AMD
Déjà vu all over again…..
….shades of Intel’s cruel behavior against AMD.
For the younglings too, ahem, young to remember:
In the nascent days of personal computing, this is how the original Intel vs AMD started.
It is the same series of moves from their...(read more)
I have just been informed by Xavier Lanier, the Supremo over at Notebooks.com that he is giving away four lappers.
Yes, that is not a typo! ….(read more)
aka Stupidity reigns supreme in Centrinoland
Has the world gone mad?
In September of 2006, Apple shipped iTunes with the RavMonE virus. When they were found out by resolute security researchers, they issued that most stupid of corporate communications...(read more)
For several days this past week, I was in Austin, Texas, for AMD’s Tech Day 2008, and more.
As is usual with AMD, I was given a very good look into their products, strategy, and pipeline, and as usual, I came away impressed.
AMD has been battling it out with Intel in the courts in the US.
About a year ago, we were able to get a teleconference with AMD Executive VP and general counsel, Tom McCoy, the details of which I posted here after a personal follow-on interview with Tom.
Well, a couple of weeks ago, the other shoe dropped, with the United States Federal Trade Commission, FTC, escalating their former informal inquiry into Intel's trade practices into a formal full-blown investigation.
After that, a cascade of (mostly) bad news has been dropping for Intel.
Yesterday, I was at the HP facility in Fort Collins, Colorado, where I was briefed on HP's offerings in the workstation space.
I went in to see what the offerings were with a view to finding out more information about the systems, and to see if they would pass muster, and become Logikworx's recommended line of workstations, replacing our current line.
In a nutshell, I came away impressed.
Today, I received my first quad-core review system, a Dell PowerEdge 1900 server powered by dual Intel Xeon E5310 processors.
Saturday January 5, 2008
Sands Exposition Center, Las Vegas, Nevada
CES Unveiled is the press-only registration and meet-and-greet soiree held before the opening of the event allowing press attendees to hobnob with each other, and gives them the opportunity to get an advance view of products due to be announced at CES.
| Date | Blog | Title |
| July 15 | AbsouteVista.com | Buffalo Nfiniti Wireless-N Router & Access Point Review. A review of Buffalo’s flagship Certified for Windows Vista™ router. |
| July 16 | AbsoluteVista.com | July 13, 2007 AMD Consumer Showcase, Hollywood, CA |
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| AbsoluteVista.com | I Played with a Phenom™, of my sorta hands-on with an AMD reference unit powered by the forthcoming thoroughbred, the Phenom FX. |
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| AbsoluteVista.com | Nkem Owoh: 419 I Go Chop Your Dollar! An actor/singer |
| July 17 | John.Obeto on Microsoft | |
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| AbsoluteVista.com | |
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| AbsoluteVista.com | Bottom-feeding jackals in Oregon flee, on payday lenders leaving Oregon. |
| July 18 | John.Obeto on Microsoft | Salesforce.com not worried? Is it bravado or ostrich-like behavior? |
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| John.Obeto on Microsoft | |
| July 19 | John.Obeto on Microsoft | |
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| AbsoluteVista.com |
or,
How I was exposed as that most superficial of gamers: The Console Collector.
At the AMD consumer briefing last Friday (July 13) in Hollywood, I got to play with an AMD Phenom-based system.
Loaded with 4 GB of RAM, dual AMD 2900 512MB video cards, the quad-core system represented the state of the art in gaming and performance.
Ian McNaughton of AMD was taking this amazing new (Midway) game, called Stranglehold through its paces. Directed by John Woo, and starring an on-screen visage of Chow Yun-Fat, this game allows, indeed, it requires that you blast everything in sight.
It was all good.....until he (Ian) asked me to take over game play.
Where I promptly froze!
Oh well, as my friend Manni always says: He who dies with the most toys, wins.
So there!
Chateau Marmont, Hollywood, California.
On Friday, July 13, 2007, I attended a confidential consumer presentation given by AMD at the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood, CA.
At the event, laid out logically in a cottage on the hotel property, was very informative and dealt with the following areas:
AMD was kind enough to make a number of VITO*’s available to brief us, and I got so much information that I will be making a series of posts on the number of new offerings from AMD and partners.
However, I cannot leave you without letting you know I played with a Phenom-based system!
Well, sorta.
*VITO: Very Important Top Officer of a company.
Office Depot is blowing out the (AMD Turion-based) HP tx1100 Tablet PC for $999 after a $200 mail-in rebate.
Not a typo, $999!!!
This is the same Windows Vista capable Tablet PC that I reviewed here.
Sweet!
The case for Smarter Choice
Over the past couple of years, starting with a blog post I made back in June of 2005 titled AMD sues Intel, I have followed the proceedings with a jaundiced eye.
Over the last year, especially as AMD seemed to slip in the marketplace, the network effects of Intel's monopoly position have become more apparent to all.
The extent of the illegalities of those network effects are up to a (US) Federal court and perhaps competition authorities in Europe and South Korea who are currently investigating the legality of Intel's business practices to decide. There is almost no doubt that Intel's behavior would be declared illegal, for example, in 2005 the Japan Fair Trade Commission ruled that Intel did indeed engage in illegal business practices that violated Japan's Antimonopoly Act, harming Japanese consumers.
Continuing their policy of open communications with the online community, AMD Executive Vice-President, Legal Affairs, and Chief Administrative Officer Tom McCoy spoke to several members of the online and blogging communities on June 12, 2007, about the state of the now nearly 2-year old antitrust lawsuit.
What the lawsuit is about is basically, choice.
Choice for the consumer, choice for OEMs, choice for the enterprise.
The exact magnitude of Intel's transgressions have not been made public, and unfortunately, Tom McCoy, as a member of the executive team at AMD, could not enlighten us further, since the discovery documents are under a protective (judicial) seal.
A summary of the original complaint find the following accusations:
Just how nasty is this behavior?
Can you imagine if either Microsoft, in operating systems and applications, Google in search, or Boeing in aircraft pulls this kind of nonsense?
Let us go through each point in that summary:
For example, a retailer is told that in order to obtain market development funds, or MDFs, the retailer has to carry 90% Intel products.
Since the kickback, and there should be no doubt about it, it is a kickback, is a large amount, retailers, who operate on razor-thin margins, become hooked on it.
If the customer failed to adhere to those levels, not only did the MDFs shrivel, but the rebates vanished. Is that a financial headlock or what?
In the several months since, the concerns of AMD seem more and more valid, especially in the light of current news of Intel gaining market share in several industry segments.
According to Intel, AMD is whining about nothing. The Intel comeback is centered around these two positions:
In other words, if a customer agrees to give a specified amount of shelf space to Intel products, or better yet, go exclusive with Intel, the customer would realize better margins by keeping competitors out and reducing customer choice.
It is particularly telling that AMD couldn't even give away CPUs! Since the customer would suddenly be subject to increased prices and zero market-dev funds, most customers declined offers of free CPUs.
Due to my ineptness with the WebEX teleconferencing unit, I was unable to ask further questions before the session ended. However, an email to Scott at AMD for answers enabled me to get another crack at Tom (McCoy), this time telephonically.
In our phone call on Monday, June 18, 2007, I had three questions for Tom (my questions in italics, Tom McCoy's answer boldfaced and italicized):
Apart from the Skype case, are there more overt or subdulous contractual agreements to modify software to both exclude non-Intel CPUs and customer choice that are public?
Since it delved into matters under litigation, Tom declined to answer.
However, I seem to remember Intel's infamous compilers, which, due to their CPU-ID schemes were optimized (read that as rigged) for Intel CPUs; the end results being that results of tests using those compilers had results dishonestly skewed in favor of Intel microprocessors.
The emphatic answer: NO!
Tom actually said, "…we DO have an MDF program, but it is highly collaborative with our customers and bears no resemblance to Intel's."
Tom explained that
As part of the filing, yes.If a jury finds Intel guilty in the U.S. antitrust suit we would be entitled to damages. However, AMD would prefer to have a level playing field to compete rather than money.
I got the feeling that AMD seeks the following:
All of Tom's answers, especially that about not using MDFs since it was not the AMD way, spoke directly to why AMD is really highly regarded amongst the smaller system OEMs around the world.
It is not their way!
Which is true.
Looking back at AMD over the years, you would find that Intel fired the first salvo when AMD's x86 clones totally decimated Intel in the eyes of 2nd-tier OEMs.
The AMD way: compete.
In closing, I would see that choice, especially consumer choice, is the real reason behind AMD's lawsuit. It further validates the decision we made at Logikworx nearly eighteen months ago to recommend Opteron as the price/performance server CPU to our clients, and the Athlon as our recommended desktop CPU.
I would like to thank Tom for taking the time on both days, June 12 in the web conference, and on the phone with me yesterday, June 18, to inform me, and by proxy, all of you, about the status of this lawsuit.
I hope that AMD prevails in this lawsuit, and sanity returns to the executive at Intel, getting them to compete where it matters most to consumers: the design, production, and pricing of microprocessors.
One thing AMD has in its favor is goodwill. Goodwill from 2nd-tier OEMs, vendors, and the enthusiast community. They have come through for us several times with their CPUs and extremely attractive pricing. We laud them for that.
AMD also reaches out to non-mainstream media in a very unconventional way, giving us unprecedented access to C-level executives at the firm, even though we do not represent media networks with 3-letter acronyms.
In closing, I would like to thank Scott Carroll, his team at AMD, and indeed, AMD for not only giving us access, but also making it timely and unfettered.
John Obeto II
Editor-in-Chief, SmallBizVista.com, and The Interlocutor
John Obeto is also Managing Partner & Chief Technology Officer of Logikworx and blogs at www.absolutevista.com.
Related AMD posts:
On the TV newsmagazine 60 minutes yesterday, Nicholas Negroponte* slammed Intel for trying to derail his OLPC since he didn't use their CPU.
Well, he should have asked AMD about the temperature before he stepped into that kitchen.
You would think, with all the chips Intel makes, especially the ones it obsoletes ever so often, that it would have a warehouse full of chips somewhere it could have donated to the effort.
But, no!
It (Intel) decided to do the usual and send comparative papers to governments slamming the OLPC.
I'm guessing this is how only the paranoid survive!
Thankfully, AMD has been fighting the good fight since, like forever, for all consumers, and with them in his corner, Nicholas shouldn't have any fear: they've got his back!
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Is this a positional shift on my part with regards to the OLPC?
Heck, no!
While I still think the OLPC, in this initial iteration is a piece of sh*t, and a disaster for all those idiots that have ordered copies, especially the morons in the government of Nigeria who think it is a good idea, I want it to fail, as it surely must, under its own OS, and help Negroponte get over his hubris with himself.
* Negroponte made a glaring error when he described Nigeria as having 50% of all school-age children out of school. He must be on crack! Or thinking of another country.
Previous posts on this topic here, here, here, here, and here.
The Phenom has landed!
A few seconds ago, AMD announced the AMD Phenom, the first true (native) quad-core CPUs on Planet Earth.
With the flagship Phenom FX, AMD also announced the Phenom x4 and Phenom x2 (dual-core) parts.
The Phenom FX will also allow octa-core computing when used in a dual-socket config utilizing AMD's Dual Socket Direct Connect (DSDC) architecture systems.
When Intel is trying to schneider us, that's when!
According to this MarketWatch.com report, Intel is looking to ship a million quad-core CPUs in Q1 of 2007.
Impressive.... until Robert McLaws breaks it down.
"That means that 0.4% of the chips in the market will be quad-core. Now, I'm not saying that a million chips in six months is pocket change... that's over 160,000 a month... but since when was capturing 0.4% of the market anything to put out a press release about?"
If you remember, Robert also debunked the exorbitant cost' of Windows Vista here.
Thanks, Robert.
I guess when they actually get to 1%, their CEO would be hangin' from the rafters at Spago!
Chris Aarons is leaving AMD to create Buzz Corps.
Bookmark it.
Immediately!
Michael J. Reyes, of The Hardware Geeks, informed me of Chris initially, and Chris confirmed it is a telephone call, and an email.
I had it to say, but Mike beat me to it with his announcement of Chris leaving AMD to hang out his own shingle.Chris Aarons is a Master at engaging people at all levels in our industry – believe me, if he can get to the propeller-heads in IT, can you imagine what he can do in other fields – without being overbearing.
There really isn’t a lot more that I can add to it except to say that I know that it would be a great, and immediate success.
I look forward to seeing his name in the lights, and I know I am not alone in wishing him the very best.
Which is what he deserves.
Bonne Chance!
© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®
Contrary to all the noise being generated by Intel about that die-shrink MCM known as 'Penryn', I am convinced that waiting for Barcelona is still the best bet for enterprises wanting to upgrade their server hardware this year.
Since Barcelona follows the usual AMD dev strategy, it will have the usual lead in scalability, and flexibility, power and thermal displacement that we have come to expect from Opteron. Furthermore, it will have cooling intelligence built into the CPU.
The only reason Core 2 Duo/Core 2 Extreme is being mentioned now is because Santa Clara was able to bring its economics of scale to bear on manufacturing to produce the MCM that is Core Extreme/Penryn.
As for all that talk about Nehalem.
What Nehalem?
In 2008?
I have no doubt that when Barcelona drops, all talk of Nehalem would evaporate, as its performance would send poor Nehalem back to the drawing board, a la Pentium 5 and Itanic.
While I shall be poring through recently-acquired information, press releases, published information, and rumors/facts in the blogosphere over the next few days, be rest assured I will have more on this next week.
© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®
Announced at the recently-concluded GDC, I almost missed this nugget.
AMD has succeeded in shrinking the XENOS GPU to allow for installations in mobile devices, aka cellphones.
Are you freakin' kiddin'?
The XENOS is the DirectX-10, unified memory graphics processor powering the Xbox 360. Yes, that XENOS processor.
Maybe, just maybe, TV, video, and gaming on mobiles might have a future!
© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®
