop, but many times yesterday's server processors become today's desktop processor. And as you mentioned, Intel did hope to steer us out of x86 land and put a roadblock in front of AMD. I believe Itanium is alive just because of the sheer dollar amounts Intel can pour into it. In the end, it'll die a quiet death as x86 processors add more cores and bump up the clock.

Intel wasted a crapload of money on Itanium

I'd like to know how many of the Extreme Edition procs Intel sold...




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GW: Nilaar Madalla, lvl 20 R/Mo / Tolyl Nor, lvl 20 E/Mo / Xylos Gath, lvl 13 W/Mo

http://www.goldfrapp.co.uk/

Heh, I'm still using three channel in my apartment. I can easily get a 5.1 or 6.1 setup going, but really I just use my television for playing games and DVD's. The acoustics of my apartment are terrible anyway.

Mystical PotatoHead Groove Thang = Obvious fan boy.